Trump felt 'wounded' by loss of Kim Kardashian's support, author says
Former President Trump felt “wounded” by Kim Kardashian’s support for President Biden in 2020, the author of a new book on the former president said in a Wednesday interview.
Ramin Setoodeh, the author of “Apprentice in Wonderland,” a book focused on Trump’s time as a reality TV star, said the former president “absolutely” felt betrayed by Kardashian, who worked with him on passing the First Step Act, a law aimed at reforming the federal prison system and sentencing law.
“I think he feels wounded that he invited Kim Kardashian to the White House, and then she went on social media after Joe Biden was declared the winner in 2020 and posted three heart emojis on her social media to support the Biden-Harris administration,” Setoodeh told CNN’s Erin Burnett when asked if Trump felt Kardashian betrayed him.
“He was fixated on that in the early days after he left the White House,” he added in remarks highlighted by Mediaite.
Setoodeh’s remarks came after Burnett played a recording from one of the several interviews the author conducted with Trump for the book.
“I was disappointed in Kim … With Kim, I did a lot of prison reform that she couldn’t get done with anybody else,” Trump said in the recording played on “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“I let people out of prison that I thought were deserving to be let out," he added in the clip. "And then after it was all over, she announced that she’s not supporting me ... And she only did that to be cool in Hollywood."
“Apprentice in Wonderland” was released this month and is described on the website as “the never-fully-told, behind-the-scenes story of Donald Trump and ‘The Apprentice,’ the long-running reality series that catapulted him to the White House.”
Setoodeh, co-editor in chief of Variety and an entertainment reporter, said he was able to interview Trump for several hours and gained “unprecedented access” for the book.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, did not respond to the Kardashian remarks specifically but sharply criticized the author’s work in an emailed statement to The Hill.
“After recognizing the importance of The Apprentice, its significant cultural impact on a global scale, and President Trump's remarkable role in forever changing the landscape of entertainment,” Cheung wrote, “this ‘writer’ has now chosen to allow Trump Derangement Syndrome to rot his brain like so many other losers whose entire existence revolves around President Trump."