Donald Trump 'wrote' a 'book' for $229.99.* Here's my 'book,' and it is free


trump USCapitol Jan6

In fairness, the $229.99 price tag for his picture book is the cost if you want a signed copy. But if you want to “read” his book without his signature, it is just $74.99, or, roughly the same price as six—count them—six of these.

The choice is yours. 

I digress. What is important for you to know, Reader, is that when I woke up this morning I had no idea I would publish my first “book” about Trump’s presidency, either.

Wonders never cease. That said, here is my look back at some other memorable moments from Trump’s presidency below the fold.

And in the spirit of those four tumultuous years where few things made any logical sense, these images appear in no particular order.

From the South Lawn, not Saint Tropez, here’s Trump returning to the White House from Charlotte, North Carolina last February. In the words of Alyssa Edwards, a great American, “Girl, look how f—ing orange you look, girl.”

The man Donald Trump appointed to serve as inspector general for the Interior Department, Mark Greenblatt, issued a report in June saying that police did not clear protesters away from St. John’s Church using tear gas so Trump could shoot a photo op as the nation erupted in civil disobedience in response to the police killing of George Floyd. But The White House did use this image and others, set to swelling music, for promotion. 

At the State of the Union in 2019, Speaker Pelosi made sure to give Trump a special round of applause. The California Democrat told reporters after the image went viral that the applause wasn’t sarcastic. 

While the applause may not have been sarcastic, as Pelosi said at the time, there’s no doubt about her feelings in this photo captured as the Speaker ripped up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union speech. Pelosi called it “liberating.”

Profiles in Compassion: President Trump tossing a roll of paper towels into a crowd in Puerto Rico like he is handing out free merch at a ball game. Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017 and the U.S. delayed roughly $20 billion in aid.

From the faces of babes. 

Juli Briskman lost her job after this photo was snapped of her giving Trump’s presidential motorcade the middle finger as he departed his golf course in Sterling, Virginia in 2017. 

There’s no time to close umbrellas when boarding a plane! What is this? Amateur hour?

President Barack Obama is pictured with incoming President Donald Trump in what is known as a peaceful transfer of power, something that almost didn’t happen after Trump lost the election in 2020 to Joe Biden and incited an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Dr. Deborah Birx, tapped by the Trump White House to serve as a COVID-19 response coordinator, in April 2020. Birx was looking on as Trump recommended—against all medical advice and common sense—that injecting bleach into the body may work to treat COVID-19. Birx said in March that she still thinks about that moment until today. 

Trump’s inauguration in 2017 had far fewer attendees than his predecessor President Barack Obama, but that did not stop then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer from uttering what some have referred to as the ‘first lie’ of Trump’s presidency.

Ivanka, Melania, and Donald Trump stand for a photo with Pope Francis in May 2017 before a private 30-minute meeting between the pontiff and the president. 

Trump stared directly into a solar eclipse for a few moments despite the pleas of his aides. To his credit, he eventually put on appropriate eyewear.

As President Abraham Lincoln looks on in a portrait, President Donald Trump stands before a sumptuous (?) feast of fast food in the State Dining Room in January 2019. He was welcoming the Clemson Tigers after their NCAA Football championship win. 

In a meeting between Speaker Pelosi and President Trump, tensions were high, and while Trump used the image to slander Pelosi as “unhinged” and “nervous,” she used it as a badge of honor. A deconstruction of the image from a photojournalist offers more to chew on here.

Why admit you are wrong when you can double down? In 2019, Trump claimed that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama, despite NOAA saying it would not. Trump went on to display a National Hurricane Center’s original weather forecast chart for the storm and edited it with a black Sharpie marker. 

Trump needed notes—with very large print—in November 2019 to remind himself, before speaking to the press, that he was innocent of the allegations against him during his first impeachment for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. He was impeached on both counts, but the Senate refused to hear witnesses or hold a senate trial and he was acquitted. 

And of course, who could forget this moment, the power of which can only be properly conveyed through video format. 

YouTube Video

Now, we have had a bit of light hearted fun today walking down memory lane. But with all jokes aside, there are other images that Trump surely will not display in his book. And those are from the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As the anniversary of that assault fast approaches, I leave you with a just few images that are forever seared into our American history. 

A riotous mob crushes itself against the Capitol after the former president whipped people into a frenzy and incited insurrection during a speech delivered on the morning of Jan. 6. 

Rioters after breaching the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election.  

Trump’s supporters gathering outside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Note the hand signals prominently displayed to the right. 

One of the more memorable images from the Jan. 6 attack; a man carrying Speaker Pelosi’s lectern through the rotunda after the complex was breached.

A person, draped in a Trump flag, standing atop a freshly erected gallows before the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. 

Officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 offer testimony on their harrowing experiences to the Jan. 6th Committee.