“When somebody says something about me, I am able to go bing, bing, bing and I take care of it. The other way, I would never be get the word out.”
That was Donald Trump one year ago, admitting on Fox Business Network that without Twitter and social media, he probably would not be president.
Trump uses Twitter to break news, start feuds, insult his rivals, praise Fox News hosts and Republican lawmakers, and conduct foreign-policy decisions. But it can be hard to keep up with the prolific 45th president’s account—and so one proudly self-described “MAGA mom” decided to publish them in book form.
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In May, Trisha Hope, a 55-year-old Houston native and Texas state Republican delegate, published JUST THE TWEETS: Volume I , a 387-page hardcover book memorializing all of Trump’s tweets from his first year in office.
The book is as simple as the title describes: it is literally just his tweets.
“The reason it’s named that is because it’s just the tweets. It’s not my commentary, it’s not my opinion. It’s just his tweets,” Hope told The Daily Beast. “It’s printed as he wrote it, so if there’s a typo in his tweet, there’s a typo in the book. It’s exactly the way he wrote it.”
On Monday night, Hope and her husband attended Trump’s rally for Ted Cruz in Houston, bringing along copies to sell—like they do at other Trump rallies across the country.
“We follow him wherever he goes,” Hope said. “It’s been exhausting, but it’s really been a lot of fun, too.”
Hope just got back to Texas after a two-month, 15,000-mile road trip in which she and her family sold hundreds of copies of the book to Trumpkins at seven different rallies in West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, and Iowa.
“This is a way to capture history,” she said. “I’m pro-Trump, but the tweets speak for themselves.” She boasted, channeling her favorite president: “It’s a very high-quality, very heavy book.”
And even though Trump is known for the occasionally offensive, misleading, or even potentially catosptrohic tweet, he has immunity from ever being kicked off the social media platform because of his status as a “world leader.”
Earlier this year, Twitter finally addressed widespread calls for President Trump’s banishment from the platform after he threatened nuclear warfare with North Korea by tweet, saying that since elected world leaders play a “critical role” in the social conversation, “blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate.
The social-media platform continued: “It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
Despite the unending controversy, Hope’s hardback blue linen cloth-covered book with gold foil lettering and sewn binding has sold thousands of copies in five months.
It looks remarkably similar to the hardbound Gideon Bibles often found in hotel-room nightstands across the country.
Hope originally got the inspiration to print each 140-character presidential statement around the same time Trump was inaugurated, after the mother of four realized that while she was an avid Twitter user, her friends and family were not, often relying on her for updates on what he was saying.
“I had a lot of friends and family reach out to me about his tweets because they're not on Twitter. And they always asked, ‘What did he tweet today? What’s going on?’” Hope told The Daily Beast on Tuesday.
While she originally began “publishing the tweets on a website,” she quickly “realized she could just make a book” and has since archived every single Trump tweet with the hope of creating annual anthologies to be published each spring.
“I hope to get people to read it and understand and watch and reflect what he said when he said it and then how things evolve,” Hope explained. “He talks to us every single day. He tells us what he’s doing, what he’s thinking. He doesn’t hold back much, I think we can all agree to that. And it’s pretty unique.”
But Hope is not the only loyal stenographer of Trump’s social-media musics. Because tweets are public and there are no legal issues with re-publishing, Twitter confirmed to The Daily Beast, the president’s tweets have become a niche literary subgenre. On Amazon alone, there are over hundreds of authors with similar books.
To stay ahead of her competitors, Hope sets a alarm on her iPad for whenever Trump tweets, sometimes waking up at early at 4 a.m. (primetime for the president to exercise his twitter fingers) to retrieve new content.
“Or, you know, also just in case it’s something serious,” she added, laughing.
Now known as “The Tweet Lady” by friends, family, and regular MAGA rally attendees, Hope acknowledged she never thought this would be her life, but she is enjoying every minute of it.
“We’ve done extremely well,” she said of her $35 book. “We’re traveling together, camping for a couple days and selling the book at rallies. We’ve met so many just amazing people.”
In the cross country MAGA tour, Hope admitted there is one person she is still hoping to meet (or even hear from): President Trump himself.
Hope said shipped a box of her book to the White House earlier this year, but has not yet heard back.
“If he tweeted about the book—now that would be very cool,” Hope concluded. “Then I could include it in the next volume.”
