This exclusive reporting appears in Confider, The Daily Beast’s free media newsletter. For more scoops and exclusives, sign up here.
The Trump book industry has come roaring back, as there are now four major projects in the works, Confider has learned. Star Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey has joined forces with Isaac Arnsdorf and Tyler Pager to pen a book chronicling a 2024 full of Trump’s criminal trials and a likely Biden rematch. The three journos, known for their impeccable sourcing in both Trump and Biden circles, are being represented by heavy-hitting literary agent Elyse Cheney, who has sold the book to Penguin Press with a planned shelf date in 2025. Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Leonnig, a fellow WaPo star, has teamed up with Aaron Davis for a book about the Department of Justice’s series of investigations into Trump. Meanwhile, over at Politico, two of their top reporters have been busy working on upcoming Trump books. Alex Isenstadt is writing what he hopes will be the definitive Trump campaign book—from launch to whatever the outcome may be—which will hit stores in 2025. His colleague Meridith McGraw just returned from leave writing a book for Random House, due next spring, examining Trump’s life from the time he left the White House through his 2022 exile to Mar-a-Lago. Both Isenstadt and McGraw are repped by Javelin, the D.C.-based agency headed up by Keith Urbahn and Matt Latimer, who’ve developed a sixth sense for identifying big political books. The big question for all of these books is what level of access will be afforded to the reporters, bearing in mind Trump’s fire and fury over his portrayal in bestsellers from prominent journalists like Bob Woodward and Maggie Haberman. “Trump may feel burned and do less of it, but he is pretty useless in those conversations,” one industry insider remarked. While Biden-related books have lagged in sales, publishing sources told Confider the market for Trump books remains decidedly hot. “In publishing there are very few safe bets, but these books can work in a big way,” an industry insider told Confider before quickly adding: “But you gotta have scoops!” Cheney and Javelin did not respond to a request for comment.
