Trump biographer to advise Michael Bloomberg's campaign

(Image credit: Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

published 25 November 2019

Does billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg have a Trump-specific ace up his sleeve?

Bloomberg, who officially launched his Democratic presidential bid Sunday, is bringing journalist Tim O'Brien onto his campaign as a senior adviser. O'Brien is leaving his role as executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, so the move makes sense, generally speaking (the opinion section is reportedly the aspect of the media company that its namesake remains most heavily involved in). But there's another reason O'Brien might've been chosen.

In 2005, O'Brien published a biography about President Trump called TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, in which he wrote that Trump was nowhere close to being a billionaire. The book ultimately led to Trump suing O'Brien for libel in 2011, and the two faced off in court where O'Brien's lawyers reportedly got Trump to acknowledge 30 times that he had lied about various aspects of his life from his wealth to the cost of a membership to one of his golf clubs. During the litigation, Trump was also forced to hand over his elusive tax returns to O'Brien's representation.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox