Alec Baldwin and Kurt Andersen Plan Donald Trump Satire Book

Alec Baldwin will team up with writer Kurt Andersen (True Believers, Heyday) to bring us a satirical book about Donald Trump. The novel, titled You Can’t Spell America Without Me: The Really Tremendous Inside Story of My Fantastic First Year as President Donald J. Trump, will read as if it were written by Trump. Anderson will do the actual writing, while Baldwin will pose for the cover and narrate the audiobook. Baldwin told The New York Times that, “[Kurt] doesn’t put on the wig, I don’t open up a Word document.” Sounds like an appropriate division of labor.

Baldwin has recently been in the spotlight for his Trump impersonations on SNL, in which he portrays Trump as a bumbling, easily manipulated infant. Andersen founded the magazine Spy, which famously once ethered Trump by calling him a “short-fingered vulgarian.”

You Can’t Spell America Without Me is set for release on Nov. 7, and considering the public’s current demand for political satire, it’ll probably be a best-seller. The Trump administration bits on SNL have been wildly successful, particularly when Melissa McCarthy hilariously acted as press secretary Sean Spicer. Baldwin’s Trump portrayals have also been popular, but we wonder if this kind of comedy is sustainable. We are less than three months into a Trump presidency, and it’s already felt like years. We will still find political satire funny, or will it just feel tired and depressing? On the other hand, maybe in eight months, we’ll need a good laugh more than ever.

Don’t miss Paste’s “The Case Against SNL’s Political Cameos,” in which Michael Kandel argues against the kind of attention political satire brings.