As a meeting gift during a diplomatic call at the White House, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa gave the man who loves “flying palaces” a tome. Was that a joke?

With what do you gift the main resident of the White House when he is is known for immense wealth, a weakness for grand gestures, and has just received a US$400 million luxury plane (even if it’s supposedly for the U.S. Air Force), “free of charge”? Well, you don’t. But like so many visitors paying a visit to the White House for diplomatic reasons, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa did go with a rather large gift, except that it was not as big as a Boeing jet. What was worse was that it was not something the recipient needed or could carry around to show off. It was just a book. That is why Donald Trump was not amused, let alone thankful.

We thought Mr Ramaphosa prepared a well-thought gift. Titled Within an African Eden: Golf Courses of South Africa and featuring photographs of Grant Leversha, the book would have appealed to Mr Trump’s love of golf (accord to American media reports, the president has golfed 24 times in his first 99 days in office, which is a quarter of his presidency) and his passion for building golf courses (he owns some 16 or 17 of them, primarily in the U.S.), but it did not. To be sure, Mr Trump has used golf for his diplomatic overtures. In 2017, he invited the then prime minister of Japan Shinzo Abe to play at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.

What was worse was that it was not something the recipient needed or could carry around to show off. It was just a book. That is why Donald Trump was not amused, let alone thankful

That Mr Ramaphosa would use a book about golf courses to win the heart of a cold man was not a bad move. And we have to correct ourselves—it wasn’t just any book. As the South African president needed to impress the recipient, he chose a book that is 14 kilograms in weight, which could be how heavy a child of two or three years old is. But to Mr Trump, who is said to be slimming down, the mass of the book was not impressive (it is likely that he could not make out imperial measurements). Nor the size. Designed in landscape orientation, the book, when it is opened, measures one-metre long. Perhaps more impressively, it is bound in calf leather, with the spine sporting five raised bands, two leather labels, and 23 carat gold tooling. It comes in an equally handsome clamshell box, which contains a pair of white gloves for turning the pages.

Published in 2011, Within an African Eden is also special because it is currently out of print. On top of that, there are only 950 sets of the book in circulation. Currently, it is available at specialist sellers and can command up to US$850 (or more) a copy. In 2013, it was awarded gold at the Independent Publisher Book Awards in New York as ‘Outstanding Book of the Year—Art & Craftsmanship’. Additionally, it was also bestowed the gold at the Benjamin Franklin Awards in same city. Regrettably, the fineness of the book was likely lost on Donald Trump, a known non-reader. In Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, the author wrote about Mr Trump: “He didn’t read. He didn’t even skim.” Mr Ramaphosa was aware that he was not able to out-gift the Qatari aircraft, telling the White House host, “I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.” Donald Trump was quick to reply: “I wish you did; I would take it.”

Photo: Strauss and Co