According to a 1990 Vanity Fair interview, Ivana Trump once told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that her husband, real-estate mogul Donald Trump, now a leading Republican presidential candidate, kept a book of Hitler’s speeches near his bed.
“Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed … Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist,” Marie Brenner wrote.
When Brenner asked Trump about how he came to possess Hitler’s speeches, “Trump hesitated” and then said, “Who told you that?”
“I don’t remember,” Brenner reportedly replied.
Trump then recalled, “Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of ‘Mein Kampf,’ and he’s a Jew.”
Brenner added that Davis did acknowledge that he gave Trump a book about Hitler.
“But it was ‘My New Order,’ Hitler’s speeches, not ‘Mein Kampf,'” Davis reportedly said. “I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”
After Trump and Brenner changed topics, Trump returned to the subject and reportedly said, “If, I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”
Reality
Trump confirmed he owned the book but denies ever reading it. Until evidence is presented that proves he read the book or takes cues from it then this is as far as the story goes.
However let me just add this. There should only be 2 valid reasons why you should own a copy of Hitler’s “My New Order”:
- You are studying 1930’s Germany.
- You are a neo-Nazi.
This is purely hypothetical, but if my good friend gave me a copy of a book authored by Hitler, I would not keep it easily accessible in cabinet next to my bed. Instead I would put it in the trash or at least in a box in the attic should the occasion arise that my friend asks me if I still have the book, to which I can go to the attic, pull out the book, show it to my friend, tell him that it sucks, and ask him why is he still my friend?
Links
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he-kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8
