Whatever dubious claims Donald Trump may have made regarding his impact on the US economy, one industry he inarguably boosted is publishing. Whether it’s high-profile journalists sitting on details of a major outrage until months after the event to shift a few more units of their portentously titled tome, or an endless coterie of former staffers attempting to launder their legacy to history, there’s been no shortage of dross. Then you get revelations like the one in New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book Confidence Man, and you realise you never want it to cease.
Trump announced he had tested positive to COVID in October 2020 — this was pre-vaccine, and back when a high-profile case still had the power to surprise us. And his plan when announcing his recovery may be the single greatest “what if” in the history of political theatre. According the book, Trump, inspired by James Brown and pro-wrestling:
… would be wheeled out of Walter Reed in a chair and, once outdoors, he would dramatically stand up, then open his button-down dress shirt to reveal [a] Superman logo beneath it. (Trump was so serious about it that he called the campaign headquarters to instruct an aide, Max Miller, to procure the Superman shirts; Miller was sent to a Virginia big-box store.)
We have previously noted that if you can briefly tune out the horror of the Trump administration, his was objectively the weirdest and funniest presidency in history. Details like this give us an indication of just how much weirder it could have gotten. Long may they continue.
