As we say goodbye to US president Barack Obama, avid reader and champion of literature, we’re left wondering what books Donald Trump might bring to the White House. We know he thinks Hamilton the musical is overrated and sketch TV show SNL is boring, but not much has been published about what’s on the president-elect’s nightstand.
As we say goodbye to US president Barack Obama, avid reader and champion of literature, we’re left wondering what books Donald Trump might bring to the White House. We know he thinks Hamilton the musical is overrated and sketch TV show SNL is boring, but not much has been published about what’s on the president-elect’s nightstand.
When asked in November by Extra’s AJ Calloway his two favorite books, Trump named two of his own: The Art of the Deal, which came out in 1987, and Surviving at the Top, from 1990.
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“I love reading, when I get a chance to read,” he added.
Earlier this year he told The Hollywood Reporter he was reading Ed Klein’s book on Hillary Clinton (likely Unlikeable, which came out the previous fall); “the book on Richard Nixon” (he didn’t specify which one); and that he was rereading All Quiet on the Western Front, which he called “one of the greatest books of all time.”
Trump does tweet book endorsements, and at times it seems like he has read the book in question. Here is a compilation of what the president-elect seems to like reading, derived from recommended reading lists published in his books; tweets endorsing books he says he’s read; and interviews.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the books Trump mentions are often titles slamming Obama and Hillary Clinton, and bemoaning the state of the United States. In books he has written, he recommends classics of Western civilization, like The Prince and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays. When it comes to fiction, Trump has few picks: He often says the novel All Quiet on the Western Front is one of his favorites, and he once tweeted an endorsement of a thriller called Hidden Mirrors.
This post has been updated.
