It's no secret that President Donald Trump has a sour relationship with the truth. It's also widely believed that the President doesn't read—at least not as much as he types.
Those two aspects of his personality intersected in a 1987 CNN interview when host Pat Buchanan asked Trump about his favorite authors and their works.
"Well I have a number of favorite authors," Trump replied. "Tom Wolfe is excellent."
"Did you read Vanity of the Bonfires?" Buchanan asks before correcting himself (the title is Bonfire of the Vanities).
Trump responds that he has not, then boasts that he's reading Art of the Deal "because [he] thinks it's fantastic."
Buchanan then asks Trump what his favorite book is besides his own, so Trump mentions how much he liked Tom Wolfe's last book, which was (wait for it) Bonfire of the Vanities.
Watch below:
A surprised Buchanan asks Trump if he is, in fact, discussing Bonfire of the Vanities. "Yes," Trump replies.
Possibly realizing his mistake, Trump complains about not being able to hear the earpiece.
But people weren't buying it, with many pointing out how little has changed.
Can you hear us now, Donald?
In the 1980s, Donald Trump was facing ruin. For a glimpse at that part of his life, as well as some other prominent New York figures, the book Greed and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Doc Gooden, Lawrence Taylor, Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, and the Mafia in 1980s New York is available here.
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Dunning-Kruger Times