Issue of the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper from December 6, 2010, 59 pages, 9.25 x 10.75, signed and inscribed inside in black felt tip as president-elect, “To: Barry, You are great, Donald.” Trump signs next to his image in an interview conducted by the recipient, Barry Levine, who served as the executive editor of the tabloid until he left in 2016. Included with the issue is an off-white 5 x 3.5 compliments card “from the office of Donald J. Trump,” a copy of a 2016 email sent to Levine by Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who writes: “Magazine signed today as in going out in tonight’s mail,” and the original mailing envelope “Trump” address label. In fine condition. Accompanied by a New York Times article from June 6, 2024, headlined “Exclusive! A Tabloid Editor Cringes,’ which interviews Levine and shows an image of the offered signed National Enquirer.
The interview, which bears the headline, “Donald Trump: I Can Save America,” relays Trump’s concerns with the state of America and addresses that he’ll decide by the following July whether he will or won’t launch a presidential campaign. On May 16, 2011, Trump announced he would not run for president in the 2012 election and, in February 2012, endorsed Mitt Romney for president. A rare fusion of American pop culture and political history linking Donald Trump to the tabloid newspaper at the center of his recent New York hush-money trial, during which he became the first American President to be convicted at a criminal trial.
Per the recipient, Barry Levine: “I am the former executive editor of The National Enquirer. After leaving my 17-year job there, I reached out to Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen after Trump won the 2016 election, asking him if Trump could sign a copy of The Enquirer from 2010, containing an interview I had done with him because I had been a longtime autograph collector of pop culture memorabilia. Trump, as President Elect and still in New York before departing for his inauguration and presidential term in D.C., personally signed the interview page…and attached a card, 'From the office of Donald J. Trump.’ A printed email from Cohen saying the magazine was out in the mail and the mailing envelope are included in the lot.
It wasn't until December 2018 when The Enquirer's role in the hush-money scheme was disclosed when the company entered into a non-prosecution agreement with prosecutors. The full circumstances of the connection between Enquirer and Trump emerged in the recent criminal trial. Trump awaits sentencing. As best as I can determine, this is the only example of Trump autographing an Enquirer and interestingly it was done so while President-Elect and also at the time the hush-money coverup was still unfolding behind the scenes. Trump would soon begin writing the infamous reimbursement checks to Cohen for the Stormy Daniels payment. In a New York Times story on me published in June, the autographed Enquirer was included in a photo.”
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