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If you have any doubt that Donald Trump is incapable of stopping himself from engaging in needless, petty carping, perhaps this report will change your mind. Then again, if you still don’t get it, it likely won’t.

Multiple news outlets reported on Friday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new memoir, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Survival,” far outpaced the sales of books from Trump, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton at the same stage in their respective political careers. In Trump’s case, the comparison was to his 2015 book, “Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.” 

This of course couldn’t be true, at least in Trump’s mind. He must always be “first,” “best,” “biggest,” “greatest of all time,” and other such fleeting notions, without exception.

So, what did Trump do? What Trump always does.

Now in his post-Twitter days, the former president took to Truth Social on Friday night to make baseless accusations against DeSantis and express his hissy-fit displeasure over the whole thing.

Some in the Fake News are falsely stating that Ron DeSanctimonious’ book is doing as well as “LETTERS TO TRUMP,” my new book. This is FAKE NEWS in that LETTERS doesn’t even come out until April 25th. Ron has groups buying his book in order to inflate sales and, in fact, on the first day, his book was already 30% discounted. LETTERS TO TRUMP has much different pricing, and is a coffee table book. The so-called Stars corresponded with me, you’ll love it!

Wrong, Donald. As I noted, every report clearly pointed to your 2016 book, “Crippled America,” for comparison..

Where to start? pic.twitter.com/S9RYRZdEmO

— MikesRight (@RealLibSmacker) March 11, 2023

Trump then posted a link for users to pre-order his new book.

Via the New York Times, here’s how its “best-sellers” are determined:

Sales are defined as completed transactions by vendors and individual end users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title. Institutional, special interest, group or bulk purchases, if and when they are included, are at the discretion of The New York Times Best-Seller List Desk editors based on standards for inclusion that encompass proprietary vetting and audit protocols, corroborative reporting and other statistical determinations.

The NYT is not the Lone Ranger in the methodology it uses to determine book sales.

Incidentally, Trump’s problem has never been “mean tweets,” as the silly memes suggest. The former president’s character flaw is his complete inability to stop punching down, and his failure to take a pass on even the most trivial of crap that gets under his thin skin.

The Bottom Line:

The bottom line is the same bottom line it’s been for more than two years. Despite Trump’s various achievements while in office — which was why I voted for him, twice — he continues to drive away (former) supporters who long ago tired of his never-ending drama and unnecessary petty nonsense.

Ironically, the 45th president has only himself to blame for the rise to national prominence of the man who might very well become the nation’s 47th.