Donald Trump’s first two post-presidential coffee-table books were less of a cynical cash grab than you might think. To be clear, both 2021’s Our Journey Together and 2023’s Letters to Trump were outrageously overpriced 300-page picture books. But they offered some genuine value for fans of the 45th president, unlike, say, fake MAGA credit cards. The former, with its nasty Sharpie-scrawled captions written by Trump himself, read like a glossy presidential burn book. The latter, a collection of Trump’s old correspondence, felt like rummaging through Trump’s “Beautiful Mind boxes” as he recounted decades-old feuds with various celebrities.
I’m sad to report that Trump’s new book, Save America, does not have the twisted charm of its predecessors. Winning Team Publishing (which was co-founded by Sergio Gor and Donald Trump Jr.) claims “this blend of powerful imagery and commentary paints a clear picture of President Trump’s future vision for our Country.” In reality, it’s a hastily thrown together collection of photos that didn’t make the first two books and dull captions seemingly lifted from Trump’s stump speech — with a few moments of unintentional humor. Here are Save America’s highs and lows, so you can save yourself $99.
Low: Everything about this book is lazy
The title of this book is not original; Save America is the name of Trump’s super-PAC.
The book’s word-to-photo ratio is extremely low. Most pages say nothing about when or where the image was taken. You’ll go 15 pages with no captions at all, then get a bland sentence like “Bidding farewell to Barack and Michelle Obama on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017.” And none of the words are in Trump’s handwriting, unless you count the slogan “NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER” on the full-page mug shot that opens the book.
The laziness extends to the book’s design. Very similar photos sometimes appear right next to each other. There’s also a caption that’s repeated on pages 48 and 49 (“I withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ended the disaster known as NAFTA …”) and no one even noticed!
High: There are photo credits
You’re probably thinking How is that a high? Isn’t that just, like, a thing any published picture book has? Not when it’s a Trump book.
Our Journey Together did not contain proper photo credits; the same Winning Team used images taken by various White House photographers — including one who had her own pending book deal — and only credited them as a group on the acknowledgments page.
So photographers will be relieved to know that Save America has a photo credit on each page. This is helpful for readers, too — the credit is one of the few clues that these two photos of the Trump family watching fireworks on an unknown date aren’t the same photo cropped differently:
Low: The insults are boring and uninspired
Maybe I’m spoiled because Trump’s last two picture books contained ad hominem attacks on everyone and everything, including Star Wars creator George Lucas and a Sikorsky S76-B helicopter Trump used to own. But in this book, even the attacks on top-tier Trump foes Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger fall flat. Trump calls him “Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger” because he cries a lot? Wow, what a wicked burn!
High: There’s a Hannibal Lecter shout-out
The caption on page 86 reads: “The entire World is emptying out their Prisons, Insane Asylums, and Mental Institutions — America is being turned into a DUMPING GROUND for the Hannibal Lecters of the Third World. We have to stop it now.”
If you thought he’d get through his false and nonsensical riff demonizing migrants without mentioning the Silence of the Lambs villain, then you don’t know the late, great Donald Trump.
Low: Trump threatens to imprison Mark Zuckerberg
Trump writes on page 74:
Mark Zuckerberg would come to the Oval Office to see me. He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.
He told em that there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me.
We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison - as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.
I’m no fan of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, or weird billionaire tech CEOs in general. But I don’t think any American should find out they may face a life sentence for unspecified election-related crimes in a note wedged in next to a photo of the president feeling Rocky’s biceps.
High: Trump reveals Shinzo Abe was one of his ‘closest friends’
I was skeptical when I read this caption in which Trump pays tribute to Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022:
The World changes so much. Of these people, most of them are no longer in Government. Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was a great man who was loved by his people, and was one of my closest friends. …
Trump doesn’t seem like he has many real friends in general, so I assumed this was like that time he exchanged a few letters with Kim Jong-un and declared “we fell in love.” But it turns out that the two leaders “met 20 times, played 5 rounds of golf, and had 32 phone calls, at times speaking twice a week.” Who knew?! (Well, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for one — but I certainly missed it!)
Low: Trump basically says Justin Trudeau is Fidel Castro’s love child
The late Cuban dictator is not secretly the father of the Canadian prime minister. The AP debunked this conspiracy theory, which Snopes notes is “impossible on both biological and historical grounds.” But is that going to keep Trump from spreading juicy decades-old gossip? Absolutely not:
Justin Trudeau and I got along very well, but there were natural differences in that he is very Liberal, and I, to put it mildly, am not. It will be very interesting to see how we do in the future, but first, I have to get there. His mother was beautiful and wild. In the 1970s, she would go “clubbing” with the Rolling Stones, but she was also somehow associated with Fidel Castro. She said he was “the sexist man I’ve ever met,” and a lot of people say that Justin is his son. He swears that he isn’t but how the hell would he know! Castro had good hair, the “father” didn’t, Justin has good hair, and has become a Communist just like Castro.
High: There are six pictures of Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt
I guess you could say this is another example of lazy design choices, but I’m listing it as a high because the image is undeniably iconic from any angle, and if I survived an assassination attempt, that would be the subject of all 359 pages of the book.
Low: There are 15 pages on Trump golfing
Yes, the section on Trump’s golfing life is more than twice as long as the part about him evading a sniper’s bullet. There are shots of Trump sitting in a golf cart, chatting with various golf pros, holding a map of his club in Scotland at his club in Scotland, and swinging a golf club from multiple angles. One page is a zoomed in photo of the back of Trump’s MAGA-hat-clad head with the caption, “Who is this Handsome man?”
Another reads:
People are very surprised at how long and straight I hit the ball - And I’ve always known how to score. I’ve won a lot at Golf but, more importantly, for me, it’s relaxation!
I’m pretty sure there’s some sexual innuendo in there, but while Save America is a book that has no problem winking about Margaret Trudeau’s “clubbing,” I don’t want to go there.
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