What the ‘Kids Guide to President Trump’ does not tell your children
To understand what’s inside the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition — a new, nationally marketed booklet aimed at pre-teens — one must first appreciate what isn’t.
The guide makes no mention of Trump’s 88 felony charges across four separate criminal cases.
Nor does it devote a word to recent civil court judgments that found Trump liable for sexual abuse, defamation and business fraud, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.
Trump’s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election?
The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol?
No and no.
Color yourself equally disappointed if you expected the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition, would dedicate even a drop of ink to Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape, pardoning of political patrons, two impeachments, tryst with a porn star or any one of the 30,573 presidential lies or misleading claims Washington Post fact checkers chronicled.
But the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition, nevertheless represents itself to prospective readers as a beacon of accuracy in a nation awash with anti-Trump falsehoods — particularly to consumers of cable television, where its ads relentlessly run.
It’s “more important than ever to teach your kids the truth,” declares Kids Guide “co-founder” and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in one of the many television commercials promoting this and other similar booklets. “It’s why my team created the Kids Guide to Donald Trump. It teaches kids all about his accomplishments as president, and his vision for America in 2024. And right now, you can get it for free.”
So what does the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition, actually say?
Mostly, it’s a sizzle reel of Trump’s purported accomplishments, presented free of skepticism or critique, according to a copy read by Raw Story.
It lauds Trump for lowering taxes, reducing corporate regulations, creating the U.S. Space Force, fighting terrorism, supporting Israel, engaging North Korea, battling “the culture of political correctness” and restoring “the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution.”
Two pages in the Kids Guide to President Trump, 2024 Edition, that laud the former president. (Dave Levinthal / Raw Story)
“President Trump’s policies had a positive impact on America,” the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition, declares.
It likewise warns: “Unfavorable and inaccurate news coverage about candidate Trump was common during the presidential campaign, but what happened next shocked many of America’s people. The Trump campaign was illegally spied on, and claims were made that Donald Trump was helped into office by Russian interference.”
And for the company behind the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition, there’s much money to be made.
Behind the ‘Kids Guide’ franchise
The operation behind the Kids Guide to President Trump, 2024 Edition, traces back to a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company called eSpired.
Founded in 2021, according to Delaware Secretary of State corporate records, eSpired LLC is itself connected to a web of other existing or defunct companies — Sage Scholars, EverBright, Learn Our History LLC among them — that market dozens of booklets, videos and other “educational” products with a decidedly red-tinted sheen.
The Kids Guide to Fighting Indoctrination, for example, is basically a guide to fighting left-wing “indoctrination,” specifically, as demonstrated in a TV ad featuring uncomplimentary images of pro-Palestinian protesters.
The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change is imbued with climate change denial and downplay. It lambastes China and advocates for continued fossil fuel use. “So much of climate change science is uncertain,” it reads.
The Kids Guide to Why Capitalism Rocks heralds capitalism as “maybe the best idea ever.”
Huckabee is an omnipresent force behind the company, serving both as its pitchman and business partner.
A webpage with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee pitching the Kids Guide to President Trump, 2024 Edition. (thekidsguide.com)
Florida Division of Corporations records obtained by Raw Story show that Learn Our History LLC, also of Boca Raton, Fla. — a company Huckabee helped found years ago — serves as the registered agent for eSpired LLC.
Investor Bradley Saft is listed on incorporation documents for both Learn our History LLC and eSpired LLC.
In 2017, Huckabee interviewed Saft on a show he hosted on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. It served as a de facto infomercial for material published by the forerunner to eSpired, some of which is today available through eSpired.
Not all consumers of this material have been pleased with their eSpired interactions.
Fine print on eSpired’s website also spells out how the company, while conservative in its leanings, uses customers’ personal data quite liberally.
A 2021 Daily Beast article wrote of some customers receiving “surprising, recurring monthly bills” from The Kids Guide and warned of the “scamming” of parents.
The Better Business Bureau’s rating page for eSpired LLC, meanwhile, is a hot mess.
Espired’s customer review rating is 1.29 out of five stars, its Better Business Bureau accreditation is listed as “suspended” and customer comments are peppered with words such as “total scam,” “swindled” and “farce.”
“My grand daughter does not get to spend very much time online so we have paid over 300$ for a little history pamphlet,” a woman named “Renee Y” wrote in January on the Better Business Bureau website.
“Our terms and conditions clearly state that the customer would continue to receive shipments monthly that would be charged to the credit or debit card that we have on file,” eSpired responded, before agreeing to process “a refund for charges in the last 90 days.”
Criticism has hardly given eSpired pause.
In addition to cable news advertisements, the “Kids Guide” brand is frequent advertiser on Facebook and Instagram, having spent at least $4.3 million on various Kids Guide ads from mid-2018 through July 4, 2024, according to a Raw Story review of social issue, election and political advertising data provided by Meta, the social media platform’s parent company.
“Your parents and grandparents built this country. Now the radicals are one step closer to stealing it from your kids. Don’t let them. Help your kids learn how President Trump is the right choice in 2024 with this free guide,” reads one such ad most heavily targeting people in the 35- to 44-year-old age bracket, according to Meta ad data, which estimated eSpired spent $5,000 to $6,000 and garnered 70,000 to 80,000 impressions.
“What do you think about the verdict? Your kids deserve to know the truth. Get the free Kids Guide to President Trump,” read another Facebook/Instagram ad, distributed after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of business fraud related to his pre-2016 election “hush money” payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
The ad, which ran in May and June and cost another $5,000 to $6,000 to earn 80,000 to 90,000 impressions, most frequently targeted people in the 65+ demographic, according to Meta ad data.
As of this week, eSpired had several active Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns in the field urging users to get “Kids Guide” booklets and “give your kids the patriotic lessons they aren’t getting in school.”
Representatives for eSpired did not respond to Raw Story’s several requests for comment.
On its website, eSpired says of itself: “Every day, we’re busy bringing new and exciting content to help families round out their children’s education. After our first decade, we remain true to our original goal—to provide fun and entertaining educational content that can be enjoyed and accessed at home, online or anywhere.”
Trump and Taylor Swift?
As the 2024 presidential election hits its general election stride, with Trump enjoying a slight lead over President Joe Biden in many national and swing state polls, The Kids Guide marketing machine continues to produce more and more new titles and offerings, some more hyperpartisan and ideological than others.
For example, there’s the perfectly practical Kids Guide to Fixing Stuff, which dispenses tips on how to use a wrench, paint a wall and bit a drill.
The Kids Guide to Achieving Your Goals is replete with boilerplate encouragement to “visualize your goals!” and “dream big, start small!”
The Kids Guide to the Coronavirus is destined to surprise many center-left parents with its generally pro-vaccine, pro-mask pronouncements — and utter lack of conspiracy theories and snake oil treatments. Page 12 helps explain why: It indicates eSpired published the booklet at a time early in the pandemic when Trump was still touting and taking credit for “Operation Warp Speed,” the governmental effort to develop an effective vaccine against COVID-19.
Even the Kids Guide to the Presidential Election is a (mostly) straightforward, fair-minded digest of how presidential elections are conducted, replete with facts about past elections and free of contemporary Biden vs. Trump commentary.
And it’s easy to see how a well-meaning grandmother might order her granddaughter the “Kids Guide to Taylor Swift” — an inoffensive mini-biography of the omnipresent pop star available through FreeTaylorGuide.com.
But once someone orders one of these “free” guides and surrenders their name, address and email to eSpired in exchange for a paperback pamphlet, prepare for the company to incessantly peddle its products to you.
You’ll be asked to enroll in “The 1776 Kids Club,” where you’ll receive new Kids Guide booklets each month for “$21.90 with free shipping.” ESpired’s standing library includes unabashedly Trump-y fare such as the “The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change,” “The Kids Guide to Why Capitalism Rocks” and “The Kids Guide to Fighting Socialism.”
You’ll also receive the “latest issue of EverBright Kids Magazine & Activity Book for just $7.95.”
You’ll also be inveigled to order (for a price) any of many other booklet and video add-ons about the Bible, American history and personal finances. (One video, “Great Again: Restoring Faith in America,” features a cartoon Trump appearing to take the oath of office from Abraham Lincoln and — maybe? — George Washington and 1980s-era computer animation seem advanced.)
And if you ask for more information about the Kids Guide to President Trump, 2024 Edition, but don’t follow through on ordering, eSpired will email you an offer to purchase the guide “for only $9.95, with no subscription required and nothing more to buy!”
Two pages in the Kids Guide to President Trump, 2024 Edition, that laud the former president. (Dave Levinthal / Raw Story)
People who sign up and obtain online access to the entire “Kids Guide” library also receive add-ons such as a parent guide to the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, which includes questions with which parents may quiz their children to help them better understand “Donald Trump’s love of free speech and his warnings against tyranny.”
Among the questions and their listed answers:
- “When Trump became President, he achieved the promises he made to the American people.” (True)
- “Trump failed to do anything positive for Israel or the Middle East.” (False)
- “President Trump worked to keep America’s borders safe.” (True)
- “President Trump acted quickly when the Coronavirus reached America.” (True)
Illegal political ads?
Some of the “Kids Guide” television commercials resemble, in tone and tenor, political campaign ads.
“The liberal media and courts are desperate to stop President Trump,” the narrator of one such ad reads and ominous music plays while cartoon jail bars slam together over Trump’s mugshot from Fulton County, Ga.
“But he’s poised to win back the White House!” the narrator quickly continues as the music turns bright.
Could these commercials be considered campaign ads?
Legally speaking, almost certainly not.
A major reason why can be found in the text of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.
This case is today most closely associated with the rise of super PACs and allowing corporations, unions and special interests to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for or against political candidates.
But the case fundamentally concerns the intersection of free speech rights and campaign finance regulations: The High Court ruling that an anti-Hillary Clinton movie that nonprofit conservative advocacy group Citizens United released during Clinton’s 2008 bid is not a campaign commercial, and therefore, not subject to federal campaign finance disclosure rules and spending limitations.
And if you’re wondering if there’s a Kids Guide to Joe Biden, why yes, there is.
But in contrast to the Kids Guide to Donald Trump, 2024 Edition, you’ll find no gauzy assessments of his presidency or cheerleading for a second Biden term. Instead, it largely contains boilerplate biographical information and policy contrasts with Trump that cast the former president in a much more positive light than the current.
The Kids Guide to Joe Biden also is not available to people who subscribe to eSpired’s “Kids Guide” library.
Not that this should surprise.
“This essential series will counteract the liberal bias your kids are hearing every day in their classrooms and in the media, and will give them the tools to think for themselves,” Huckabee says in a recent “Kids Guide” promotion.