Donald Trump’s new book, “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again,” was written by a ghostwriter, two sources confirm to Confidenti@l.
“His time is so consumed with his presidential run and multi-billion-dollar real estate empire, that the only time he would have to write it was in his sleep,” one source tells us.
A second source adds that the ghost writer was chosen and hired by Scott Waxman, the son of the founder of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation and one half of the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency, which represented Trump on the deal with Simon & Schuster. The Republican presidential candidate’s book, written in his first-person, is 169 pages and is selling in hardcover for $25.
“He (Donald) got this done on the road with a series of phone calls and snippets from campaign speeches,” explains our second source. “He had a ghostwriter from start to finish, and he (Donald) was annoying, tough and threw fits throughout.”
On its website, the Waxman Leavell agency trumpets Trump’s book with this description: “Look at the state of the world right now. It’s a terrible mess, and that’s putting it mildly. There has never been a more dangerous time. The politicians and special interests in Washington, DC, are directly responsible for the mess we are in. So why should we continue listening to them? This book is my blueprint for how to Make America Great Again. It’s not hard. We just need someone with the courage to say what needs to be said. We won’t find that in Washington, DC.”
We hear that Trump signed off on that nugget after it was penned by someone in-house at Simon & Schuster. Trump did record the audiobook for the tome.
Speculation about who wrote the new book has even reached writer Tony Schwartz, who did most of the heavy lifting on Trump’s hit book “The Art of the Deal” in 1987. At the time, Schwartz was acknowledged in small font on the bottom of the front cover — and some believe he was involved in this book, too. He wouldn’t comment, issuing a non-denial denial on Twitter on Sept. 15: “I wrote the Art of the Deal,” Schwartz tweeted. “Donald Trump read it.”
Simon & Schuster did not get back to us with comment. When we reached the Waxman Leavell Agency, we were told “everyone in the office is out to lunch.”
