Trump Throws Fit Over DeSantis Book Sales — Accuses Him of Inflating Numbers
Former President Donald Trump threw a tantrum over reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a bigger book opening with The Courage to Be Free.
Earlier this week, several news outlets including Mediaite reported that sales of the DeSantis memoir The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Survival, outpaced books from Trump, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton at the same stage in their respective political careers. In Trump’s case, the comparison was to his 2015 book Crippled America.
Many of those stories also noted that Trump has a new book coming out soon entitled Letters to Trump.
On Friday night, Trump threw a tantrum over the comparisons, and accused unnamed outlets of falsely claiming DeSantis had outsold the yet-to-be-released book, while accusing DeSantis of inflating sales figures with bulk purchases:
"Some in the Fake News are falsely stating that Ron DeSanctimonious’ book is doing as well as “LETTERS TO TRUMP,” my new book. This is FAKE NEWS in that LETTERS doesn’t even come out until April 25th. Ron has groups buying his book in order to inflate sales and, in fact, on the first day, his book was already 30% discounted. LETTERS TO TRUMP has much different pricing, and is a coffee table book. The so-called Stars corresponded with me, you’ll love it!"
He then posted a link for users to preorder the book.
Trump is at least partially correct about DeSantis, whose debut at number one on the New York Times bestsellers list is accompanied by a dagger icon.
According to the Times “Sales are defined as completed transactions by vendors and individual end users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title. Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations. When included, such bulk purchases appear with a dagger (†).”