'Forgetful': Author who interviewed Trump 'at his lowest' says ex-president is 'declining'
The author of a new book about Donald Trump reportedly says that the multiple exclusive interviews the two took part in reveal that the former president is "declining."
The new book, "Apprentice in Wonderland" by Ramin Setoodeh, tells some of the stories of the conversations with Trump. Recently the author gave tapes of the Trump interviews to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, ultimately revealing a moment when the ex-president accidentally admitted that he lost the 2020 election.
Setoodeh said Trump was excited to be interviewed about The Apprentice, but he was still licking his wounds from the 2020 electoral defeat, according to a report from the Times. Trump was said to be "at his lowest," according to the author.
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"Mr. Trump became so excited about the book that he offered to promote it at his rallies, saying that the merchants who follow his traveling roadshow would help peddle it. 'You’ll sell 10,000 books at one rally,' he told Mr. Setoodeh. 'Let’s see how this works out,'" the Saturday report reads. "Not well, as it turns out — at least for Mr. Trump. 'Apprentice in Wonderland,' published Tuesday, depicts its subject as a lonely and sometimes dotty man, longing for the days when he was still accepted by his fellow celebrities, even as he seems to crave political power."
The author further suggests that in "one minute he’s bragging that Joan Rivers voted for him in 2016 (she died in 2014); the next he’s excusing himself to go deal with 'the whole thing with the Afghanistan,' as he told Mr. Setoodeh, who happened to be interviewing him the week President Biden was pulling U.S. troops out of the country."
"It was unclear what Mr. Trump meant," the article states.
The author also said the interviews raised cognitive questions, including because Trump reportedly forgot the first interview.
"Mr. Setoodeh spent three afternoons at Trump Tower and one at Mar-a-Lago, and interviewed Mr. Trump twice on the phone. His final visit was in November of last year. He came away believing Mr. Trump, now 78, was declining, he said," according to the Times piece. "'Trump was certainly much sharper when he was in his 60s hosting ‘The Apprentice,’ and he did struggle with short-term memory,' Mr. Setoodeh said. When the author showed up for his second interview, the former president did not appear to remember giving a first, Mr. Setoodeh said, although just under three months had passed."