
The White House Historical Society published a children's book called "Presidents Play," and somebody thought it would be a good idea to have Donald Trump read it out loud. On Friday's episode of "Storytime with the Second Lady" — Usha Vance's podcast — the President sat down with the book and did what Trump does with everything: made it entirely his own.
The results were less Mister Rogers and more Comedy Central roast.
The book walks through former presidents and their hobbies. Simple concept. Cute illustrations. The kind of thing that's supposed to last four minutes and teach kids that presidents are people too. Trump got through it in his own time, stopping at nearly every page to deliver commentary that no children's author on earth could have scripted.
John F. Kennedy's page got an approving nod. "He was handsome. He was the second-most good-looking president," Trump noted, leaving zero ambiguity about who holds the top spot. Barack Obama's section mentioned basketball, which Trump acknowledged before adding that Obama "is a basketball player... his favorite sport is golf." The delivery was flat, observational — the kind of line that works precisely because he doesn't seem to realize it's funny.
William Howard Taft's page nearly derailed the whole thing. Taft, famously the largest president in American history, got a careful treatment: "I have to be careful, because I don't want to supersede his record." Gerald Ford's section featured a swimming pool at the White House, prompting Trump to admit, "I don't get to use it. I don't know if I look good in a bathing suit." Dwight D. Eisenhower apparently enjoyed putting on the White House lawn, which Trump dismissed immediately: "I don't want to be seen putting at the White House."
Bill Clinton's page drew what might have been the most interesting moment. "I like Bill Clinton a lot. I still do," Trump said — a line that, coming from anyone else, would be unremarkable. Coming from Trump, in 2026, after everything, it landed with the weight of a man who genuinely doesn't carry personal grudges the way Washington expects him to.
Herbert Hoover's section prompted a detour into economic policy, because of course it did. "I don't want to be a president that oversees... depression," Trump said, pivoting from a children's book about presidential hobbies into a discussion of tariffs and Iran. The Panama Canal came up — as it does in most Trump appearances regardless of format — with the President asking, "How stupid was that?" about the decision to hand it over for what he characterized as $1.
He also mentioned plans for the White House grounds: Rose Garden renovations, new Oval Office signage, a ballroom where a creek used to run, and a triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opening in North Dakota got a mention too. All of this during a children's book reading.
When asked about reading habits, Trump offered the kind of answer that makes his supporters laugh and his critics reach for their phones: "I usually read stories about myself."
The whole appearance coincides with the nation's 250th birthday celebration, and Trump used the moment to strike a more serious note as well. "We have a country that, it's on a little bit of a ledge," he said — a rare downshift from a man who'd spent the previous twenty minutes turning a picture book into a one-man show.
That's the thing about these moments. Every president in that book got a page describing what made them human — their hobbies, their quirks, the things they did when no one was watching. Trump's page, whenever it gets written, won't need to guess.
He just showed them on camera, live, while reading to children about other presidents. According to LifeZette, he did it without a script.
Forty-five presidents got a children's book. One of them turned the reading into a master class on why he's different from every single one of them. Watch the entire exchange for yourself...


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