President Donald Trump bragged this week that his endorsement caused sales to skyrocket on a book — but even the author of that book is calling this out as nonsense, The Daily Beast reported on Friday evening.
"Trump boasted at the White House Christmas reception earlier this month that he had boosted sales for Venom and Valor: A White House Physician Assistant’s Battle for Survival in the Amazon, written by his former medical adviser, Dr. James Jones, by promoting it in a Truth Social post," reported Erkki Forster. Jones himself, who wrote the book about a year ago, was reportedly in the audience during this speech.
“It sold about two copies, but it had a hell of a cover,” Trump said. “I put it out: ‘Great book. Bop bop bop,’ picture of this viper, coming like, boom from the White House. And his publisher calls him, said, ‘Doctor, what happened? What’s going on?’… They sold 100,000 books.”
That's not true, Jones told NOTUS.
“I don’t think it’s a massive bump, but, you know, I’m sure it didn’t hurt anything. But I haven’t seen anything that’s excessive,” said Jones, who added that Trump never consulted with him before giving his book a boost — something that, according to NOTUS, has been a running pattern with the authors Trump promotes.
While Jones, who also served under former President Barack Obama, did not write his book explicitly about the president, all of this comes amid data that shows the general public is souring on reading about Trump. Sales of books about the president have plummeted in this term, compared to Trump's first term.