Second lady Usha Vance is looking to break records after she allowed the one person who makes her husband buckle to appear on her podcast.
Two weeks after Vice President JD Vance’s joined “Storytime with the Second Lady,” she tapped President Donald Trump.
Launched in March to encourage reading, the online children’s literacy show features guests sharing beloved children’s books with families. But this episide confirmed critics biggest suspicions.
Trump appeared as this week’s special guest reader during a pre-recorded interview mid-June, in what appears to be an animated visual of the Oval Office.
“I end up reading mostly newspapers. I usually read stories about myself,” the president said during the discussion about books.
At one point, Usha asked Trump whether he still reads for fun.
He then grabbed an unexpected book from the stacks of literature beside him and read on camera.
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Instead of a novel, Trump produced “Presidents Play!,” a slim photo-first book with barely any words from the White House Historical Association. It shows the former presidents at leisure.
He then made a bizarre remark about his own childlike reading level.
“When I was growing up we had a book called ‘Run, Spot, Run.’ That was the title of the book, and every sentence was of that complexity,” Trump said.
He then drifted off script, narrating the illustrations of the former presidents like a tour guide, adding his own opinions.
Usha Vance just asked Trump if he has time to read.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) July 3, 2026
Barack Obama: “Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.”
Thomas Jefferson: “I cannot live without books.”
Donald Trump: “I usually read stories about myself” pic.twitter.com/fcclDbTCIc
Trump described William Howard Taft “a very large man” who “loved the hot dogs at the baseball games,” adding, “I have to be careful, because I don’t want to supersede his record.”
He even spoke about Lyndon B. Johnson’s “tough” persona, and at one point, he got around to the presidents who are still living, such as Bill Clinton, whom he likes “a lot.”
Trump made a slick remark, casting doubt on whether Barack Obama is as good at golf as he is at basketball, adding, “he won’t be in the Masters anytime soon.”
He closed by floating a bipartisan Super Bowl invite to Obama, Joe Biden, and “the Bushes,” seemingly forgetting that George H.W. Bush died in 2018.
Trump couldn’t resist hitting Obama, even while reading a children’s book lmao:
— johnny maga (@johnnymaga) July 3, 2026
Barack Hussein Obama as a basketball player. I don't know if he was a good player. I tend to doubt it. His favorite sport is golf—but he won't be in the Masters anytime soon. pic.twitter.com/lPPpkGDfIt
“Wouldn’t that be a nice story? The press would go wild,” Trump said, actually adding more enthusiasm to this thought than reading the book.
Social media did not go easy on him.
One user wrote, “Usha Vance just asked Trump if he has time to read. Barack Obama: ‘Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.’ Thomas Jefferson: ‘I cannot live without books.’ Donald Trump: ‘I usually read stories about myself.'”
Another posted, Correction, he has stories read to him in short sound bites. No way he reads himself.” A third wrote, “Did he just say, he only reads about himself…lol, wow! Such a narcissist.”
One more added, “His favorite subject. Unbelievably pathetic.”
Another pointed to Air Force One’s staged shelves that were exposed in a photo posted by Karoline Leavitt: “None of the books behind her have titles. They just say Library.”
“Even the pictures confuse him,” another person joked.
Two other Trump critics stated, “He does not read, and certainly not for ‘fun'” and “He doesn’t read. He can’t read.”
This moment fits a very familiar pattern.
Promoted as a public Bible reading, Trump’s appearance at the week-long America Reads the Bible celebration took an unexpected turn. While reading from 2 Chronicles, he never looked at the Bible before him, relying entirely on a teleprompter instead.
This was not the first time Trump appeared uneasy with reading aloud.
During a February meeting with U.K. then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he asked, “Am I supposed to read it right now?” after receiving a letter from King Charles. Interestingly, “{Saturday Night Live” alum Pete Davidson once said that the president simply can’t read and improvises when he’s put to the test.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has insisted otherwise.
“That man does not miss a story. Let me tell you. He’s always reading the papers and watching the TV,” she said in April during a Turning Point USA event. “He doesn’t miss anything anyone says in the whole world.”
The contrast is not lost on critics.
His predecessor and forever thorn in his side, Obama, is an avid reader. The former Harvard Law Review editor still hands out annual summer reading lists and book prizes.
For him, reading isn’t a publicity stunt but a way of life.
Recently, he and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani were photographed reading picture books to kids at a Bronx school. While they improvised, they didn’t add or take away words, reading what was on the page.
Nothing was pretaped. There were no teleprompters. Just two “Dumocrats” sharing Storytime with the children and really pushing the benefits of cracking a book.
For Trump, reading is simply something he has to do — but only if it is about him.
