There is another link between the late Hulk Hogan [real name: Terry Bollea] and Donald Trump, in addition to the ones Howard mentions. Both have been successfully represented by the Los Angeles attorney Charles Harder. Hogan retained Harder, financed by Peter Thiel, in his litigation against Gawker. Trump retained Harder in a number of cases, including the successful defense of Stormy Daniels’s defamation case. I delved into much of this in my 2018 review of Ryan Holiday’s Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue.
My final paragraph was more prescient than I could have imagined seven years ago:
The Bollea v. Gawker story is one-of-a-kind, but it may not be unique forever. There are plenty of other billionaires who nurse grudges against the press, with far less justification than Thiel. Trump never did bring suit for the publication of Fire and Fury, but he inveighs almost daily against the depredations of the “fake news,” intermittently threatening to “open up the libel laws.” It is a safe bet that he has Charles Harder on speed dial.
Here is the full review from 2018, originally published