Who the Hell is Buying And Reading All of These Books About Donald Trump

By Esther Wang  |  September 1, 2020 | 5:00pm
In Depth
Who the Hell is Buying And Reading All of These Books About Donald Trump
Image:Chris Delas/AFP (Getty Images)

Despite Donald Trump famously being a man who does not read, his time in office has been an incredible boon to the publishing industry, which seems to churn out a book about his presidency every hour, on the hour. As the New York Times reported, more than a thousand books have been published about Trump and his administration, and “some in the industry credit the soaring sales of political books with lifting the industry overall in recent months,” even in the midst of an economic crisis. What’s going on here? Are we truly just a nation of masochists? Possibly!

It’s a trend that appears to be only gaining momentum. The New York Times, on the recent books by John Bolton and Mary Trump:

If there was any concern that readers would grow tired of tell-alls, it has been relieved by sales figures. Trump book sales are still soaring: This summer, Mr. Bolton’s book sold more than a million copies, while Ms. Trump’s book has gone into its 20th printing.

The sales of books about Donald Trump are so strong that there’s even a book about the books coming out soon, called What Were We Thinking. Penned by the Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada, it will, according to the book’s website, use “the books of the Trump era to argue that our response to this presidency reflects the same failures of imagination that made it possible.” It sounds fine, but again, why read a book about Trump when you could read literally anything else?

I have so many questions. Namely, who is buying these books, and are they actually reading them, or are they using them to display their Resistance bonafides, like a bumper sticker but for their bookshelves? Are there just that many former Mueller Time devotees who have the disposable income, the hours every day, and, most perplexing to me, the desire to solely read about Donald Trump?

Explain yourselves!

 
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