Trump biographer explains why ex-president is like 'hornswoggler' televangelist swindling people for cash
February 13, 2022
President Donald Trump was forced to self-publish his post-presidency book about his experience. The volume, which is a picture book, was blasted by CNN's Jim Acosta and Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio for being low quality and profane.
The men began by talking about the 15 boxes of documents Trump stole from the White House and brought back to Mar-a-Lago. The National Archives went to Florida to retrieve a car-load of documents. D'Antonio explained that it also became known that many documents were shredded while others had been taped back together by staffers.
"We know that this is a man who's been aggressively trying to cover his own tracks," the biographer explained. "He doesn't like to leave anything, any document trail behind. So, of course, he would not have welcomed the National Archives staffers to come to Mar-a-Lago. If he had that attitude, he wouldn't have taken these documents in the first place."
Acosta played an interview he did with former White House communications director Stephanie Grisham, who said that she witnessed ripping up documents and putting the shreds into his pockets. D'Antonio agreed with her assessment that he's a highly paranoid individual.
"He wrote in one of his books that it's an advantage to have a little bit of paranoia," D'Antonio continued. "And I think he hasn't had a little bit of paranoia. I think he's really been afflicted in a dangerous way by this constant fear of being found out of his schemes being discovered. And we have to wonder who would be paranoid about their schemes if they didn't have schemes in the first place? I think Ms. Grisham also talked about how there really weren't any rules in the Trump White House. That normal regulations and structures for containing people's behavior just weren't in place, and that started at the top with Donald Trump."
Meanwhile, Trump is quietly making "millions" off of his coffee table book, which includes insult-laced captions, Acosta described.
"One photo of the late John McCain writes, 'asking for a job for his wife. Smiling but didn't like him even a little bit.' It's sort of low-budget looking," said Acosta. "Almost looks like something that, you know, maybe there's a Trump printing press at Mar-a-Lago or something. Then the Nancy Pelosi caption: 'She was screaming and shaking like a leaf, Trump writes in this caption. 'She's effing crazy. Hence the name 'crazy Nancy.' I suppose it does a good job memorializing his extremely damaged psyche?"
D'Antonio called it a "fascinating observation that the artistic product is actually an accurate self-portrait" as "a very profane person."
"He lies reflectively," he continued. "He has no interest in bringing the country together. All he wants to do is make fun of other people and divide us. And he's going to do this with every action that he takes. I think it's fascinating, too, that he understands that there's no bottom in terms of marketing that he can sell almost anything and it can be to the point of something grotesque, and there will be people in his fan base who will buy it."
Acosta called the book, which features hand-written pieces of paper from Trump, the "scribblings of a man child." Meanwhile, he's sending out major fundraising solicits that he said would make "the hornswoggler at the county fair blush."
After Acosta read one of the solicits aloud, D'Antoinio remarked how much it sounds like the television evangelicals that ask for money for Jesus.
"Well, it is, and it's pathetic," said D'Antonio. "He actually — what he does is he borrows from the terrible pitches made by televangelists of the past who would say, you know, send me this money, and God will make it sow so you get ten times in return. It's all a lie and demonstrates he has no respect for the people he's making these pitches to, but they must be effective. You know, I've heard from other sources that the people who produce these kinds of pitches are told to not be concerned about the factual basis for the claims they make, and only to turn out as many as possible and graded on the return. There must be a process they discover a level of outrageousness will work and then press that button over and over again."
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