Harry Truman once compared the press to ‘prostitutes’
Donald Trump isn’t the only U.S. president who loved to bash the Washington press corps.
The original “Give ‘em Hell” Harry S. Truman called journalists covering the White House “prostitutes of the mind” in a letter written on Dec. 29, 1955 to pal Dean Acheson.
In the salty letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, Truman rails against newspaper writers and columnists, calling them “more dangerous” than street walkers.
“Presidents and the members of their Cabinets and their staff members have been slandered and misrepresented since George Washington,” Truman wrote in the hand-written diatribe. “When the press is friendly to an administration the opposition has been lied about and treated to the excrescence [sic] of paid prostitutes of the mind.”
The letter is one of dozens of historical documents – including the original manuscript for Alcoholics Anonymous “Big Book” — up for auction June 8 in New York.
Joe Maddelena, the owner of the auction house Profiles in History, said he was bowled over when he saw the Truman letter with his own eyes.
“It goes to show you, some things never change,” he told The Post.
The 161-page typed-written AA manuscript — complete with the 12 Steps on how to stop tippling the booze – shows the recovery group’s founder William Griffith Wilson struggling with how not to use preachy words when describing a higher power.
Published in 1939, just six years after the nation-wide prohibition on booze was lifted, the manuscript is expected to fetch up to $3 million.
Truman’s letter – in which he uses the word “penis” – is expected to get $150,000.
A rare, engrossed copy of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution is also expected to sell for up to $250,000.
The public can view the documents beginning Thursday at the Questroyal Fine Art gallery on Park Avenue.
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