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Donald Trump Jr to self-publish book about Biden – will he fix the typo first?

<span>Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters</span>
Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Donald Trump Jr has announced plans to self-publish a book about Joe Biden. Unfortunately, the cover image he released contained a grammatical mistake.

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The president’s oldest son announced Liberal Privilege: Joe Biden and the Democrats’ Defense of the Indefensible by tweet, writing: “Blown away by what Biden has gotten away with, more details next week! Libs already triggered!”

He expanded, a little, in an interview with the news site Axios, promising to provide a picture of his father’s challenger for the presidency “that the press ignores”, in time for the party conventions in August.

He was self-publishing, he said, in order to fire “a shot across the bow” of the traditional publishing industry, confident he can reach more than 5m followers on Twitter and more than 3m on Instagram without outside help.

The internet, alas, was quick to notice that such help often includes basic editing.

The released cover for Trump Jr’s book included a misplaced apostrophe, “Democrat’s” instead of “Democrats’”.

Sharp-eyed users also contended that a reference to the author’s first book, Triggered, failed to hyphenate “best-selling” – although whether that is an error is up for debate. The Guardian style guide, for instance, counsels the use of “bestselling” as one word.

Trump Jr’s first book, subtitled “How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us”, did indeed reach No 1 on the relevant New York Times bestseller list, although the same paper revealed that the Republican National Committee helped get it there by buying copies in bulk.

Reviewing Triggered, the Guardian offered a taste of what might be to come in Liberal Privilege and its likely reception: “As for the Bidens, Don Jr had this to say on Fox News: ‘I wish my name was Hunter Biden. I could go abroad, make millions off of my father’s presidency – I’d be a really rich guy! It would be incredible!’

“Where to start? Moscow?

But the review also noted Trump Jr’s effective work as a surrogate for his father, saying his book was “best viewed as the opening salvo of the Trump child with real political chops”. Trump Jr features prominently on lists of possible Republican presidential candidates for 2024.

Trump Jr, 42, told Axios his girlfriend, Fox News host turned Trump campaign official Kimberley Guilfoyle, would narrate the audio version of his new book.

Guilfoyle recently tested positive for Covid-19.

While his father attempts to govern during the pandemic, Trump Jr has been in quarantine, using the time to write.

“That’s how we came up with the idea for her to do the audio book,” he said. “We would take turns reading the chapters out loud for flow … Love in a time of Covid.”

In a statement, Biden’s press secretary, TJ Ducklo, said Trump Jr’s book would be “filled with disgusting lies and smears … the latest in a series of desperate and pathetic attempts to distract from the president’s historic bungling of the coronavirus response”.