Alec Baldwin and Kurt Andersen are writing a Trump book together. Sad.
It’s no secret that President Trump isn’t a fan of Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of him on “Saturday Night Live.” So it’s probably safe to say he won’t have nice things to say about Baldwin’s latest project: a book satirizing the president with Spy magazine co-founder Kurt Andersen.
Baldwin and Andersen’s book, “You Can’t Spell America Without ME: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump,” will be published in November by Penguin Press.
Baldwin told the New York Times that he’ll leave the heavy lifting to Andersen, whose Spy magazine lampooned Trump throughout the 1980s, long before he sought the presidency.
“I think it’s fair to say that Kurt will do most of the writing,” Baldwin said. “We have that arrangement whereby he doesn’t put on the wig, I don’t open up a Word document.”
Baldwin appears on the book’s cover doing his Donald Trump impression, with blond wig, wide-open mouth and overly long red necktie.
Baldwin has famously gotten under Trump’s skin with his appearances on “Saturday Night Live,” in which he portrays Trump as an obnoxious blowhard in the thrall of his assistant Steve Bannon (who is played by an actor dressed up as the Grim Reaper).
“Watched Saturday Night Live hit job on me,” Trump tweeted in October. “Time to retire the boring and unfunny show. Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks. Media rigging election!”
Even after he had won the election, Trump couldn’t resist criticizing the show again in December, tweeting, “Just tried watching Saturday Nigh tLive - unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.”
Andersen used Trump’s favorite social media platform to announce his collaboration with Baldwin on Wednesday, tweeting, “I have revived my sideline as a Trump profiteer.”
Anderson praised Baldwin’s “extreme” portrayal of the commander in chief, but said the book will be different.
“I think we’ll be channeling and amplifying the real Trump,” he said. “Writing for a five- or 10-minute sketch is different than writing a book, which has to be a narrative.”
Anderson is a journalist who has also written three novels, including “Turn of the Century” and “Heyday.” He hosts the radio show Studio 360 on WNYC.
Baldwin, a Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor, also hosts a program produced by WNYC, the podcast “Here’s the Thing.” His memoir, “Nevertheless,” will be published next month. He also took to Twitter Wednesday morning, joking with a link to the story, asking, “Who wants to read a good history book?”
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