In a new interview with Fox News, Donald Trump tells Tucker Carlson: "I love to read. Actually, I'm looking at a book." You'll pardon me if I ask to see his Barnes and Noble receipts.
"I love to read" came in response a question about what he liked to do at the end of the day. Trump answered in the form many have come to expect from this administration:
Well, you know, I love to read. Actually, I'm looking at a book, I'm reading a book, I'm trying to get started. Every time I do about half a page, I get a phone call that there's some emergency, this or that. But we're going to see the home of Andrew Jackson today in Tennessee and I'm reading a book on Andrew Jackson. I love to read. I don't get to read very much, Tucker, because I'm working very hard on lots of different things, including getting costs down. The costs of our country are out of control. But we have a lot of great things happening, we have a lot of tremendous things happening.
There is no proof that Donald J. Trump reads — but there's no proof he doesn't read either. Let's take a look at the facts: In one pre-election interview, the future president could not name a single book that he would recommend. In another, he came up with two: his ghostwritten bestseller, The Art of the Deal, and Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which he seemed to remember nothing about. Shortly after the inauguration, the administration cleared out a large bookcase in the EOP Library to display a few sad and lonely copies of The Art of the Deal and other Trump-branded titles.
Maybe he just prefers watching the news incessantly and playing golf.
So, when the president says he "loves to read," I think I'm allowed to be a tiny bit skeptical.
