Alec Baldwin Is Writing A Satirical Memoir About Trump's Presidency (As Trump)
March 1, 2017, 12:40 p.m.
"There will be a moment when this will be over. When Trump will fade into ignominy and take with him his ability to outstrip satire."
The cover of the book
At the start of the new year, Alec Baldwin promised to keep playing Donald Trump on SNL for as long as he could, then cryptically dropped the news that he was also in discussions about "other venues we might pursue to further express our gratitude and admiration for the Trump administration." While we initially assumed that meant more TV work, it turns out Baldwin has actually been working on a satirical book about Trump titled, You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump.
The faux-memoir will be written by Baldwin and Kurt Andersen, who in addition to being a novelist and host of WNYC's "Studio 360" was also a founding editor of Spy Magazine, which famously poked fun at Trump for years, coining the phrase "short-fingered vulgarian," which infuriates Trump to this day. The book is scheduled to be released in November, and Baldwin will read the audiobook as Trump.
"I didn't think this former hobby of mine would return with this ferocity," Andersen told the Times today. He explained that he was impressed by Baldwin's impersonation because it is extreme, "and with a guy like Donald Trump, to be effective it needs to be extreme."
As for their methodology for writing the book, Andersen said, "I think we'll be channeling and amplifying the real Trump. Writing for a five- or 10-minute sketch is different than writing a book, which has to be a narrative...It'll be sharp. I'm going to start talking like Trump: It'll be great! It'll be fantastic! But it will be sharp. It won't just be fun-loving."
Baldwin added, "I think it's fair to say that Kurt will do most of the writing. We have that arrangement whereby he doesn't put on the wig, I don't open up a Word document." He also offered some optimistic thoughts: "There will be a moment when this will be over. When Trump will fade into ignominy and take with him his ability to outstrip satire."
