President Donald Trump is such a huge fan of Elton John that he played the British singer's music loudly on his campaign plane, according to a book by the president's former staffers.
Trump's love of the musician, particularly his 70s hits, has been documented in the past—the billionaire played Elton John's music at his campaign rallies, much to John's annoyance. And Trump has regularly made comments about Kim Jong-Un's nuclear weapons program using a song title, referring to the North Korean autocrat as "rocket man," a reference to a 1972 track from the album Honky Château.
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The extent of the president's love for the singer has been revealed in a new book by Trump's campaign chairman for part of the campaign, Corey Lewandowski, and senior aide David Bossie, according to an advanced copy seen by The Washington Post.
During the campaign, as the Trump jet criss-crossed over the nation, the president would blast Elton John albums so loudly his staff "couldn't hear themselves think" the book, Let Trump Be Trump, describes.
The British singer has not commented on having found a fan in the president, neither has he spoken on the subject of the use of the nickname "rocket man." However, John did intervene during the presidential campaign to ask the candidate not to play his music at his rallies.
"I don't really want my music to be involved in anything to do with an American election campaign. I'm British. I've met Donald Trump, he was very nice to me, it's nothing personal, his political views are his own, mine are very different, I'm not a Republican in a million years," the singer said in an interview with The Guardian.
Let Trump Be Trump also discusses some of the other excesses of the president's personality, going into considerable detail about his love of junk food. Apparently the president liked to order "two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted" from McDonalds for one sitting.
The largely admiring portrait of Trump also delves into the president's famously short fuse.
"Sooner or later, everybody who works for Donald Trump will see a side of him that makes you wonder why you took a job with him in the first place," the authors wrote. "His wrath is never intended as any personal offense, but sometimes it can be hard not to take it that way. The mode that he switches into when things aren't going his way can feel like an all-out assault; it'd break most hardened men and women into little pieces."
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About the writer
Callum Paton is a staff writer at Newsweek specializing in North Africa and the Middle East. He has worked freelance ... Read more
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