NEW YORK — Other candidates go on book tours. Donald Trump brings the book tour to him.
The erstwhile Republican front-runner pooh-poohed surging Republican rivals Marco Rubio and Ben Carson to an overflow press conference then signed books for legions of his fans — including a real housewife of New Jersey — all from his home turf of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday.
“Marco is overrated,” said Trump, who blasted Rubio’s management of his personal finances at a basement-level press conference unveiling his new campaign book. “For years, I’ve been hearing that his credit cards are a disaster.”
The mogul downplayed Republican mega-donor Paul Singer’s recent endorsement of Rubio, saying that some candidates might not even want his endorsement and that voters will have reservations about Singer as they learn more about him. “People are going to say, ‘Whoa, we didn’t know that,’” predicted Trump. Singer, a vocal advocate of Israel and gay marriage, has identified himself as a Goldwater conservative.
Trump took a softer line with Carson, with whom he shares an outsider appeal and who released his own campaign book, “A More Perfect Union,” last month.
“My book is very hard-hitting. His is a different kind of a book and his a different kind of a person,” said Trump. Carson, who has passed Trump in Iowa and in some recent national polls, has paused his campaign for a 26-day book tour that has drawn crowds of enthusiastic supporters. Trump added that he does not believe Carson has enough energy for the presidency.
Asked to do an impression of Bush, Trump declined, saying, “I don’t like showing a person sleeping at a podium.” Trump, who dismisses the notion of man-made climate change in his book, also declined to answer a Guardian reporter’s question on that subject.
After the press conference, Trump slipped through a back door and headed upstairs for an interview at Trump Bar before settling in to sign copies of “Crippled America” in the lobby.
The first of the hundreds of book-buyers began lining up on the street in the wee hours for the noon signing. “I’m not a Trump fan. I’m a fan of the United States of America,” said Marty Novitsky of Coney Island, who is still evaluating candidates but nonetheless was among the first to get his books signed, having waited since 4 a.m.
He said the wait was worth it “to see the frenzy. It’s entertaining just to see this. It’s like a movie. Billionaire decides to run for president. Media goes crazy."
Novitsky said Trump is just one candidate he is considering supporting.
“Ben Carson is a brilliant man who doesn’t speak very fast. People are looking at the guy with the best one-liner but not the guy with the biggest brain,” he said of the way the public and the media evaluate debate performances.
Nicole Napolitano, 46, a star of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” stood not far behind, having waited only an hour after a Trump-world connection deposited her towards the front of the line. She said many people in the industry supported the candidacy of their reality television colleague. “To be on reality TV you can’t be scared to say what’s on your mind,” said Napolitano.
She added, “People have always been drawn to me.”
“Sort of like Donald,” piped in Napolitano’s mother, Santa, 70.
Nearby, standup comedian Jason Scoop, 24, displayed a “Trump 2016” tattoo on his forearm, which he said was real, a permanent reminder of a presidential campaign he earlier expected to last a week.
“When I got the tattoo it was a joke,” said Scoop. “He’s kind of grown on me.” When Scoop reached Trump’s table and showed the mogul his tattoo, Trump stood up and led him to the cameras. “This is what I call a real fan,” Trump told reporters.
Most of those waiting in line had not yet read more than a few pages of the book, which was officially released on Tuesday.
Bowing to the norms of the format, “Crippled America” offers a slightly more measured, more substantive version of the rhetoric Trump employs at campaign rallies and in television interviews.
Though the book liberally deploys puzzling scare quotes – his father left him with “the best ‘genes’ that anybody could get” — it also quotes Mark Twain. Exclamation points are fewer and further between here than on his Twitter feed.
Rather than claiming that the “The Art of the Deal,” is the single-best selling business book of all time, as Trump has falsely stated on the trail, the jacket of “Crippled America” merely describes the author’s first book as “one of the most successful” in its genre.
Of undocumented immigrants, Trump writes, “I understand the vast majority of these people are honest, decent, hardworking people who came here to improve their own lives and their children’s lives.”
He also strikes a more conciliatory tone — and looks to the future — when he turns to Univision. “It’s sad because I had such a great liking for the two top executives, Randy Falco and Beau Ferrari,” Trump writes of the network, which canceled its partnership with the candidate over his immigration rhetoric and which he claimed on Tuesday to still be suing for $500 million despite having settled in September. “Who knows, at some point we’ll probably have that relationship again.”
Readers learn more about the uncle who was a professor at MIT and who Trump often cites in making the case to voters that he is intelligent. John Trump was awarded the President’s Certificate of Merit by Harry Truman. He was also, according to the book, involved in the development of radar and “one of the first million-volt X-ray generators.”
In his chapter on education, Trump writes, “Look, I know that people both for and against school choice can roll out endless arguments showing charter schools are either very successful or make no difference at all. This is a legitimate debate.”
The book also offers insight into Trump’s messaging strategy — including a tacit admission that no, he does not always believe his own hype. “I’m a businessman with a brand to sell,” writes Trump. “When was the last time you saw a sign hanging outside a pizzeria claiming ‘The fourth best pizza in the world’?! But now I am using those talents, honed through years of tremendous success, to inspire people to think that our country can get better and be great again and that we can turn things around.”
Despite the less swaggering tone, fans drawn to the businessman’s trademark ego will not be disappointed. The “About the Author” section is 13 pages long.
