A new book that charts the rise of former President Donald Trump reveals how he felt about being in the Oval Office.
Trump 'Scripting Out The Movie Of His Life': Writing about how Trump rose from the ranks of real estate executive to president of the United States, author Maggie Haberman makes the case that Trump wasn’t an actor but came close to being one.
Haberman said “Trump’s not an actor” in the new book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America."
“He just happened to be in this role on television playing himself,” Haberman told Deadline. “That really was what he was doing, and he was just constantly scripting this movie out of his life.”
Haberman highlights a phrase used by Trump to showcase how he views the role of president.
“It’s interesting, one of the things he said to me in our interviews was he said, ‘before I did the presidency,’ as if it was some kind of a show he was doing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a former elected official refer to holding office as, ‘before I did the governorship’ or ‘before I did the mayoralty,’ and this is just fundamentally what he has been doing his entire life.”
Haberman said she believes Trump saw his time as president as a role and not a responsibility.
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A 'Jurassic Park' Moment: Along with Trump treating his time as president as a role, Haberman said the former president cares heavily about how the media reacted to and portrayed him.
“Realistically, he was doing things because he wanted to see how they were going to play in the media,” Haberman said.
The author said Trump did get things done while in office and has accomplishments outside of simply playing the role of president.
“His objectives were not the same as how Washington was interpreting them.”
Prior to getting banned from social media platforms like Twitter Inc (NYSE: NYSE:TWTR), Trump was a digital media genius, according to Haberman.
“He spent a lot of time — and I show this in the writing — studying what worked and what didn’t on Twitter. I was really surprised to learn how much time he was spending on that himself.”
Haberman said Trump had aides tweet for him before making the switch to tweeting himself.
A person who previously worked on Trump’s Twitter feed once compared Trump taking control of the account to the scene in “Jurassic Park” where the velociraptor learned how to open doors.
“Donald Trump is utterly devoid of context and tends to treat many different situations as if they’re all of a piece — it's kind of how he bluffs his way through things. Twitter was ideal for him.”
'Stay Tuned': Since being banned on Twitter and other social media platforms, Trump launched his own media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which includes the social media platform Truth Social.
Trump Media & Technology Group is working on a SPAC merger with Digital World Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: DWAC).
When asked if her book could be turned into a movie, Deadline said Haberman laughed and says, “I don’t know. Stay tuned.”
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