Trump Jr’s book reaches no.1 on bestsellers list as Republican Party gives away copies

Donald Trump Jr’s bestselling book might not be as impressive as it looks at first.

The president’s son has been boasting about how his book Triggered was named as the top nonfiction book in the New York Times’ bestsellers list this week.

Even his dad has managed to put aside his ongoing feud with the Times to celebrate the news.

The Times put a dagger character next to Triggered’s spot on the list, indicating “institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases”.

And who could be behind those bulk purchases?

Well, the Republican Party has apparently been giving away signed copies of Trump Jr’s book as part of its fundraising appeals.

Steve Guest, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told AP on Thursday that Triggered was being offered as a fundraising incentive, but he argued that this was normal for political books.

He insisted that copies of the book were being bought “to keep up with demand”.

AP also reported that Trump Jr’s book sold an estimated 71,000 copies last week, according to NPD BookScan, which would make it the bestselling nonfiction book.

However, BookScan could not determine yesterday how many of those sales came from bulk purchases so that figure doesn’t disprove the theory that the Republican Party artificially boosted his sales.

According to Fortune, Triggered was ranked only fourth on Amazon’s bestsellers on Thursday and was down at no. 44 on Barnes & Nobles Top 100 list - but both those lists use real-time data, while the Times list is based on sales across the whole week.

We don’t really know for sure how much of the book’s success was down to bulk sales.

Nevertheless, Trump Jr went on Fox News this morning to suggest that the Times was engaged in a liberal conspiracy against conservatives writers…

He sounds pretty “triggered” by the whole controversy.

HT: The Daily Dot