Trump letter from 2005 cites Pamuk, Philip Roth
NEW YORK — The letter to the editor was published Sept. 11, 2005, in The New York Times. Its author, responding to a recent book review, cites John Updike, Philip Roth and Orhan Pamuk among those he has read.
Further down, a more familiar voice emerges, referring to one writer as a “loser” and noting that his own books had been praised as “classics.”
The letter was signed “Donald Trump.”
Throughout his rise over the past three years and well into his presidency, doubts have been raised about Trump’s interest in books and even his basic reading skills. He has often been portrayed as easily distracted and unable to get through extended written reports. He has tweeted enthusiastically about books — but mostly those by supporters. Yet the 2005 letter — whomever the author — clearly reflects at least passing knowledge of contemporary fiction and some care about the written word. Trump was responding to Jeff MacGregor’s review of Mark Singer’s “Character Studies,” a collection of profiles by The New Yorker staff writer. One of the book’s interview subjects was Trump, of whom Singer wrote in 1997 that he “had aspired to and achieved the ultimate luxury, an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul.”