Trump Earns ‘Big’ Royalties From Book of Letters

Donald Trump never ceases to amaze with how he can cushion his financial coffers. 

Recently, Forbes said that the former President received $1 million in royalties from a book that mainly contained letters from other people. 

Conservative Communication

Image Credit: Winning Team Publishing.

Thanks to Winning Team Publishing, a publishing company founded by Donald Trump Jr. and Sergio Gor, Donald Trump is raking in millions in royalties.  

According to their About Us page, Winning Team Publishing “is the nation's premier conservative publishing house. Launched in 2021, Winning Team Publishing aims to promote authors who represent the Silent Majority, America First patriots, and liberty-minded readers.”

Some of Winning Team's big names include Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Kari Lake and Charles Kirk. 

Royal Roundabout

Image Credit: White House photographer – Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Public Domain/Wiki Commons.

Being in the public eye and having had a successful stint as President has given Donald Trump access to famous people worldwide. From actors and Hollywood elite to the British Royal family and world leaders, Trump has interacted with people with serious celebrity status. 

Some of the people he's gotten letters from are Oprah Winfrey, Princess Diana, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, North Korea's Kim Jong-un, Mario Cuomo, Arnold Palmer, Jay Leno, Liza Minnelli, Regis Philbin and many more. 

Those letters are now compiled in a picture book with comments from Trump about each author presented in the book. 

Critical Praise

Image Credit: Everett Collection/Shutterstock.

Trump's newest book, Letters to Trump, has mixed reviews. Sergio Gor said, “Long before entering politics, Donald Trump lived an extraordinary life. No book highlights his iconic relationships like Letters to Trump.”

Others weren't so impressed with Trump's creative license concerning personal letters written to him in confidence. Oprah Winfrey said this about Trump's book, “I think he'd written a book and said that he wanted me to be his running mate… if he decided to run. And when I heard that this letter is now going to be a part of a book, I thought, ‘Oh, wasn't that nice of me to write a note.' That's what I thought because I'm always like, ‘Oh, I should write a note. The person did this, or I should write a note.' So, I'm really happy that I wrote a note.”

When discussing her comment on being Trump's running mate, she said, “I might have thought it back then. I might have thought it 23 years ago. I'm not thinking it today.”

Not the First Time

Image Credit: Winning Team Publishing.

Shockingly, this isn't the first time Trump has profited off work primarily done by others. His first attempt was Our Journey Together, a picture book of photos taken during his first term as President. 

After convincing White House photographer Shealah Craighead not to publish a book of her own, Trump took photos, compiled them in a coffee table-style book, and made a mint.

Legal Lingo

Image Credit: Big Dog Productions.

Many have wondered if Trump's use of photos he didn't take himself is legal; as Forbes says, “The former president used a private family company to publish a work of mostly taxpayer-subsidized material, then boosted sales with donor funds.”

However, reports show that everything from the creation process of Our Journey Together is legal; even Trump's byline appears in the book without issue. 

Still, Trump could see trouble if any letter he used in his Letters to Trump book gets a copyright infringement suit from an original writer. According to Newsweek, Jay Leno has said “he has not given Donald Trump permission to use any correspondence between the pair in the upcoming book Letters to Trump.”

Forward Fuel

Image Credit: Evan El-Amin/Shutterstock.

Regardless of how you feel about Trump personally or even politically, the man knows how to make money. He's also not opposed to spending it. The most recent reveal on his 2024 campaign for President shared January earnings that came in at $8.8 million, but his campaign said they had to spend $11 million on advertising and mailouts. 

As we draw closer to the November general election, scrutiny where Trump is concerned is only going to get hotter as America draws closer to choosing the 47th President of the United States.