NEW YORK – Donald Trump's first post-White House book will be, like so much else about him, a departure from other former presidents.
Trump is publishing a hardcover collection of hundreds of photographs from his administration, featuring his own captions, some handwritten. “Our Journey Together” is scheduled for Dec. 7, but not through a traditional New York publisher. It will instead be released by a new company formed by son Donald Trump Jr. and campaign aide Sergio Gor, Winning Team Publishing.
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“'Our Journey Together' features unforgettable moments from our time in Washington: building the Southern Border Wall; cutting America’s taxes; confirming almost 300 federal judges and 3 Supreme Court justices; rebuilding our military; creating Space Force; dealing with Kim Jong-Un, President Xi, President Putin, and many other world leaders,” the former president said in a statement Friday.
While Barack Obama, George W. Bush and other recent predecessors of Trump wrote memoirs and announced multi-million dollar deals with Penguin Random House and other publishing houses soon after leaving office, New York publishers have resisted working with Trump — especially after the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol by some of his supporters. Simon & Schuster dropped a book by one Trump backer, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, and faced widespread anger within the company for reaching a deal for a memoir by Trump's vice president, Mike Pence.
Trump has referred at times to publishing a memoir, “the book of all books,” but has otherwise granted interviews to Michael Wolff, Jonathan Karl of ABC News and others writing about him. Should he release a memoir through Winning Team, it would be a test for how a new publisher could manage sales and distribution for a book which could well sell millions of copies.
The web site (https://45books.com) for Winning Team Publishing offers few details — no masthead or listings for books besides Trump's. ("Official Merch" is “coming soon”). Gor declined to discuss Winning Team's plans, but says that additional authors have been signed. Winning Team Publishing continues a wave of conservative imprints, among them the Daily Wire's DW Books and All Seasons Press, formed this year by those who allege they are being “silenced” by mainstream publishers.
Trump's statement included a link to the company site, where the book can be preordered for $74.99 in standard format (new photo books have been known to sell for anywhere from $40 to more than $150) and $229.99 for a signed copy. “Our Journey Together” is also listed on Amazon.com, whose founder Jeff Bezos Trump has often attacked, though as of midday Friday it was not available for purchase. According to Amazon, the book is 320 pages, with a suggested reading audience of 12 years and up.