Melania Trump’s #1 bestseller doesn’t fly off the shelves. Is it because of Goo?

At a protest in September, Donald Trump stopped talking about Arnold Palmer’s penis and ask different racial and religious groups get their heads “checked.” to plug his wife’s upcoming memoir. “Go out and get her book,” he said speak. “She just wrote a book. I hope she said good things about…I don’t know, I’m not…too busy.” With that resounding endorsement, Melania Trump‘s book debuted last week at the top spot New York Times Hardcover non-fiction bestseller list. (The former president admitted this, speak“That’s not an easy thing to do, especially when your name is Trump.”)

The methodology behind New York Times bestseller list is notoriously secretive, but according to Circana BookScan, Melania ending its first week of sales with 85,349 hardcover copies. So what do the numbers mean? Former first lady Michelle Obamayear 2018 memoir, Become, debuted at number onesold 636,696 copies.

Melania, the description New York Times as a member of the “cancel mob” of her memoir, she promptly posted an image on X announcing the book’s status, accompanied by the newspaper’s signature font. She joins a lineage of conservative personalities who like to throw away the newspaper but can’t contain their excitement when they make the list. When Donald Trump Jr.His book took the top spot in 2019, he tweeted an Axios report about it. Political commentator Dave Rubin, who published an interview on YouTube titled “Breaking the Great Book Ban Lie” that advocates the thesis that allowing parents to ban books is good has, in effect, enshrined his position on charts by posting a video in which he burns his own book.

What set? Melania Besides that it is New York Times did not mark it with the conspicuous bulk buy symbol known as the dagger that often marks Trumpworld books. According to female time, Trump Jr.’s book rose to the top with support from the Republican National Committee’s bulk purchase of nearly $100,000 worth of copies it offered as a campaign donation perk. (Recent books that appeared on the list with the help of bulk buying include Trey Yingst‘S Black Saturday And Vivek Ramaswamy‘S Truth.) The Trump campaign does not appear to be peddling Melania via donation email, which is a departure from the norm. According to a search in the Political Email Archive, when Jared Kushner published his memoirs in 2022, he and Ivanka Trump sent more than 80 combined messages via Trump campaign email, soliciting donations in exchange for copies (sample subject lines: “I Wrote a Book,” “I Signed Your Book” me”, “My husband signed his new book” and “I want you to have it”. Melania Trump promoted her book with just three pre-order emails in July, August and one on September 11.

Now that it’s out, who exactly is reading it? Melania? Not necessarily those featured in her five Amazon teaser ads, which had virtually nothing to do with the former first lady’s message — in fact, none of them had anything to do with the message at all. there. To fit many content of the bookinstead they draw from old press comments and speeches. (By the way, Melania includes an anecdote about RNC parody speechwrites that although Michelle Obama’s words “resonate deeply” with her, the plagiarism is not her fault.) Kellyanne ConwayHer quote, taken from this year’s RNC speech, called her “extraordinary, elegant, beautiful, brilliant.” Nikki Haley‘ described her as “a smart, beautiful and patriotic treasure”; Brigitte Macron says she is “charming, smart and very open”; And Dana Perino promises that “she will light up the room.” Donald Trump led the group and began, “Melania is my rock.”

While LitHub’s review aggregator, BookMarks, lists seven reviews because Melania (mine for VFamong them) and six other books, which were more popular with buyers than critics. On Goodreads, its nearly 800 ratings are hovering at an average of 4.01, and on Amazon, its 1,200 ratings have averaged 4.5. As is often the case with a memoir, fans of the book are first and foremost fans of the writer: Readers like that she is beautiful, that she loves her son, that the book has photos “of her life.” her life” and that she mentioned. Donald Trump is “my husband”.