New Trump book defends 2018 Putin meeting, taunts rivals and threatens to imprison Meta’s Zuckerberg

NEW YORK (AP) — In a new book, former President Donald Trump calls his 2018 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki “a GREAT meeting” and threatens to imprison Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg if the tech mogul does anything this year akin to his $400 million donation to local election offices in 2020.

The book, entitled “Save America,” is a collection of pictures, anecdotes and reminiscences from Trump’s presidential campaigns and term in office. In it, Trump defended his widely criticized Helsinki meeting with Putin, in which Trump said he gave equal weight to the Russian president’s claims not to have interfered in the 2020 presidential election as to the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies.

“This was a very complicated day,” Trump writes underneath a photo from the summit press conference. “I had a GREAT meeting with President Putin of Russia, which was acknowledged by everyone. Then the Fake News started spreading False Stories.”

Trump’s statement that day drew immediate rebukes back home. His own national intelligence director responded by saying agencies found clear evidence that Russia had meddled in the 2016 election and was involved in “pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.”

Trump’s third coffee table book includes pictures of him with sports greats such as golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, and world leaders such as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Germany’s former chancellor, Angela Merkel. It also features pictures of the large crowds that he likes to boast of that gathered in Washington, D.C., to hear his fiery speech that preceded the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The book is scheduled to be released Sept. 3, and The Associated Press obtained excerpts on Thursday. It is one of a number of commercial ventures the former president has launched that include a special pair of sneakers, an edition of the Bible and digital trading cards. “Save America” will sell for $99 with a signed copy going for $499.

It also contains a lengthy reflection about Trump’s brush with death during the assassination attempt on the former president on July 13 during a rally in Pennsylvania: “There was blood pouring everywhere,” Trump writes under a photo of his bloodied face, “and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe, because I had God on my side.”

The book also features a more traditionally combative Trump, as shown in his captioning of a photo of him meeting with Zuckerberg in the White House.

“He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT,” Trump writes, referring to the more than $400 million that Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg, donated to election offices in 2020.

Those gifts flowed disproportionately to Democratic-leaning counties in some states, partly because conservative politicians rejected the donations as Trump warned against funding election offices so they could encourage voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic. The former president and his supporters have repeatedly blamed the Zuckerberg donations for contributing to his loss in 2020.

“We are watching him closely,” Trump wrote to conclude his section on Zuckerberg, “and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Meta, as Zuckerberg has renamed his company, had no comment on the book Thursday. Zuckerberg praised Trump’s defiant fist-waving after the assassination attempt and in a letter to Congress this week said the Biden administration pressured Facebook to remove misinformation about COVID-19 during the pandemic.

Trump also tweaks some of his rivals in the book, including Liz Cheney, the former congresswoman from Wyoming who sharply criticized Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 and was ousted by a Trump-backed challenger during the 2022 primary. A photo shows Cheney smiling with Trump in the White House and includes a note from Trump saying she used to ask him for “‘baskets of goodies. Ultimately I said ‘NO.”’”

The most significant part of the book may be Trump’s musings on foreign leaders. Trump has repeatedly praised authoritarians such as Xi Jinping and Putin while criticizing longtime U.S. allies, including NATO and the European Union. On Putin, Trump noted that Russia took land under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as President Joe Biden, but not during his term.

“Vladimir is a strong man,” Trump wrote, “but we had an understanding and we got along well.”

That approach exposed Trump to strong criticism during his presidency, especially during the Helsinki summit, when federal prosecutors had just indicted a dozen members of Russia’s GRU for interfering in the 2016 election by damaging Trump’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. At the time, Trump lumped the European Union with Russia and China as the U.S.’ geopolitical rivals.

At the news conference following Trump and Putin’s two-hour meeting, during which each leader was accompanied only by a translator, Trump equivocated on whether Russia had even interfered in his 2016 victory.

“I have great confidence in my intelligence people,” Trump said, “but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

___

Riccardi reported from Denver. Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this report.