The manila envelope was stamped: From the Office of President-Elect Donald Trump.
It arrived with a knock on my front door, a couple of days before Christmas.
Inside was a scarlet-red holiday card signed in gold ink, from Melania, Barron, and Donald J. Trump. Enclosed was a page torn out of the New York Post, an article about Trump’s message of unity during his winning campaign. An arrow, drawn in fat black marker, pointed toward three paragraphs in the piece, which referenced the themes of my reporting, and my (misspelled) name was written next to it in all-caps: SELENA ZETO.
It was an unexpected greeting, I admit, but by then I’d had many missives like this from the 45th—and soon to be 47th—president.
Trump maintains an informal relationship with many journalists, calling them spontaneously or sending them articles ripped out of newspapers with his handwritten thoughts out of the blue. But I guess you could say I know him better than most. I was the only journalist to predict he would win in 2016. My former editor at the New York Post used to call me the “Trump Whisperer.” I am also the reporter who popularized the phrase coined by Republican strategist Brad Todd: “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” And I was four feet away when a bullet hit Trump in 2024.
Plenty of journalists have disparaged me for being too sympathetic to Trump. They’ve blasted me for not being critical enough of his crimes, his coarseness, his history with women. But all I’ve ever done is report on what I see. I grew up among his base, and I know why they love him.
