Donald Trump’s post-presidency photo book, “Our Journey Together,” compiled from photographs taken by taxpayer-paid White House photographers, netted the indicted sexual assaulter $5.75 million in royalties since its debut in December 2021, a surprising number given just over 10,000 were sold in retail markets, Forbes reports based on financial disclosures.
The book’s publishing company, a new venture created by underachieving son Don Jr. and a former campaign staffer claims to have sold 500,000 copies of the book, but NPD BookScan, an independent company that tracks retail sales of books, reports just 10,200 books sold through brick-and-mortar and online retailers. The rest were sold to special interest groups supporting Trump, his campaign, his lifestyle and his legal fees, so it’s impossible to track the actual distribution of the books that are stored in those groups’ warehouses.
Trump’s campaign and his PAC paid more than a quarter million dollars for a supply of books, which sell with a cover price of $75 each. Trump’s campaign website still features the book as swag for people who donate $75 to the campaign, the same as the book’s cover price. Trump book ranks 26,394th on Amazon’s Best Seller list; Barack Obama’s 2020 book, “A Promised Land,” by comparison, sits at 3,100 even though it’s been on sale more than year longer.