Unpresidential, sometimes offensive and said to be inspired by Fox News, Donald Trump’s abrasive Twitter presence started long before he won the presidency in 2016. Before he announced his candidacy, Donald Trump could be found regularly tweeting about his businesses, his fortune, the birth certificate of former President Obama, and even his IQ. He used Twitter to insult celebrities, brag about his hotels, and he even claimed that global warming was nothing more than “an expensive hoax.” He also liked to boast about the ratings of his famous television show, The Apprentice.
“Just out – @ApprenticeNBC was first place in all demos during the 10pm hour in ratings.” Trump tweeted in 2013.
Less than an hour after Trump lauded his alleged ratings success, Danny Zuker called his bluff. Zuker responded with a screenshot of what television show actually was first place in ratings, and it wasn’t The Apprentice. And just like that, the three-month long Twitter feud with Emmy award-winning Modern Family executive producer, Danny Zuker and Donald Trump commenced.
Writer, producer, political satirist and friend of Zuker, Paul Slansky heard Zuker and actor, Tim Simons reading the olds tweets at a fundraiser in Los Angeles and immediately knew those Twitter exchanges would make a hilarious book. He Started It!: My Twitter War With Trump is a small, but powerful unconventional book that brings a little humor to those who are terrified by the onslaught of Trump’s tweets. The humorous book chronicles the entire Twitter feud and includes hilarious commentary from Zuker. The Twitter war included insults on everything from hair, television ratings and even Sarah Palin. “This book feels like an important document now,” Zucker says, in a press release. “All of the childish language and insane logic Trump used to engage me, he’s now using with world leaders.”
Danny Zuker also wanted this “gift book” to serve as a “call to action” to get out to vote. A portion of the proceeds from the book sales are donated to causes that have been impacted by the Trump administration––Planned Parenthood, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), and World Wildlife Fund. So buy a few and give them as gifts as a reminder to get out the vote.
Author Danny Zuker hails from New York City, but grew up in Livingston, NJ. Previous to Modern Family, the Emmy-winning writer and producer worked on numerous television shows including Just Shoot Me and Roseanne. He Started It!: My Twitter War With Trump was edited by author and political satirist, Paul Slansky, whose essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire and the New York Times. Slansky is also author of The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American ‘80s.
The book is not only dedicated to voters and those who get others to vote, it is also dedicated to the free press—who has been consistently attacked by Trump, and to “all of the hundreds if not thousands who have been victims of Donald Trump’s sexual ‘misconduct!’” You can find the book at all major book sellers.
