Trump to release ‘book of letters’ next year amid 2024 campaign

(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump is planning to release a book next year showcasing his private correspondence with past and present celebrities and international icons, CNN has learned.

Sources familiar with the matter said the project will mirror Trump’s first post-White House book, a collection of 300-plus photographs from Trump’s time in office that were accompanied by captions he wrote himself. His newest book will contain reproductions of letters written to, or by, Trump over the last few decades, providing readers with a more intimate view into his private life and past social circles.

Trump’s correspondence with singer-songwriter Elton John, the late entertainer Michael Jackson and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, are expected to be included, sources said. In a lewd 1997 interview with shock jock Howard Stern that was unearthed during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Trump claimed that he received a “really nice” letter from the late Princess of Wales thanking him for an undisclosed favor.

“She wrote me a letter about a couple of months before she died thanking me ’cause I did her a favor for something,” Trump told Stern. “She wrote me a really nice letter.”

It is unclear if the “book of letters,” as multiple sources described it, will feature any of the letters Trump exchanged with Kim Jong Un during his pursuit of North Korea’s denuclearization. Trump has previously boasted of his “love letters” with the foreign dictator, once declaring at a campaign rally that he and Kim Jong Un “fell in love” through their written correspondence.

The letters were among a trove of government documents, including ones that contained classified markings, kept at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office, prompting the National Archives and Records Administration to seek their return. A special counsel appointed by the Justice Department is currently investigating Trump for his possible mishandling of classified documents and presidential records.

Trump’s second book since leaving office is due to be published by Winning Team Publishing, an imprint launched by his eldest son Don Jr. and former campaign adviser Sergio Gor, who declined to comment on the project.

“We don’t have anything to announce yet,” Gor said.

The same publishing house was behind “Our Journey Together,” the $75 hardcover collection of photographs that Trump released last December. CNN previously reported that the book grossed $20 million in less than two months after it went on sale.

Trump aides said they expect his next book to be just as lucrative, particularly due to its overlap with his third presidential campaign.

“Sounds like a money-maker for sure,” said one person close to Trump.

A second person close to the former president said he is unlikely to publish a memoir about his presidency in the near future, particularly because he wants to wait for the 2024 cycle to play out. In May, however, Winning Team Publishing appeared to suggest that Trump was working on a book about the 2020 election, which the former president has falsely insisted was stolen.

“NEW BOOK ALERT: CRIME OF THE CENTURY by President Donald J. Trump! More details coming soon,” the publishing house wrote in a tweet.

Numerous other rumored 2024 Republican hopefuls have recently released books or plan to publish in the coming months. Among them are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has an autobiography coming in late February; Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whose third book, “Decades of Decadence” is due out in June 2023; and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who will release a book in January and has publicly acknowledge he is mulling a primary challenge against Trump.

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