As Donald Trump prepares for a second presidential campaign amid legal scrutiny and rising intra-party competition, he turns to the archive of his pre-political life — a curated collection of private letters — to argue that the powerful once sought him out before ideology drew new lines. The book, Letters to Trump, positions correspondence from heads of state, former presidents, and cultural icons as evidence of a loyalty that, in Trump's telling, fractured along partisan fault lines in 2016. It is an old human story: the rewriting of social memory to serve the present moment, dressed here in
Trump Claims World Leaders, Celebrities 'Kissed My Ass' in Forthcoming Book
half of them kissing my ass, and now I only have half
Mark
So Trump is saying these letters prove people wanted his favor. But how do we know what's actually in them? Has anyone verified the contents?
Mimi
The book hasn't been released yet—it comes out April 25. We're working from Trump's own characterization of what the letters contain and what they mean. That's an important distinction.
Luke
Right. We have Trump's claim that there are 150 letters, and we have his interpretation that they show admiration that later reversed. But we don't have independent confirmation of the letters themselves, their tone, or even whether some of these figures actually wrote them.
Mark
So when Trump says half of them stopped "kissing his ass" after 2016, he's offering his own reading of a shift in relationships?
Mimi
Exactly. He's interpreting a change in how these people treated him or spoke about him. Whether that change was about him becoming a Republican candidate, or about his actual positions and statements during the campaign, or about something else entirely—that's not something the letters themselves necessarily clarify.
Luke
And we should note: some of these people are deceased. Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022. Michael Jackson died in 2009. So we can't hear their side of any story about what changed or why.
Mark
That's a crucial point. The book becomes Trump's unilateral account of these relationships.
Mimi
It's a curated collection with his framing attached. The letters may be real, but their meaning is being filtered through Trump's interpretation and his current political interests.
Luke
And the timing matters too. This isn't a reflective memoir written years after the fact. It's a book released during an active presidential campaign, when Trump is facing investigations and competition from DeSantis. The book serves a purpose in that context.
Mark
So we're reading a political document, not a neutral historical record.
Mimi
That's the fairest way to see it. The letters may offer genuine insight into how Trump was perceived before 2016, but we're getting that insight filtered through his current lens and his current needs.
Der Puls
- Trump is releasing 150 private letters from figures including Queen Elizabeth II, Barack Obama, and Kim Jong-un, framing them as proof of his long-standing influence among the world's elite.
- The central tension is Trump's claim that roughly half of those who once courted him turned against him the moment he became a Republican candidate — a narrative of loyalty shattered by political convenience.
- Trump Jr. is amplifying the message, casting the collection as an exposé of hypocrisy among public figures who later distanced themselves from his father.
- The book lands as Trump faces federal and state investigations and a serious primary challenge from Ron DeSantis, making the timing as strategic as it is personal.
- Critics and observers will likely question the framing — whether private correspondence constitutes admiration, and whether Trump's interpretation of these letters reflects history or campaign mythology.
As Donald Trump prepares for a second presidential campaign amid legal scrutiny and rising intra-party competition, he turns to the archive of his pre-political life — a curated collection of private letters — to argue that the powerful once sought him out before ideology drew new lines. The book, Letters to Trump, positions correspondence from heads of state, former presidents, and cultural icons as evidence of a loyalty that, in Trump's telling, fractured along partisan fault lines in 2016. It is an old human story: the rewriting of social memory to serve the present moment, dressed here in the language of betrayal and vindication.
Donald Trump's forthcoming book, Letters to Trump, collects 150 private letters from four decades of correspondence with world leaders, former presidents, and cultural icons — among them Queen Elizabeth II, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jackson. Trump is promoting the collection as evidence of the deference once shown to him during his years as a business magnate and television personality.
Speaking to Breitbart News, Trump offered a characteristically blunt interpretation: that these figures had actively sought his favor, and that roughly half reversed course once he entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican. His son, Donald Trump Jr., echoed the framing, describing the letters as a document that would expose the phoniness of those who later criticized or distanced themselves from his father.
The collection's scope is broad — correspondence from former presidents Nixon, Reagan, both Bushes, Clinton, and Obama, as well as foreign leaders including Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, and Jair Bolsonaro. The breadth signals Trump's decades-long proximity to centers of political and cultural power.
The book's release is carefully timed. Trump is navigating multiple federal and state investigations while mounting a 2024 presidential campaign against an increasingly formidable field, with Ron DeSantis widely expected to emerge as his primary rival. In this context, Letters to Trump reads less as memoir and more as a political instrument — an attempt to anchor Trump's identity in a history of elite relationships and to recast subsequent criticism as betrayal rather than judgment.
Donald Trump's forthcoming book, Letters to Trump, presents itself as a collection of 150 private letters spanning four decades from world leaders and celebrities who sought his favor before his presidency. The book, scheduled for release on April 25, includes correspondence from figures as varied as Queen Elizabeth II, Hillary Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jackson. Trump claims these individuals, among many others, actively courted him during his years as a business magnate and television personality.
In promoting the book to Breitbart News, Trump offered a particular framing of the letters' significance. He suggested that the correspondence reveals not just admiration but a kind of deference—a pattern he characterized bluntly as people who "kissed my ass." According to Trump's account, this dynamic shifted sharply when he entered electoral politics. He stated that roughly half of those who had previously sought his approval reversed course after he launched his 2016 presidential campaign as a Republican. "I knew them all—and every one of them kissed my ass," Trump told the outlet, "and now I only have half of them kissing my ass."
Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., amplified this narrative in his own comments to the same outlet. He characterized the letters as evidence of how quickly public figures' attitudes toward his father transformed once Trump became a political candidate. Trump Jr. described the book as a document that would expose what he called the phoniness of the subsequent criticism and distance many of these figures maintained. The younger Trump framed the collection as a window into his father's life and the caliber of people with whom he had maintained relationships.
The book's scope extends well beyond entertainment figures and includes correspondence from former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Foreign leaders represented in the letters include Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The breadth of the collection underscores Trump's decades-long presence in circles of significant political and cultural influence.
The book's release arrives as Trump navigates a complex political landscape heading into the 2024 presidential race. He faces multiple federal and state investigations into his conduct during his presidency as well as inquiries into his personal and business practices. Within the Republican Party itself, he confronts rising competition from Ron DeSantis, who, though not yet formally declaring a candidacy, is widely expected to emerge as Trump's principal rival for the party's nomination. The timing of the book's promotion and release sits within this broader context of Trump's attempt to maintain political momentum and reshape narratives about his relationships and standing among the nation's elite.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
I knew them all—and every one of them kissed my ass, and now I only have half of them kissing my ass.— Donald Trump, in interview with Breitbart News
It's amazing how quickly their adoration of him changed when he ran for office as a Republican. Letters to Trump shows you exactly how they felt about him and how phony their newfound disdain truly is.— Donald Trump Jr., in statement to Breitbart News
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