Memoirs from former members of the Trump administration have had lackluster sales since former President Donald Trump left office, according to a Politico analysis.
The “Chief’s Chief” memoir, written by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, had 21,569 copies sold, according to Bookscan numbers from NPD, a market research firm that tracks book sales. Politico reported on the data Thursday. The chronicle on Trump’s presidency from former Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson sold 21,786 copies; former Trump adviser Scott Atlas sold 27,013 copies; former Department of Defense Secretary Mark Esper sold 20,900 copies and former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham sold 38,249 copies, according to Politico’s reporting of the NPD Bookscan numbers. The memoir from former White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx reportedly sold less than 6,000 copies.
Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to Trump, and former Attorney General Bill Barr broke the 40,000-copies-sold benchmark by selling 42,273 and 64,103 copies, respectively.
Each of these memoirs represents different viewpoints from former Trump officials. Birx’s novel focuses on Trump’s COVID response, while Barr’s book gives a comparative analysis between the Republican administrations of former Presidents George W. Bush and Trump.
“Since he left office, the Trump memoirs have not done great … each of the people who have written a book so far was telling stories that we pretty much already knew,” a top publishing executive told Politico.
The best-selling memoir in the post-Trump era is Peter Navarro’s “In Trump Time,” which has sold 80,218 copies. Navarro served in the Trump administration as a trade adviser. This book paints Trump’s time in the White House in a more positive light than many of the other memoirs written by ex-Trump officials. (RELATED: Kayleigh McEnany Details How The Media Undermined The Trump Administration In New Book)
Read on please! Only bestseller thanks to folks like you was my book In Trump Time. If you liked it, you will love Taking Back Trump’s America available now on Amazon at https://t.co/5L1YrpXFSp
Book bombs: Trump aide tell-alls fail to sell https://t.co/3hPSYGDwfz via @politico— Peter Navarro (@RealPNavarro) June 23, 2022
The best-selling books of the Trump presidency were from former national security advisor John Bolton — “The Room Where It Happened“ sold 680,949 copies — as well as former FBI Director James Comey. “A Higher Loyalty“ sold 626,810 copies, according to Politico.
“Political books from now until 2024 are going to have to have a real reason to exist for the market to exist … unless you’re someone like Maggie Haberman,” a publishing insider told Politico, referring to The New York Times reporter who is expected to drop her book on the Trump presidency later in 2022.