Trump’s ghostwriter said, “I put lipstick on a pig. I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.”

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He also said, "Degas died on April 3, 2020. He was 84. To do him justice, if nothing else, I resolved to tell the whole story."

Trump told the New Yorker, "He didn't write the book. I wrote the book. I wrote the book. It was my book. And it was a No. 1 best-seller, and one of the best-selling business books of all time. Some say it was the best-selling business book ever." The outlet clarified that it was not the bestselling business book ever.

Laughing, former Random House head Howard Kaminsky told the outlet, "Trump didn’t write a postcard for us!"

She continued, "Issues which I expressed on more than one occasion. Issues which I'm afraid I'm not allowed to go into. And issues which have nothing to do with Zoë...I think it would be really healthy to have a broader debate about transparency in celebrity publishing. But please, don't blame Zoë personally for a practice that has been going on for years."

In a follow-up interview with Jim Romenesko, Rick apologized, saying, "I just said that I'd been looking for any mention of my book I could get and that I hadn't meant to expose anything. I don't update his page. I've had no direct contact with George. I've sent him some memes, as have other comedian types, and I was happy for the exposure."

Beach also said, "For almost a week she's been posting constantly — how much she misses our friendship, how hurt and ashamed she is about whatever she thinks I'll say here, how relieved she is that I broke the trust in our relationship so she can now write about me, too. It's been surreal watching this unfold from my desk job in Los Angeles, but I'm not surprised she's taken an essay of mine that didn't exist yet and turned it into a narrative for herself."