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Trump reading Chomsky book
Trump reading Noam Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent

Selected Books about Donald Trump and His Impeachment

TRUMP ACHIEVED HIS COMEBACK. NOW HE PICKS HIS TEAM.

Despite his two impeachments, his felony convictions and remaining indictments, and his first-term track record, Trump became the Republican nominee. Then, despite his absurd 2024 campaign, he went on to win the Electoral College and the populat vote — albeit not with the landslide he claims. And he's gotten lots of help. Some of his lawyers are trashing their own careers to defend him, and a smattering of judges are willing to lend a hand — by delaying trials on one pretext after another in hopes of pushing them past the 2024 election. The idea there is that, once re-elected, Trump will regain effective immunity to prosecution. His trials are suspended, and whether they will resume hangs in the balance.

During Trump's reign of error, hundreds of books about him, his family, and his four long years in the White House appeared. Some of these were favorable to him, or even adulatory. Others condemned him. But, pro- or con-the Con Man in Chief, they all focused on how he attained the Oval Ofice, what he was doing for — or to — America and the world, and on specific efforts to restrain or remove him.

Now that he's out of office, a new wave of books is appearing. They tend to take a broader view. Recent examples include Gideon Rachman's The Age of the Strongman which surveys the world's current crop of authoritarian leaders from Ankara to Washington, DC, and Julian Zelizer's The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment. They would also include some memoirs, like those from Fiona Hill and Marie Yovanovich. And since efforts to subvert the processes and institutions of our democracy have not ceased, books are appearing to cover that aspect of the problem as well. Education, for centuries the province of dueling reformers, has become a part of that subversion scheme, and so books like A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door by Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire belong here as well. So do books covering Christian nationalism, another aspect ot the threat to democracy.

Because Trump remains prominent in the news, I'll give top billing to that original list of books about his rise to power in the Oval Office and his abuse of that power — a list which will undoubtedly grow. But these "second wave" books are just as important; they put Trump's proto-fascism into historical perspective and point to where Trump wants to take this country in his quest for impunity and revenge, how he plans to get there — and how his quest fits into the Long Game to subvert our democracy. I've broken these books out into a new file. The link is below.

I make no secret of the fact that I oppose Trump and where he and his minions want to take this country. This original list reflects that position, with titles and authors favorable to Trump colored red. In the "second wave' list, I omit books favorable to Trump, since they have nothing new to tell us. Yet there are some red titles for books I deem important, but which take positions I regard as wrong.

List of Books about the GOP Long Game
Explaining Trump to Children and the Left:
A children's book, for adults too
Daniel Ben Abraham
Daniel Ben Abraham Publishing, LLC (May 16, 2023)
No Review
"Daniel Ben Abraham is a unique kind of author, searching for and sharing the answers to life with the detail of a skilled lawyer and the open-mindedness of a child. When you're ready for a deep dive into the mind-boggling nature of reality, have a read, if you like."

You may wonder whether Daniel Ben Abraham (possibly a pen name) has written anything else. Indeed he has.

He is the author of numerous books about the Middle East. Information on these can be found at his own Web site, which describes him as "a neurodivergent conservative Jewish lawyer." He has a blog there; the entries on it look to me like parodies.

In addition, he has a blog at the Times of Israel. His latest blog entry there is an opinion defending Israel from charges that it is committing war crimes in Gaza. This does not seem to be a parody.

Note the disclaimer from the Times of Israel: "Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse."

"'Mommy, daddy, why do they want to put in jail the president who made four Middle East peace deals, was nominated for three Nobel Prizes, made peace with North Korea, and prevented war with Russia?'

"You're not going to be able to hold onto this book. Your friends are going to come over, see it sitting on your coffee table, and borrow it to give to their kids or liberal friends. You're going to give it to your kids, whether teenagers or going off to college, and need more copies to gift to your liberal friends and family who don't understand Trump, so you can finally share some common ground. Your conservative family members are going to want it to give to their friends. Take this book anywhere; the gym, doctor's office, or just riding the bus, and it's a conversation-starter, with good reason.

"Conservatives say, 'This is pure gold and I need three copies!!'
Liberals say, 'Wow!' and 'I finally understand why people love Trump.'

"The writing of this book is unbelievably warm and adorable. Author Daniel Ben Abraham does the impossible, and artfully presents one of America's most controversial disputes lovingly simplified, to actually build a bridge and connect around understanding Trump and his true values.

"If you love Trump, please enjoy this book with your family, among the 74+ million people who voted for and adore this historic president. I wrote this for you, to be able to share precious time with your children, teach our beautiful values and history, and answer them when they ask, 'Daddy, Mommy, why do some love Trump so much and others don’t?'

"For our dear friends who may not be his biggest fans, thank you also. I am deeply moved by your generous, open-minded curiosity to hear opposing ideas. You may at least want to understand how your American brothers and sisters see Trump. At least see what the media prevented you from seeing for years. If I can paint a picture of why intelligent and moral people love Trump that his opponents can understand, even if you disagree, I have built a bridge; adorably-snarky cute title and all."

"A truly beautifully-written book with over 70 color photos that is changing hearts and minds with a perspective many have never seen before.

"Get it now before it's banned."

This author's description makes him sound like someone who tries to find the answers to life's persistent questions: Guy Noir, Private Eye. And the blurb for his book makes Trump sound a lot like Ira Graves:

"Those who knew him, loved him. And those who did not know him, loved him from afar." (ST:TNG S2E6)

One thing remains true: Both Trump and Ira Graves have an eye for the ladies.

Rating by Amazon customers: 2.8 (17 ratings)
ISBN 979-8987841044 ?
The Great Alignment:
Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump
Alan I. Abramowitz
Yale University Press; Illustrated edition (June 19, 2018)
No Review
Alan I. Abramowitz is Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University."

"Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of 'negative partisanship'; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (64 ratings)
ISBN 978-0300207132 ?
Proof of Collusion:
How Trump Betrayed America
Seth Abramson
Simon & Schuster (November, 2018)
No Review
Seth Abramson is a former criminal defense attorney and criminal investigator who teaches journalism and legal advocacy at the University of New Hampshire. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a political columnist at Newsweek and the author of eighteen books. In 2018, the National Council for the Training of Journalists recognized him as one of the top ten freelance journalists in the United States or United Kingdom. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two rescue hounds, Quinn and Scout. Read more about him at SethAbramson.net/bio." – Amazon biography

"For the first time, the full, explosive record of the unthinkable: how a US president compromised American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance.

"Looking back at this moment, historians will ask if Americans knew they were living through the first case of criminal conspiracy between an American presidential candidate turned commander in chief and a geopolitical enemy. The answer might be: it was hard to see the whole picture. The stories coming in from across the globe have often seemed fantastical: clandestine meetings in foreign capitals, secret recordings in a Moscow hotel, Kremlin agents infiltrating the Trump inner circle...

"By pulling every last thread of this complicated story together, Abramson argues that--even in the absence of a report from Special Counsel Mueller or a thorough Congressional investigation--the public record already confirms a quid pro quo between Trump and the Kremlin. The most extraordinary part of the case for collusion is that so much of it unfolded in plain sight."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (1,166 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982116088 ?
Proof of Conspiracy:
How Trump's International Collusion Is Threatening American Democracy
Seth Abramson
St. Martin's Press (September 3, 2019)
No Review
Seth Abramson is a former criminal defense attorney and criminal investigator who teaches journalism and legal advocacy at the University of New Hampshire. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he is a political columnist at Newsweek and the author of over fifteen books, including Proof of Conspiracy and Proof of Collusion. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two rescue hounds, Quinn and Scout." – Amazon biography

"Through diligent research, Seth Abramson exposes a story that U.S. media has largely missed: a pre-election geopolitical conspiracy involving Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Russia that sought to put Trump in the White House―and succeeded.

"In late 2015, convicted pedophile, international dealmaker, and cooperating witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation George Nader convened a secret meeting aboard a massive luxury yacht in the Red Sea. Nader pitched Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and other Middle Eastern leaders a plan for a new pro-U.S., pro-Israel alliance of Arab nations that would fundamentally alter the geopolitics of the Middle East while marginalizing Iran, Qatar, and Turkey. To succeed, the plan would need a highly placed American politician willing to drop sanctions on Russia so that Vladimir Putin would in turn agree to end his support for Iran. They agreed the perfect American partner was Donald Trump, who had benefited immensely from his Saudi, Emirati, and Russian dealings for many years, and who, in 2015, became the only U.S. presidential candidate to argue for a unilateral end to Russian sanctions and a far more hostile approach to Iran.

"So begins New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson's explosive new book Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump's International Collusion Threatens American Democracy, a story of international intrigue whose massive cast of characters includes Israeli intelligence operatives, Russian oligarchs, Saudi death squads, American mercenary companies, Trump's innermost circle, and several members of the Trump family as well as Trump himself―all part of a clandestine multinational narrative that takes us from Washington, D.C. and Moscow to the Middle Eastern capitals of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Jerusalem, Cairo, Tehran, and Doha. Proof of Conspiracy is a chilling and unforgettable depiction of the dangers America and the world now face."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (724 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250256713 ?
Proof of Corruption:
Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump
Seth Abramson
St. Martin's Press (September 8, 2020)
No Review
Seth Abramson is a former criminal defense attorney and criminal investigator who teaches journalism and legal advocacy at the University of New Hampshire. A graduate of Harvard Law School and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a political columnist at Newsweek and the author of eighteen books. In 2018, the National Council for the Training of Journalists recognized him as one of the top ten freelance journalists in the United States or United Kingdom. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and two rescue hounds, Quinn and Scout. Read more about him at SethAbramson.net/bio." – Amazon biography

"This stunning third entry in Seth Abramson's epic, New York Times bestselling Proof series reveals the harrowing scope of Trump bribery schemes involving COVID-19, the 2020 presidential election, and collusion with foreign officials in China, Ukraine, Turkey, Israel, Venezuela, Hungary, and Russia. Proof of Corruption traces in exacting detail the clandestine schemes of Trump and his cadre of agents and advisers from 2015 onward, with a special emphasis on Michael Cohen, Donald Trump Jr., Sean Hannity, Bill Barr, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Erik Prince, Michael Flynn, Lev Parnas, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Mick Mulvaney, Devin Nunes, Rick Perry, Mike Pompeo, Gordon Sondland, John Solomon, and Joe diGenova, as well as the president's most powerful foreign allies, including Vladimir Putin, Recep Erdogan, Benjamin Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Mohammed bin Salman, Mohammed bin Zayed, Dmitry Firtash, Oleg Deripaska, Konstantin Kilimnik, Viktor Shokin, Yuri Lutsenko, and many others.

While the facts of each Trump bribery scandal are complex, the pattern of corruption remains the same, whether it involves Trump seeking to appease Vladimir Putin by returning Ukraine's energy industry to Kremlin control; Trump freezing aid to Ukraine to extort bogus "intelligence" on Joe Biden from corrupt Ukrainian prosecutors; Trump escalating a trade war with China while privately cutting election-dirt deals with Xi Jinping; Trump ignoring November 2019 intelligence warning of a dangerous virus outbreak in China due to his business interests in Beijing; or Trump promoting a dangerous and ineffective treatment for COVID-19 at the behest of his richest campaign donors.

"With Donald Trump, all roads lead (by design) to personal enrichment. Sometimes he's seeking to fill his 2020 reelection coffers, and sometimes his illicit self-dealing and epic corruption center on his personal business relationships; sometimes the crimes and their subsequent cover-ups are domestic, and sometimes they're international. But the audacity of Trump's offenses and the need for byzantine schemes to hide them remains the same.

"With thousands of citations from the world's most respected media outlets, Proof of Corruption tells the story of a bribery and election-tampering scheme that crosses years and stretches from China to Ukraine, Turkey to Venezuela, Hungary to Israel, Russia to Saudi Arabia. It is a plot that empowers America's adversaries to author U.S. foreign policy and tamper with our elections even as it frees Donald Trump to replace America's national interest with his own. Proof of Corruption reveals a harrowing pattern of international and domestic bribery that is shocking, criminal, and a clear and present danger to America."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (568 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250272997 ?
The Enemy of the People:
A Dangerous Time To Tell the Truth in America
Jim Acosta
HarperCollins, June 2019
My Review
Jim Acosta is CNN's chief White House correspondent, currently covering the Trump administration. He previously reported on the Obama administration from the White House and around the world. He regularly covers presidential press conferences, visits by heads of state, and issues impacting the executive branch of the federal government." – Amazon biography

"In Mr. Trump's campaign against what he calls 'Fake News,' CNN Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, is public enemy number one. From the moment Mr. Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, he has attacked the media, calling journalists 'the enemy of the people.' Acosta presents a damning examination of bureaucratic dysfunction, deception, and the unprecedented threat the rhetoric Mr. Trump is directing has on our democracy. When the leader of the free world incites hate and violence, Acosta doesn't back down, and he urges his fellow citizens to do the same."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (394 ratings)
ISBN 978-0-06-291612-9 SJ1 323.445 Acosta
White House, Inc.:
How Donald Trump Turned the Presidency into a Business
Dan Alexander
Portfolio (September 22, 2020)
No Review
Dan Alexander is a senior editor at Forbes, where he leads the magazine's coverage of Donald Trump. Twice a year, Alexander is responsible for putting together Forbes' estimate of Donald Trump's net worth. Alexander won the 2018 ASME NEXT award, given to magazine journalists under 30 who "demonstrated extraordinary promise." The New York City Society of Professional Journalists honored him with back-to-back awards for best business feature of the year in 2017 and 2018. Born and raised in Ohio, he now lives in New Jersey." – Amazon biography

"White House, Inc. is a newsmaking exposé that details President Trump’s efforts to make money off of politics, taking us inside his exclusive clubs, luxury hotels, overseas partnerships, commercial properties, and personal mansions. Alexander tracks hundreds of millions of dollars flowing freely between big businesses and President Trump. He explains, in plain language, how Trump tried to translate power into profit, from the 2016 campaign to the ramp-up to the 2020 campaign.

"Just because you turn the presidency into a business doesn’t necessarily mean you turn it into a good business. After Trump won the White House, profits plunged at certain properties, like the Doral golf resort in Miami. But the presidency also opened up new opportunities. Trump’s commercial and residential property portfolio morphed into a one-of-a-kind marketplace, through which anyone, anywhere, could pay the president of the United States. Hundreds of customers—including foreign governments, big businesses, and individual investors—obliged.

"The president's disregard for norms sparked a trickle-down ethics crisis with no precedent in modern American history. Trump appointed an inner circle of centimillionaires and billionaires—including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Wilbur Ross, and Carl Icahn—who came with their own conflict-ridden portfolios. Following the president’s lead, they trampled barriers meant to separate their financial holdings from their government roles.

"White House, Inc. is a page-turning, hair-raising investigation into Trump and his team, who corrupted the U.S. presidency and managed to avoid accountability. Until now."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (132 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593188521 ?
American Reckoning:
Inside Trump’s Trial―and My Own
Jonathan Alter
BenBella Books (October 22, 2024)
No Review
Jonathan Alter is a columnist, historian, and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of three New York Times bestsellers about American presidents and covered the Trump felony trial for NYTimes Opinion, The Washington Monthly, and Old Goats, his Substack newsletter. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey."

"A vivid eyewitness account of the historic first criminal trial of a president and a cri de coeur for democracy from a New York Times bestselling author and presidential historian.

"As one of a handful of journalists allowed in the courtroom, for 23 days Jonathan Alter sat just feet away from the most dangerous threat to democracy in American history, watching the spectacle of the century: the felony trial of Donald Trump. Highly publicized but untelevised and thus largely hidden from public view, this landmark trial offered hope of real justice amid a grueling eight-year national ordeal and foreshadowed the drama of the 2024 presidential election.

"Alter shares everything he witnessed—from eviscerating takes on the colorful characters to the chilling legal ups and downs—to offer a barbed account of the trial and its aftermath, including fresh reporting about the historic events of the summer of 2024. A Zelig of journalism experiencing a crisis of faith in the good sense of the American people, Alter chronicles the shaping of his political consciousness and his bracing, unpredictable relationships with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, and Joe Biden, whose decision to stand down in favor of former prosecutor Kamala Harris put the criminal trial front and center as Americans render their own verdict at the polls.

"Deeply personal and passionate, American Reckoning is an eye-opening book from a journalist with a front row seat on history, offering a troubled yet hopeful look at our national moment of truth."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (27 ratings)
ISBN 978-1637746660 ?
A Warning
Anonymous
Twelve (November 19, 2019)
My Review
Amonymous is a senior official in the Trump administration.

"An unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the anonymous senior official whose first words of warning about the president rocked the nation's capital.

"On September 5, 2018, the New York Times published a bombshell essay and took the rare step of granting its writer anonymity. Described only as "a senior official in the Trump administration," the author provided eyewitness insight into White House chaos, administration instability, and the people working to keep Donald Trump's reckless impulses in check.

"With the 2020 election on the horizon, Anonymous is speaking out once again. In this book, the original author pulls back the curtain even further, offering a first-of-its-kind look at the president and his record -- a must-read before Election Day. It will surprise and challenge both Democrats and Republicans, motivate them to consider how we judge our nation's leaders, and illuminate the consequences of re-electing a commander in chief unfit for the role.

"This book is a sobering assessment of the man in the Oval Office and a warning about something even more important — who we are as a people."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (10,911 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538718469 SJ1 973.933 Warning
The Stakes:
America at the Point of No Return
Michael Anton
Regnery Publishing (September 1, 2020)
No Review
"Michael Anton is a lecturer and research fellow at Hillsdale College. A former national security official in the Trump administration, he is also a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute."

"The next election is the most important one America has faced in more than a century. That’s not campaign hype. America is divided as almost never before—with contesting political factions regarding themselves not as rivals but as enemies. And the frightening thing is that, in large part, they’re right.

"The Democratic Party has become the party of 'identity politics'—and every one of those identities is defined against a unifying national heritage of patriotism, pride in America’s past, and hope for a shared future.

"Offering only antagonism based on group identity—whether race, sex, or something else—the Democrats look forward to imposing nationally what they have achieved in California: one-party rule in a lockdown nation, where the ruling class makes every decision and doles out benefits to favored groups.

"Against them is a divided Republican Party. Gravely misunderstanding the opposition, old-style Republicans still seek bipartisanship and accommodation, wrongly assuming that Democrats care about playing by the tiresome old rules laid down in the Constitution and other fundamental charters of American liberty.

"The new core of the Republican Party is the populists and nationalists, who are tired of losing. The party’s only hope of victory, they are all that stand between the United States as we have traditionally understood it and a revolution—less dramatic in appearance but just as consequential as the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

"Michael Anton, the author of the most scathing, memorable, and quoted essay of the 2016 campaign season, “The Flight 93 Election”—which Rush Limbaugh called “one of the greatest columns ever written”—now explains in depth why the stakes have risen even higher. Ranging across every hot-button political topic of our time—from immigration to nationalism to war—and informed by a profound understanding of classical and American political philosophy, The Stakes will transform the way you view politics and America’s future."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (624 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684510610 ?
Finish What We Started:
The MAGA Movement’s Ground War to End Democracy
Isaac Arnsdorf
Little, Brown and Company (April 9, 2024)
No Review
Isaac Arnsdorf is a national political reporter for The Washington Post who covers former president Donald Trump, the 'Make America Great Again' political movement, and the elected officials, activists, donors and media figures on the right who are powering the Republican Party. He was previously an investigative reporter covering national politics at ProPublica and a money-in-politics reporter at Politico. His reporting on President Trump's agenda for veterans won the Sidney Hillman Foundation's Sidney Award and the National Press Club's Sandy Hume Award. Finish What We Started is his first book."

"The immersive, captivating untold story of the mass radicalization of the Republican Party in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, entrenching the political power of a radical right-wing movement dedicated to dismantling democracy itself.

"Inspired by Donald Trump’s election lies, a growing movement of grassroots activists mobilized around the country to pick up where the insurrection left off, laying the groundwork to succeed next time where Trump had failed to keep himself in power. But their own success in taking over and purging the Republican Party became their undoing as it drove away moderates and supplied the Democrats with a winning message in the 2022 midterms. Still, the MAGA Republicans proved uninterested in learning from that defeat, only becoming more extreme, divisive, and dead set on returning Trump to power.

"Washington Post national political reporter Isaac Arnsdorf has spent years at the forefront of reporting on this growing movement. Drawing on extensive, exclusive on-the-ground reporting around the country, and deepened by historical context, Arnsdorf has produced the defining journalistic account of the origins, evolution and future of the MAGA movement. Combining critical and rigorous reporting with the intimacy and complexity of a novel, this book is unlike any other in the decade since Donald Trump convulsed and transformed American politics.

"Finish What We Started tells the story of the ordinary Americans driving this change, who they are and where they came from, what motivates them, and what their movement means for the survival of American democracy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (90 ratings)
ISBN 978-0316497510 ?
Unchecked:
The Untold Story Behind Congress's Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump
Rachael Bade & Karoun Demirjian
William Morrow (October 18, 2022)
No Review
Rachael Bade is coauthor of POLITICO Playbook, the most renowned political newsletter tracking power and influence in Washington, D.C. Before that, she spent a decade covering Congress for both The Washington Post, where she regularly broke news on House Democrats’ oversight of the Trump administration, and POLITICO, where she chronicled Donald Trump’s takeover of the GOP. Bade is also a CNN political analyst and a frequent guest on the Sunday show circuit, with appearances on CBS’s Face the Nation, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and Fox News’ Fox News Sunday. Karoun Demirjian is on the national security team at The Washington Post, where she covered intelligence, defense, and foreign policy on Capitol Hill before becoming a Pentagon correspondent. Her award-winning career has spanned three continents, including postings in the Post’s Moscow bureau, a stint in the Middle East working for the Associated Press, and over a decade covering Congress. She was a member of the Washington Post teams that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service and the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and individually won or came in as runner up for the David Lynch Memorial Reporting Award for three years running as a Washington Correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun. She has been a frequent featured expert on television and radio outlets, including as a CNN political analyst."

"In a riveting account that flips the script on what readers think they know about the two impeachments of Donald Trump, Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian reveal how—and why—congressional oversight failed when it was needed most.

"As libertarians, neoconservatives, Never Trump-ers, and others battle over the label, this landmark collection offers an essential survey of conservative thought in the United States since 1900, highlighting the centrality of four key themes: the importance of tradition and the local, resistance to an ever-expanding state, opposition to the threat of tyranny at home and abroad, and free markets as the key to sustaining individual liberty.

"Unchecked weaves a vivid narrative of how House Democrats under the lead of a cautious speaker, Nancy Pelosi, hesitated for months to stand up to Trump—and then pulled punches in their effort to oust him in a misguided effort to protect themselves politically. What they left on the cutting room floor would come back to haunt them, as Republicans seized on their missteps to whip an uneasy GOP rank-and-file into line behind Donald Trump, abandoning their scruples to defend a president who some privately believed had indeed abused his power.

"Even after Trump incited a mob to violently attack the Capitol—a day the authors recount in minute-by-minute, stunning detail — Democrats pressured their own investigators to forego a thorough investigation in the name of safeguarding the Biden agenda. And Republicans, fearful of repelling a base they needed for re-election, missed their best moment to turn their backs on a leader they secretly agreed was destructive to democracy.

"Sourced from hundreds of interviews with all the key players, the authors of Unchecked pull back the curtain on how both parties pursued political expediency over fact-finding. The end result not only emboldened Trump, giving him room for a political comeback, but also undermined Congress by rendering toothless their most powerful check on a president: the power of impeachment. A dramatic and at times crushing work of investigative reporting, Unchecked is both a gripping page-turner of political intrigue and a detailed case study for historians and political scientists searching for answers about the unravelling of checks and balances that have governed American democracy for centuries."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (79 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063040793 ?
The Divider:
Trump in the White House, 2017-2021
Peter Baker & Susan Glasser
Doubleday (September 20, 2022)
No Review
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, a political analyst for MSNBC, and the author of Days of Fire and The Breach. Susan Glasser is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of its weekly "Letter from Trump's Washington," as well as a CNN global affairs analyst. Their first assignment as a married couple was as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, after which they wrote Kremlin Rising. They also coauthored The Man Who Ran Washington, a New York Times bestseller. They live in Washington, DC, with their son."

"Revered journalists Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker tell the inside story of the four years when Donald Trump went to war with Washington, from the chaotic beginning to the violent finale. Baker and Glasser argue that Trump was not just lurching from one controversy to another; he was learning to be more like the foreign autocrats he admired.

"The Divider brings us into the Oval Office for countless scenes both tense and comical, revealing how close we got to nuclear war with North Korea, which cabinet members had a resignation pact, whether Trump asked Japan’s prime minister to nominate him for a Nobel Prize and much more. The book also explores the moral choices confronting those around Trump—how they justified working for a man they considered unfit for office, and where they drew their lines.

"The Divider is based on unprecedented access to key players, from President Trump himself to cabinet officers, military generals, close advisers, Trump family members, congressional leaders, foreign officials and others, some of whom have never told their story until now."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (2,865 ratings)
ISBN 978-0385546539 ?
The Key to Understanding Donald J. Trump: (Full color)
by Kobby Barda
Israel: Bar-Dea Ltd. (December 18, 2019)
No Review
"Kobby Barda was born and raised in Holon, Israel and is an expert on US-Israel relations and a contributor for Israeli channel 20. Mr. Barda is the head of the "Gal Program" for Political Leadership at The Academic Center for Law and Science, Hod Hasharon, Israel. Barda holds a M.A. degree from Haifa University where his dissertation focused on AIPAC, and currently is P.HD Candide at Haifa University. In order to understand the phenomenon of President Trump, Barda uses his experience spanning over 20 years as a media consultant and communications expert where he has served as a political campaign manager and advisor to Israeli government ministers, Israeli Parliament members and Mayors. Barda was the man who alerted the world to the highly offensive cartoon of President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in The New York Times." – Amazon biography

"The book The Key to Understanding Donald J. Trump tries to get beyond the smokescreen, and to understand the behavior of Donald Trump, which sometimes seems to elusive — having neither pattern nor order.

"Whether you are a fan or a foe of the president, a political amateur or just an average person who tries to understand whether there is logic to Trump's chaos — the book gives you a window into the brain of the world's most important man and an opportunity to read his thoughts in a way that will allow you to feel that you too can explain the rationale behind his actions, be it at the dinner table, in a conversation with friends or simply when reading the daily news."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (10 ratings)
ISBN 978-9659278848 ?
One Damn Thing After Another:
Memoirs of an Attorney General
William P. Barr
William Morrow (March 8, 2022)
No Review
"A native New Yorker, William P. Barr earned his A.B. and M.A. degrees at Columbia University and his J.D. at George Washington University, after which he spent a decade practicing law at a Washington firm, interrupted by a stint serving in the Reagan White House. President George H. W. Bush successively appointed Barr Assistant Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and, finally, the 77th Attorney General. Barr retired in 2008 after fifteen years as general counsel of GTE Corporation and its successor company, Verizon, after which he served on a number of corporate boards and consulted for corporate clients. Barr agreed to serve as the 85th Attorney General for the last two years of President Trump's term.

"The former attorney general provides a candid account of his historic tenures serving two vastly different presidents, George H.W. Bush and Donald J. Trump.

"William Barr’s first tenure as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush was largely the result of chance, while his second tenure under President Donald Trump a deliberate and difficult choice. In this candid memoir, Barr takes readers behind the scenes during seminal moments of the 1990s, from the LA riots to Pan Am 103 and Iran Contra. Thirty years later, Barr faced an unrelenting barrage of issues, such as Russiagate, the COVID outbreak, civil unrest, the impeachments, and the 2020 election fallout. One Damn Thing After Another is vivid, forthright, and essential not only to understanding the Bush and Trump legacies, but also how both men viewed power and justice at critical junctures of their presidencies."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (9,644 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063158603 ?
October Surprise:
How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election
Devlin Barrett
PublicAffairs (September 22, 2020)
No Review
Devlin Barrett is a reporter with the Washington Post, where he writes about the FBI and the Justice Department. He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for National Reporting, for coverage of Russian interference in the US election. In 2017, he was a co-finalist for both the Pulitzer for Feature Writing and the Pulitzer for International Reporting. He has covered federal law enforcement for more than 20 years, and has worked at the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, and the New York Post. He lives in Virginia." – Amazon biography

"In September 2016, Hillary Clinton was the presumptive next president of the US. She had a blue wall of states leaning her way in the Midwest, and was ahead in North Carolina and Florida, with a better than even shot at taking normally Republican Arizona. The US was about to get its first woman president. Yet within two months everything was lost. An already tightening race saw one seismic correction: it came in October when the FBI launched an investigation into the Clinton staff's use of a private server for their emails. Clinton fell 3-4 percent in the polls instantly, and her campaign never had time to rebut the investigation or rebuild her momentum so close to election day. The FBI cost her the race.

"October Surprise is a pulsating narrative of an agency seized with righteous certainty that waded into the most important political moment in the life of the nation, and has no idea how to back out with dignity. So it doggedly stands its ground, compounding its error. In a momentous display of self-preservation, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and key Justice Department officials decide to protect their own reputations rather than save the democratic process. Once they make that determination, the race is lost for Clinton, who is helpless in front of their accusation even though she has not intended to commit, let alone actually committed, any crime.

"A dark true-life thriller with historic consequences set at the most crucial moment in the electoral calendar, October Surprise is a warning, a morality tale and a political and personal tragedy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (47 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541761971 ?
Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth:
The Deals, the Downfall, and the Reinvention
Wayne Barrett
Regan Arts, Reprint edition (August, 2016)
No Review
Wayne Barrett is an investigative reporter who's written about New York for more than four decades and did the first major pieces on Donald Trump in the 1970s. A senior editor at the Village Voice until 2010, he's also written for The Daily Beast, New York magazine, The Nation, and NY Daily News. His books include City for Sale, Rudy!: An Investigative Biography, and Grand Illusion, which collectively covered the Koch through the Giuliani administrations. The New York Times called him "the master of chronicling the underbelly of New York City politics." – Amazon biography

"Now, Barrett's classic book is back in print for the first time in years and with an introduction about Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

"Donald Trump claims that his success as a 'self-made' businessman and real estate developer proves that he will make an effective president, but this devastating investigative account by legendary reporter Wayne Barrett proves otherwise. Back in print for the first time in years, Barrett’s seminal book reveals how Trump put together the biggest deal of his life—Trump Tower—through manipulation and deceit; how he worked with questionable characters from the mafia and city politics; and how it all nearly came crashing down. Here is a vivid and inglorious portrait of the man who wants now to be the most powerful man in the world.

"In Trump: The Greatest Show in the World—The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention, Barrett unravels the myth and reveals the truth behind the mogul’s wheelings and dealings. After decades covering him, few reporters know Trump as Barrett does. Instead of the canny businessman that Trump claims in his own books, Barrett explores how Trump exploited his father’s banking and political connections to finance and grease his first major deals. Barrett’s investigative biography takes us from the days of Donald’s lonely youth to his brash entry into the real estate market, and to the back room deals behind his New York, Atlantic City and Florida projects.

"Most compellingly Barrett paints an intimate portrait of Trump himself, a man driven by bravado, obsessive self-regard, and an anxious ruthlessness to subdue his rivals and seduce anyone with the power to aid his empire. We see him head to head with an opponent as powerful as Pete Rozelle, ingratiating himself with the brooding governor on the Hudson, and fueling the Drexel engine driven by Michael Milken with hundreds of millions in fees—paid, ironically, by gaming companies to fend off Trump takeovers. We explore his complicated emotional and business relationship with his first wife, Ivana, and the use he planned to make of his mistress—and later, his second wife—Marla Maples as a 'southern strategy' in his then contemplated presidential campaign. With interviews with scores of adversaries and former colleagues, we are given a privileged look at Trump the businessman in action—reckless as often as he is brilliant, reliant on threats as much as on charm, and ultimately a cautionary tale: is this the man we want to lead the world?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (68 ratings)
ISBN 978-1682450796 ?
Siege:
An American Tragedy
Anita Bartholomew
Bartholomew & Company, Incorporated (May 27, 2022)
No Review
"Anita Bartholomew, author of Siege, and one of Reader's Digest International Edition's top reporters, specializes in narrative-which is just another way of saying storytelling. She has covered countless stories that touch our lives and our hearts: a Pacific tsunami, a Washington state mudslide, kidnappings, plane crashes, the Covid-19 pandemic, the homeless crisis, and more. Two of her magazine narratives have been adapted into TV movies.While her writing process involves intensive research, what stirs her passions are the people involved. How did an event change them? What makes their story matter? A ghostwriter and a developmental editor as well as an author and journalist, Siege is her third book under her own byline. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest where, on sunny summer days, she enjoys gazing at the magnificent views of Mount Hood from her deck."

"Siege: An American Tragedy takes readers inside the Capitol on January 6th, vividly recounting the MAGA horde’s storming of the building, the terror and courage of those trapped within, and the selflessness of the police officers who risked their lives to save them. Siege also explores the personal histories and motives of several of the insurrectionists.

"Meticulously reconstructed from exclusive interviews, congressional testimony, videos, court documents, FBI affidavits, transcripts, and reported text, Siege often reads like heart-pounding fiction.

"But it happened. Much of it, right before our eyes.

"And, as the final chapter demonstrates, if we fail to learn from the events that led to what was once unthinkable in the United States of America—an attempted coup—there will be a next time. And we might not be so lucky."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (29 ratings)
ISBN 978-0983992226 ?
You're Fired:
The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump
Paul Begala
Simon & Schuster (August 4, 2020)
No Review
Paul Begala was a chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. He served as counselor to the president in the Clinton White House, where he coordinated policy, politics, and communications. He was senior adviser to the pro-Obama Super PAC that played a critical role in reelecting Obama in 2012. He is the author of five books, including Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush; and It’s Still the Economy, Stupid. Begala is a CNN political commentator and an affiliated professor of public policy at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Paul earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas. He and his wife live quietly in Virginia with their four sons and a German shepherd. (Okay, so they don’t live too quietly.)" – based on Amazon biography

"In You’re Fired, Paul Begala tells us how Trump uses division to distract from the actual reality of his record. Distraction, he argues, is Trump's superpower. And this book is Kryptonite. In it, the man who helped elect Bill Clinton and reelect Barack Obama, details:

  • The special weapons and tactics needed in the unconventional war against this most unconventional politician
  • How to drive a wedge—or, rather, a pickup truck—between Trump and many of his supporters, especially blue-collar workers and farmers
  • Where the votes to defeat Trump will come from, and how the Rising American Electorate can catch Trump flat-footed
  • How Democrats can run on issues ranging from Coronavirus and healthcare to the economy, as well as climate change and Trump’s long-term plan to dominate the federal judiciary
  • There is one chapter called simply, “This Chapter Will Beat Trump.” Find out why Begala is so confident and what issue he says will sink the Trumptanic.

"Full of memorable advice and Begala's trademark wit, You’re Fired focuses on the lessons we can learn from the party’s successes and failures—and the crucial tools Democrats need to beat Trump."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (61 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982160043 ?
Frankly, We Did Win This Election:
The Inside Story of How Trump Lost
Michael C. Bender
Twelve (July 13, 2021)
My Review
Michael C. Bender is the senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal whose coverage of President Trump has been recognized for its deep sourcing, balance, and valuable behind-the-scenes portraits of Trump’s administration and presidential campaigns. Bender was awarded the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency in 2019 for work that 'set a consistently high standard of reporting' and 'provided a valuable chronicle of the president, his team, and the movement that has reshaped American politics and national policy.' In 2020, he received the National Press Club award for political analysis for a series of stories that detailed the sights, sounds, and inner workings of Trump campaign rallies. Since 2000, Bender has covered local, state, and national politics for the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado, Dayton Daily News, Palm Beach Post, Tampa Bay Times, and Bloomberg News. He joined the Journal in 2016 and published more than eleven hundred stories about Trump in the next five years. He has also served as an on-air political analyst for CNN. Born and raised in Cleveland with his six younger sisters, Bender graduated from the Ohio State University in 2000 with a degree in history and now lives in Washington with his wife, Washington Post White House bureau chief Ashley Parker, and their two daughters."

"Michael C. Bender, senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, presents a deeply reported account of the 2020 presidential campaign that details how Donald J. Trump became the first incumbent in three decades to lose reelection—and the only one whose defeat culminated in a violent insurrection.

"Beginning with President Trump’s first impeachment and ending with his second, Frankly, We Did Win This Election chronicles the inside-the-room deliberations between Trump and his campaign team as they opened 2020 with a sleek political operation built to harness a surge of momentum from a bullish economy, a unified Republican Party, and a string of domestic and foreign policy successes—only to watch everything unravel when fortunes suddenly turned.

"With first-rate sourcing cultivated from five years of covering Trump in the White House and both of his campaigns, Bender brings readers inside the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and into the front row of the movement’s signature mega-rallies for the story of an epic election-year convergence of COVID, economic collapse, and civil rights upheaval—and an unorthodox president’s attempt to battle it all.

"Fresh interviews with Trump, key campaign advisers, and senior administration officials are paired with an exclusive collection of internal campaign memos, emails, and text messages for scores of never-before-reported details about the campaign.

"Frankly, We Did Win This Election is the inside story of how Trump lost, and the definitive account of his final year in office that draws a straight line from the president’s repeated insistence that he would never lose to the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol that imperiled one of his most loyal lieutenants—his own vice president."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (3,445 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538734803 ?
Ministry of Truth:
Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past
Steve Benen
Mariner Books (August 13, 2024)
No Review
Steve Benen is a producer on The Rachel Maddow Show and the author of The MaddowBlog. Benen’s articles and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Monthly, The American Prospect, Salon.com, and other publications. For his work on TRMS, he has received two Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for four more. He is the author of The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics, a national bestseller. He lives in Vermont."

A searing, vital investigation of the Republican Party’s dangerous campaign to rewrite recent history in real time, from the Emmy Award-winning Rachel Maddow Show producer and bestselling author of The Impostors.

"For as long as historical records have existed, authoritarian regimes have tried to rewrite history to suit their purposes, using their dictatorial powers to create myths, spread propaganda, justify decisions, erase opponents, and even dispose of crimes.

"As the Republican Party becomes increasingly radicalized, the GOP is putting their own twist on a similarly despotic script. Indeed, the party is taking dangerous, aggressive steps to rewrite history—and not just from generations past.

"Unable to put a positive spin on Trump-era scandals and fiascos, GOP voices and their allies have grown determined to rewrite the stories of the last few years—from the 2020 election results and the horror of January 6th to their own legislative record—treating the recent past as an enemy to be overpowered, crushed, and conquered. The consequences for our future, in turn, are dramatic.

"Extraordinarily timely and undeniably important, Steve Benen’'s new book tells the staggering chronicle of the Republican party’'s unsettling attempts at historical revisionism. It reveals not only how dependent they have grown on the tactic, but also how dangerous the consequences are if we allow the party to continue. The stakes, Benen argues, couldn’t be higher: the future of democracy hinges on both our accurate understanding of events and the end of alternative narratives that challenge reality."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (318 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063393677 ?
Trump and His Generals:
The Cost of Chaos
Peter Bergen
Penguin Press (December 10, 2019)
No Review
Peter Bergen is a vice president at New America in Washington, DC, as well as national security analyst for CNN, where he writes a weekly online column. He is also a professor and codirector of the Center on the Future of War at Arizona State University and has held teaching positions at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Bergen is the author of five previous books about national security, including three New York Times bestsellers and four Washington Post nonfiction books of the year. In 1997, as a producer for CNN, Bergen produced Osama bin Laden's first television interview, in which bin Laden declared war against the United States for the first time to a Western audience. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, documentary producer Tresha Mabile, and their children, Pierre and Grace." – Amazon biography

"It is a simple fact that no president in American history brought less foreign policy experience to the White House than Donald J. Trump. The real estate developer from Queens promised to bring his brash, zero-sum swagger to bear to cut through America's most complex national security issues, and he did. If the cost of his 'America First' agenda was bulldozing the edifice of foreign alliances that had been carefully tended by every president from Truman to Obama, then so be it.

"It was clear from the first that Trump's inclinations were radically more blunt force than his predecessors'. When briefed by the Pentagon on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, he exclaimed, 'The next time Iran sends its boats into the Strait: blow them out of the water! Let's get Mad Dog on this.' When told that the capital of South Korea, Seoul, was so close to the North Korean border that millions of people would likely die in the first hours of any all-out war, Trump had a bold response, 'They have to move.' The officials in the Oval Office weren't sure if he was joking. He raised his voice. 'They have to move!'

"Very quickly, it became clear to a number of people at the highest levels of government that their gravest mission was to protect America from Donald Trump. Trump and His Generals is Peter Bergen's riveting account of what happened when the unstoppable force of President Trump met the immovable object of America's national security establishment—the CIA, the State Department, and, above all, the Pentagon. If there is a real 'deep state' in DC, it is not the FBI so much as the national security community, with its deep-rooted culture and hierarchy. The men Trump selected for his key national security positions, Jim Mattis, John Kelly, and H. R. McMaster, were products of that culture: Trump wanted generals, and he got them. Three years later, they would be gone, and the guardrails were off.

"From Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria and Iran, from Russia and China to North Korea and Islamist terrorism, Trump and His Generals is a brilliant reckoning with an American ship of state navigating a roiling sea of threats without a well-functioning rudder. Lucid and gripping, it brings urgently needed clarity to issues that affect the fate of us all. But clarity, unfortunately, is not the same thing as reassurance."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (340 ratings)
ISBN 978-0525522416 ?
Holding the Line:
Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department
Geoffrey Berman
Penguin Press (September 13, 2022)
No Review
Geoffrey Berman is the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In that role, he was responsible for some of the nation’s most important prosecutions, including terrorism and sanctions cases, securities and commodities fraud, public corruption, cybercrime, money laundering, sex trafficking, narcotics, gang violence, and civil rights violations. He previously served as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York and as Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel (Iran-Contra). Following his tenure as US Attorney, Mr. Berman was a visiting professor at Stanford Law School. In December 2020, Mr. Berman joined the law firm of Fried Frank, where he is a litigation partner and head of its white-collar defense practice.

"Ascending to the leadership role of US Attorney for the Southern District, which includes Manhattan and several counties to the north, is a capstone to any legal career: it entails guiding a team of the best lawyers in America in selecting and winning cases that often have global import. Geoffrey Berman was honored to be tapped for the job by Donald Trump in 2018. The manner in which Trump had dispatched his predecessor Preet Bharara was troubling, but the institution was fabled for its independence. Surely he could manage.

"So began one of the most tumultuous two-and-a-half-year stretches in the over two-hundred-thirty year history of the office. Almost immediately, Berman found himself pushing back against the Trump Justice Department’s blatant efforts to bring weak cases against political foes and squash worthy cases that threatened to tarnish allies and Trump himself. When Bill Barr became attorney general, Berman hoped and believed things would get better, but instead they got much worse. The heart of Holding the Line is his never-before-told account of the lengths Barr went to in corrupting the independence of the office, and the lengths Berman had to go in preserving it. Finally, Trump and Barr, fed up with Berman’s principles, summarily fired him, though he refused to go quietly and prevented Barr from installing someone who might be more compliant. Berman’s determined defense of the values of prosecutorial independence, without fear or favor, made him a hero to everyone who shares those values.

"Holding the Line also relates the remarkable casework of the Southern District in Berman’s time there, including taking down notorious sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Lawrence Ray, Big Pharma executives, and vicious criminal syndicates, and repatriating Nazi-looted art. Riveting in themselves, these stories showcase the esprit de corps that makes the Southern District so special, and the stakes Berman felt in protecting its integrity against all foes, up to and including the US attorney general and the president of the United States."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (220 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593300299 ?
The Trumps:
Three Generations of Builders and a President
Gwenda Blair
Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (December 4, 2001)
No Review
Gwenda Blair is the author of the bestselling Almost Golden: Jessica Savitch And The Selling of TV News, and she has written for Politico, The New York Times, New York, Newsweek, the New York Daily News, Esquire, Smart Money, The Village Voice, Chicago Magazine, and other newspapers and magazines. She lives in Chicago and teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Follow her @GwendaLBlair."

"The definitive family biography of President Donald Trump.

"The revealing story of the Trumps mirrors America’s transformation from a land of striving immigrants to a world in which the aura of wealth alone can guarantee a fortune. The Trumps begins with a portrait of President Trump’s immigrant grandfather, who as a young man built hotels for miners in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush. His son, Fred, took advantage of the New Deal, using government subsidies and loopholes to construct hugely successful housing developments in the 1940s and 1950s. The profits from Fred’s enterprises paved the way for President Trump’s roller-coaster ride through the 1980s and 1990s into the new century.

"With his talent for extravagant exaggeration—he calls it 'truthful hyperbole'—President Trump turned the deal-making know-how of his forebears into an art form. By placing this much-publicized life within the context of family, Gwenda Blair adds a new dimension to the larger-than-life figure who ascended to the American Presidency."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (163 ratings)
ISBN 978-0743210799 ?
The Grifter's Club:
Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency
Sarah Blaskey, Nicholas Nehamas, Caitlin Ostrof, & Jay Weaver
PublicAffairs (August 4, 2020)
No Review
Sarah Blaskey is an investigative reporter and data specialist at the Miami Herald. For their reporting on Trump tourism, she, Nicholas Nehamas, and Caitlin Ostroff were named finalists for the 2020 Livingston Award for Excellence in National Reporting. Nicholas Nehamas is an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald. He was part of a team that won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting on the Panama Papers. Caitlin Ostroff is a data reporter who used data analysis and computer coding to report investigative pieces for the Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Florida and is now with the Wall Street Journal. Jay Weaver has covered courts, government and politics for more than 25 years for the Herald. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2001. He and Nicholas Nehamas were also 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalists for a series on international gold smuggling." – Amazon biography

"Donald Trump's opulent Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago has thrummed with scandal since the earliest days of his presidency. Long known for its famous and wealthy clientele, the resort's guest list soon started filling with political operatives and power-seekers. Meanwhile, as Trump re-branded Mar-a-Lago 'the Winter White House' and began spending weekends there, state business spilled out into full view of the club's members, and vast sums of taxpayer money and political donations began flowing into its coffers, and into the pockets of the president.

"The Grifter's Club is a breakthrough account of the impropriety, intrigue, and absurdity that has (sic) been on display in the place where the president is at his most relaxed. In these pages, a team of prizewinning Miami Herald journalists reveal the activities and motivations of the strange array of charlatans and tycoons who populate its halls. Some peddle influence, some seek inside information, and some just want to soak up the feeling of unfettered access to the world's most powerful leaders.

"With the drama of an expose and the edgy humor of a Carl Hiaasen novel, The Grifter's Club takes you behind the velvet ropes of this exclusive club and into its bizarre world of extravagance and scandal."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (34 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541756953 ?
The Room Where It Happened:
A White House Memoir
John Bolton
Simon & Schuster (June 23, 2020)
No Review
"John Bolton is the former National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump. He served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006. He has spent many years of his career in public service and held high-level positions in the Administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Ambassador Bolton is also an attorney, and was in private practice in Washington, DC, from 1974 to 2018, except when he was in government service. Ambassador Bolton was born in Baltimore in 1948. He graduated with a BA, summa cum laude, from Yale College and received his JD from Yale Law School. He currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland. " – Amazon biography

"The result is a White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. With almost daily access to the President, John Bolton has produced a precise rendering of his days in and around the Oval Office. What Bolton saw astonished him: a President for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation. “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” he writes. In fact, he argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping their prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy—and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them.

"He shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government. In Bolton’s telling, all this helped put Trump on the bizarre road to impeachment. “The differences between this presidency and previous ones I had served were stunning,” writes Bolton, who worked for Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. He discovered a President who thought foreign policy is like closing a real estate deal—about personal relationships, made-for-TV showmanship, and advancing his own interests. As a result, the US lost an opportunity to confront its deepening threats, and in cases like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea ended up in a more vulnerable place.

"Bolton’s account starts with his long march to the West Wing as Trump and others woo him for the National Security job. The minute he lands, he has to deal with Syria’s chemical attack on the city of Douma, and the crises after that never stop. As he writes in the opening pages, “If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk—all the while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and sheer amount of work—and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description, try something else.

"The turmoil, conflicts, and egos are all there—from the upheaval in Venezuela, to the erratic and manipulative moves of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, to the showdowns at the G7 summits, the calculated warmongering by Iran, the crazy plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and the placating of an authoritarian China that ultimately exposed the world to its lethal lies. But this seasoned public servant also has a great eye for the Washington inside game, and his story is full of wit and wry humor about how he saw it played."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (39,017 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982148034 ?
The Steal:
The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It
Mark Bowden & Matthew Teague
Atlantic Monthly Press (January 4, 2022)
No Review
"Mark Bowden is the author of fifteen books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down. He reported at the Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for The Atlantic and other magazines.

Matthew Teague is a contributor to National Geographic, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other magazines, and executive producer of Our Friend, a feature film that premiered in 2021." – Amazon bios

"In the sixty-four days between November 3 and January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies fought to reverse the outcome of the vote. Focusing on six states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—Trump’s supporters claimed widespread voter fraud.

"Caught up in this effort were scores of activists, lawyers, judges, and state and local officials. Working with a team of researchers and reporters, Bowden and Teague uncover never-before-told accounts from the election officials fighting to do their jobs amid outlandish claims and threats to themselves, their colleagues, and their families. The Steal is an engaging, in-depth report on what happened during those crucial nine weeks and a portrait of the dedicated individuals who did their duty and stood firm against the unprecedented, sustained attack on our election system and ensured that every legal vote was counted and that the will of the people prevailed."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (337 ratings)
ISBN 978-0802159953 ?
Stench:
The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America
David Brock
Knopf (September 17, 2024)
No Review
"David Brock is a Democratic activist and widely published author. In 2004, Brock founded Media Matters for America, the nation’s premiere progressive media watchdog group. Following the 2010 elections, Brock founded the Super PAC American Bridge, which works to elect Democrats. Brock is a New York Times best-selling author. Among his books are the memoir Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative; Killing the Messenger: The Right Wing Plot to Hijack Your Government; The Republican Noise Machine; and The Fox Effect. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, and Salon. Politico deemed him one of the 30 most powerful people in Trump’s Washington."

"A blistering exposé of Clarence Thomas and the conservative regime of corruption that has usurped the Supreme Court—by a Democratic activist and former Republican political operative.

"Public confidence in the Supreme Court has plummeted to new lows in the last few years—and for good reason. In the past three decades, six conservative justices have gained a supermajority through questionable means: a dubious intervention in a presidential election, perjury during Senate testimony, and a GOP Senate Leader’s unethical blockade of a Supreme Court nomination. Behind this strategic dismantling of our Supreme Court is a vast, well-funded political machine—backed by the extreme right-wing Federalist Society, the notoriously secretive Catholic organization Opus Dei, and GOP megadonors operating from behind closed doors.

"Armed with an insider’s perspective from his time within the conservative movement, David Brock reveals how the efforts to stack the Court in service of extreme right-wing interests stem from a decades-long strategy to weaponize our judicial system into an extension of the Republican Party itself. Stench investigates the ethics scandals that surround Clarence Thomas and his wife, the right-wing activist Ginni Thomas, culling new material from Thomas’s accusers, along with original reporting and Brock’s firsthand knowledge of the inner workings of the GOP. Stench is a staggering exposé, one that only Brock could write—exhaustive in its research and revelatory in its access to the world of what has effectively become the Thomas Court."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (17 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593802144 ?
Wealth and Justice:
The Morality of Democratic Capitalism
Dr. Arthur C. Brooks & Peter Wehner
AEI Press (October 16, 2010)
No Review
"Arthur C. Brooks is the president of the American Enterprise Institute. His previous books include Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America-and How We Can Get More of It and Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism. Peter Wehner is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the former Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives and served as deputy director of speechwriting under President George W. Bush." – Amazon bio

"Popular opinion would have us believe that America's free market system is driven by greed and materialism, resulting in gross inequalities of wealth, destruction of the environment, and other social ills. Even proponents of capitalism often refer to the free market as simply a 'lesser evil' whose faults are preferable to those of social democracy or communism. But what if the conventional understanding of capitalism as corrupt and unprincipled is wrong? What if the free market economy actually reinforces Christian values? In Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism, Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner explore how America's system of democratic capitalism both depends upon and cultivates an intricate social web of families, churches, and communities. Far from oppressing and depriving individuals, the free market system uniquely enables Americans to exercise vocation and experience the dignity of self-sufficiency, all while contributing to the common good. The fruits of this system include the alleviation of poverty, better health, and greater access to education than at any other time in human history-but also a more significant prosperity: the flourishing of the human soul."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (18 ratings)
ISBN 978-0844743776 ?
Donald Trump is Not My Savior:
An Evangelical Leader Speaks His Mind About the Man He Supports as President
Michael L. Brown PhD
Destiny Image (October, 2018)
No Review
"Michael L. Brown PhD is a Jewish believer in Jesus (he came to faith in 1971 as a heroin-shooting, LSD-using, hippie rock drummer) and he holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. He's written more than 30 books, including wake-up calls to the Church of America, scholarly monographs and commentaries on biblical subjects, a series of volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus, and much-discussed books on today's hottest cultural issues. He has spoken throughout America and in more than 30 countries, and he hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show The Line of Fire. He is the founder and president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, NC and serves as a visiting or adjunct professor at a number of seminaries. He and his wife Nancy have been married since 1976 and have two wonderful daughters and four incredible grandchildren. His heart beats to see a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution in this generation." – Amazon biography

"As a Christian, how can you support a president whose present actions and personal history you utterly disagree with? Radio host, Biblical scholar, and social activist, Dr. Michael Brown, represented the collective fears of many evangelical Christians when it became clear that Donald J. Trump would emerge as presidential candidate for the Republican Party.

"How can I support Trump?"

"Undeniably, one of the most polarizing figures in American history, Donald Trump is constantly confounding the masses. He wars against 'fake news' while creating his own media with 'Tweets' that can provoke national dissension and confront unstable foreign relations. With one hand, he's bringing healing; with the other, it looks like he is hurting.

"As an evangelical leader, Dr. Brown steps into the madness to help bring clarity. Even now, many Christians are wondering how to Biblically and morally respond to a Trump presidency. Some are hailing him as 'Savior and Chief,' whose every word and action is to be commended; others utterly and completely reject him. Where is the balance and what is the right response?

"Presented with balanced social commentary, theological integrity, and a passion to see America fulfill her divine destiny, Dr. Brown shows you how to:

  • Cautiously support a flawed leader while maintaining allegiance to the lordship of Jesus.
  • Recognize the movement of God that's present in the Trump presidency.
  • Praise the good and confront the bad when it comes to the president's actions and decisions.

"Whether you are a Trump enthusiast, or you cringe every time you read the headlines, Dr. Michael Brown will spiritually help you navigate the tumultuous waters of the uncertain social and political landscape."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (35 ratings)
ISBN 978-0768449938 ?
The Political Seduction of the Church:
How Millions Of American Christians Have Confused Politics with the Gospel
Michael L. Brown PhD
Leadership Books (September 6, 2022)
No Review
"Michael L. Brown (Ph.D., New York University) is the host of the daily, nationally syndicated radio show The Line of Fire where he serves as your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. He is the author of more than 40 books and over 2,000 op-ed pieces and is the founder and president of AskDrBrown Ministries. Dr. Brown has preached throughout America and around the world and has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at seven leading seminaries." – Amazon biography

"Was the relationship between evangelical Christians and Donald Trump a match made in heaven or a marriage made with hell? Did Christian conservatives trade their reputation for a seat at the political table, or is this just a false accusation from the Trump-hating, Christian-bashing, leftist media? And how did Donald Trump go from unlikely presidential candidate to superhero to political savior in the eyes of his supporters?

"In this penetrating, carefully documented, no-holds barred book, biblical scholar and cultural commentator Dr. Michael Brown explains how millions of sincere Christians wrapped the gospel in the American flag and got so caught up in partisan politics that President Trump, almost more than Jesus, became the rallying point of their faith.

"While rejecting the exaggerated, caricatured claims of the left, in which Trump supporters were branded white supremacists and insurrectionists, Brown, himself a two-time Trump voter, spells out the dangers of Christian nationalism, rejects the idea that the Church is called to take over society, and lays out a strategy for healthy political and cultural engagement.

"Brown also delves into the flood of failed, pro-Trump prophecies that swept through the Charismatic church during the 2020 elections, examining the genesis of false prophecy and evaluating the degree to which Christian conservatives bought into Q-Anon conspiracy theories.

"An extremely timely read, especially right before the 2022 mid-terms and the launching of the 2024 campaigns."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (91 ratings)
ISBN 978-1954618497 ?
Lucky Loser:
How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success
Russ Buettner & Susanne Craig
Penguin Press (September 17, 2024)
No Review
"Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig are investigative reporters at the New York Times. Since 2016, their reporting has focused on the personal finances of Donald J. Trump, including in-depth articles that revealed the fortune Trump inherited from his father and the record of business failures hidden in twenty years of Trump’s tax returns. Their articles on Trump’s inheritance were awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2019. Buettner joined the Times as an investigative reporter in 2006. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. He previously worked on investigations teams at the Daily News in New York and New York Newsday. Craig previously covered Wall Street and served as Albany bureau chief for the Times. Prior to joining the Times in 2010, Craig was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper."

"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of then-President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House.

"Soon after announcing his first campaign for the US presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life 'has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.' Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country. Except: None of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise whatsoever.

"Drawing on over twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again. For decades, he squanders his fortunes on money losing businesses, only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacks his name above the door of every building, while taking out huge loans he’ll never repay. He obsesses over appearances, while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnishes the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and cheats the television producer who not only rescues him from bankruptcy but casts him as a business savant – the public image that will carry him to the White House.

"A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Lucky Loser is a meticulous examination spanning nearly a century, filled with scoops from Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Atlantic City, and the set of The Apprentice. At a moment when Trump’s tether to success and power is more precarious than ever, here for the first time is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money – what he had, what he lost, and what he has left – and the final word on the myth of Trump, the self-made billionaire."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (81 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593298640 ?
Virus:
Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America's Response to the Pandemic
Nina Burleigh
Seven Stories Press (May 18, 2021)
No Review
"Nina Burleigh is a reporter and author of six prior books, including most recently The Trump Women: Part of the Deal and the New York Times bestseller The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Italian Trials of Amanda Knox, of which Tim Egan wrote: 'Clear-eyed, sweeping, honest and tough… sets a standard that any of the other chroniclers of this tale have yet to meet. This is what long-form journalism is all about.' She most recently covered America under Donald Trump as national politics correspondent at Newsweek. She got her start in journalism covering the Illinois Statehouse in Springfield, IL, and is a fellow of the Explorers Club who has covered stories on six continents.

Burleigh’s writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Time, New York, The New York Times Magazine, Slate and Bustle. She has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher, Good Morning America, Nightline, The Today Show, 48 Hours, on MSNBC, CNN and C-Span, NPR, in numerous documentaries, podcasts and radio programs. A former judge for the J. Anthony Lukas prize for nonfiction, Burleigh is an adjunct professor at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Her work has been cited in hundreds of scholarly articles."

"The only close analysis of our pandemic year revealing how the confluence of key government missteps, behind-the-scenes deal brokering, staggering dismissal of decades of scientific progress, conspiracy theories, and further malfeasance were behind hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

"A few months before the virus slammed the world, global public health experts declared the United States the most prepared for a possible pandemic. Instead, we watched as the disease killed half a million Americans. A stunned nation has been too busy grieving and doing damage control to ask why, or to comprehend just how much of the blundering and chaos of the pandemic response was either deliberate or entirely predictable. New York Times bestselling author Nina Burleigh weaves together the key narrative strands to create an uncompromising and highly informed expose about our shared global pandemic experience and what it means for our future. Here readers will learn:

  • How the Trump administration packed public health agencies with right wing Christians and their political allies who cared more about gender norms and policing morality than a possible pandemic.
  • How another branch of the Trump administration, the anti-government ideologues, were so enamored of extreme free market principles that they treated the pandemic as a business opportunity.
  • How America’s anti-expertise culture, long nurtured by right wing media and conservative politicians, and now at its apogee, has left countless millions of Americans doubting the efficacy and safety of vaccines.
  • How the phenomenal success of childhood vaccines on extending average lifespan since the early 20th century has left many Americans so ignorant about how much vaccines have already improved their lives that they’re willing to reject them.
  • How our metastasizing national security state and the 'bad science' of the Cold War from the A-bomb to bioweapons and beyond explains the credulity of vast numbers of Americans who subscribe to wild conspiracy theories about Covid.
  • How a growing number of mainstream scientists now actually accept the 'lab leak hypothesis' about the origins of the virus."
Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (34 ratings)
ISBN 978-1644211809 ?
Crossfire Hurricane:
Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI
Josh Campbell
Algonquin Books (September 17, 2019)
No Review
"Josh Campbell is a CNN analyst and former FBI counterterrorism agent. His national security career included apprehending terrorists, rescuing kidnapping victims overseas, responding to high-profile cyber incidents, and global operational assignments embedded with the Department of Defense and CIA. Prior to transitioning to journalism, he served as Special Assistant to the FBI Director. He is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, a term member with the Council on Foreign Relations, and teaches national security at the University of Southern California." – Amazon bios

"It is January 6, 2017, two weeks before the inauguration. Only a handful of people know about the Steele dossier, and the nation is bitterly divided by the election results. As rumors begin to circulate that something might be brewing with the newly elected president and Russia, FBI special agent Josh Campbell joins the heads of the US intelligence community on a briefing visit to Trump Tower in New York City. He does not yet know that this meeting will eventually lead to the firing of his boss, James Comey, or that within weeks his former boss Robert Mueller will be appointed to investigate collusion and obstruction of justice at the highest level. He does not yet know that the FBI will come under years of sustained attacks from the commander in chief of the very nation its agents have sworn to protect. But, from his unique position within the FBI, he will watch it occur.

"In this gripping fly-on-the-wall narrative, Campbell takes readers behind the scenes of the earliest days of the Russia investigation—codename: Crossfire Hurricane—up to the present. Using both firsthand experience and reporting, he reveals fresh details about this tumultuous period; explains how the FBI goes about its work and its historic independence from partisan forces; and describes the increasing dismay inside the bureau as the president and his allies escalate their attacks on the agency. Appalled by Trump's assault on the bureau's credibility, Campbell left the FBI in 2018 to sound the alarm about unfair political attacks on the institutions that keep America safe."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (86 ratings)
ISBN 978-1630513955 ?
The Ukraine Hoax:
How Decades of Corruption in the Former Soviet Republic Led to Trump's Phony Impeachment
by Michael Caputo
Bombardier Books (February 19, 2020)
No Review

"Michael Caputo is a 30-year Republican strategist who worked for Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, George HW Bush, and as New York State director and senior campaign advisor to President Donald J. Trump. Caputo testified in closed door sessions of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the Mueller investigation in their failed attempts to prove Trump campaign collusion with Russian election interference.

"Caputo lived in Russia for nearly a decade in the 1990s and worked often in Ukraine. He recently returned from Kyiv, where he filmed a documentary and wrote a book about Ukraine's 2016 US election meddling, the Biden family's Burisma Energy scam, and the real story behind the headlines

"The Democrats tried to undo President Trump's 2016 election with Russia investigations and Ukraine impeachment," Caputo said. "I know the President was right to ask Ukraine’s President for investigations because the Democrats are up to their necks in corruption there." – based on Amazon biography

"America’s Ukraine problem didn’t start with a telephone call between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. In fact, it started years before: both nations meddled in each other’s elections and 130 people were killed. After enduring three years of investigations into Trump campaign connections to the Kremlin, author Michael Caputo ties the impeachment to the Russia hoax and introduces important new participants—shady diplomats, corrupt politicians, treacherous murderers, and a billionaire scheming in the background.

"Americans who get their news only from the mainstream media will be shocked by this story of corrupt politicians, brutal revolutions, tweaked elections, billions gone missing in a scheme to enrich global insiders like Hunter Biden, George Soros, and more.

"It’s a tale only Michael Caputo could tell: a former aide to candidate Donald Trump whose close ties to the former Soviet Union put him in the crosshairs of federal investigators. The Ukraine Hoax takes the reader to Ukraine, Georgia, Washington, and more—and into a nest of snipers who claim to have murdered innocent protestors on Kyiv’s Maidan Square."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.6 (14 ratings)
ISBN 978-1642935691 ?
Ship of Fools:
How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution
by Tucker Carlson
Free Press (October 2, 2018)
No Review
"Tucker Carlson is the anchor of Tucker Carlson Tonight on the Fox News Channel. He has hosted prime time programs on CNN, PBS, and MSNBC, and cofounded The Daily Caller. He lives in the middle of nowhere with his wife and four children and dogs." – Amazon biography

"The popular FOX News star of Tucker Carlson Tonight offers his signature fearless and funny political commentary on how America’s ruling class has failed everyday Americans.

“You look on in horror, helpless and desperate.
You have nowhere to go.
You’re trapped on a ship of fools.”
—From the Introduction

In Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution, Tucker Carlson tells the truth about the new American elites, a group whose power and wealth has grown beyond imagination even as the rest of the country has withered. The people who run America now barely interact with it. They fly on their own planes, ski on their own mountains, watch sporting events far from the stands in sky boxes. They have total contempt for you.

“They view America the way a private equity firm sizes up an aging conglomerate,” Carlson writes, “as something outdated they can profit from. When it fails, they’re gone.”

In Ship of Fools, Tucker Carlson offers a blistering critique of our new overlords. Traditional liberals are gone, he writes. The patchouli-scented hand-wringers who worried about whales and defended free speech have been replaced by globalists who hide their hard-edged economic agenda behind the smokescreen of identity politics. They’ll outsource your job while lecturing you about transgender bathrooms. Left and right, Carlson says, are no longer meaningful categories in America. “The rift is between those who benefit from the status quo, and those who don’t.”

"Our leaders are fools, Carlson concludes, “unaware that they are captains of a sinking ship.” But in the signature and witty style that viewers of Tucker Carlson Tonight have come to enjoy, his book answers the all-important question: How do we put the country back on course?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (6,999 ratings)
ISBN 978-1501183669 ?
Gaslighting America:
Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us
Amanda Carpenter
Broadside Books (May 1, 2018)
No Review
"Amanda Carpenter is a CNN political commentator, writer, and former senior staffer to Senators Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz. She has written for the Washington Post, Politico, Townhall.com, the Washington Times, Refinery29, Cosmo.com, and Human Events."

"A CNN contributor, former Ted Cruz staffer, and 'Never Trump' adherent reveals a shocking truth: Donald Trump’s lies and fabrications don’t horrify America—they enthrall us—and explains how we can avoid falling for them."

"In Gaslighting America, Carpenter breaks down Trump’s formula, showing why it’s practically foolproof, playing his victims, the media, the Democrats, and the Republican fence-sitters perfectly. She traces how this tactic started with Nixon, gained traction with Bill Clinton, and exploded under Trump. If you think Trump is driving you crazy, it’s because he is. Now, in this urgent book, she explains how to withstand the fire.

"Where some people see lies, Trump’s fierce followers see something different. A commitment to winning at all costs; there is nothing he could say that would erode their support at long as it’s in the name of taking down his political enemies.

"His opponents on the left and right continue to act as if his fake narratives and conspiracy theories will bring him down, when in fact, they are the ruses that raised him up.

"As a conservative former staffer to a competing presidential campaign, Amanda Carpenter witnessed her fellow Republicans fall in line behind Trump. As a political commentator, she was publicly smeared by one of his supporters on live television without a shred of evidence supporting the allegations. Slowly, she watched her entire party succumb to Trump and become defenders of his tactics, and Gaslighting America may be the only hope to bring them back to reality."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (318 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062748003 ?
Oath and Honor:
A Memoir and a Warning
Liz Cheney
Little, Brown and Company (December 5, 2023)
No Review
"Liz Cheney served as a member of Congress from 2017 to 2023, rising to chair the House Republican Conference until her stand against the January 6th insurrection caused her party to strip away that role, and led to her defeat in the 2022 primary election. An attorney and national security specialist, Cheney previously worked in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East while serving in the State Department during the George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush administrations."

"A gripping first-hand account of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection from inside the halls of Congress, from origins to aftermath, as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.

"In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (5,661 ratings)
ISBN 978-0316572064 ?
Socialists Don't Sleep:
Christians Must Rise or America Will Fall
by Cheryl K. Chumley
Humanix Books (September 22, 2020)
No Review

"Cheryl K. Chumley is the author of The Devil in DC: Winning Back the Country from the Beast in Washington (WND Books, March 2016).

"Cheryl K. Chumley is a full-time writer with The Washington Times. She writes about politics and government for various newspapers, Internet news sites, and think tanks. She is a journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation, a prestigious conservative organization in Washington, D.C., where she spent a year researching and writing about private property rights." -- from the bio on that book

"Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — when it comes to socialism in America, these two aren't the problem. Per se. They're simply symptoms of the real problems that usher in Socialism: a dysfunctional entitlement-minded society, a propaganda-pushing school system, a decayed culture, a sieve-like border. As Cheryl Chumley points out in Socialists Don't Sleep, we can't root out socialism unless we first address the real problems.” — Michael Savage, New York Times Bestselling author & host of The Savage Nation

"Socialists Don't Sleep: Christians Must Rise or America Will Fall tells how America has gone from a country of rights coming from God – NOT government – to a country that embraces Socialism – where the US government is now expected to pretty much provide from cradle to the grave. Cheryl K. Chumley, an award-winning journalist and contributing editor to The Washington Times, explains how to return the country to its glory days of God-given, and why Christians, more than any other group, are best equipped to lead the way.

"Endorsed by Sam & Kevin Sorbo, by Cal Thomas, and by "Will Witt, PragerU Personality"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (179 ratings)
ISBN 978-1630061470 ?
Shameless:
Republicans' Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy
by Brian Tyler Cohen
Cong. Jamie Raskin (Foreword)
Harper (August 13, 2024)
No Review

"Brian Tyler Cohen is a progressive YouTuber, podcaster, and MSNBC contributor. He has over six million subscribers across all social media platforms, including a YouTube channel with two billion views and counting. His show, No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, has become a destination for the top names in politics, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Rachel Maddow to President Biden."

"From the first content creator to interview President Biden, leading progressive voice Brian Tyler Cohen takes a step back from the day-to-day news cycle to explain how American politics has turned into such a dumpster fire—and what Democrats need to do to get us out of it.

"In Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen lays bare the long con of the modern Republican Party. While the radical right continues hiding behind gaslighting maneuvers, artificial slogans, and hollow catchphrases, Cohen’s unflinching narrative illuminates the realities and dangers of the ever-widening gulf between the vaunted Republican brand and their actual behavior.

"With a foreword by Congressman Jamie Raskin, drawing on interviews and insights from Pete Buttigieg, Mehdi Hasan, Jen Psaki, and other luminaries of the Left, Cohen reveals:

  • How Republicans have leaned on their historical branding to give themselves a permission structure to behave antithetically to everything they say;
  • Why the mainstream media has proved itself a willing participant in this ongoing farce—particularly since the rise of toxic, sensationalist MAGA mania; and
  • What lessons Democrats can glean from a clear-eyed view of the landscape we’re operating in—and the steps we must take to rebalance our political landscape.

"During this all-hands-on-deck moment in our history, Shameless is essential reading for those seeking to understand our dire situation, and a rallying cry for those fighting to preserve democracy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (171 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063392885 ?
Disloyal: A Memoir:
The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump
Michael Cohen
Skyhorse (September 8, 2020)
No Review
"Michael Cohen is an American attorney and businessman. He acted as Special Counsel to President Donald J. Trump from 2017-2018 and as Executive VP for the Trump Organization before then. Cohen lives in New York City with his wife and two children." – Amazon bios

"This is the most devastating business and political horror story of the century. As Trump's lawyer and 'fixer,' Cohen not only witnessed firsthand, but was also an active participant in the inner workings of Trump's business empire, political campaign, and presidential administration.

"This is a story that you have not read in newspapers, or on social media, or watched on television. These are accounts that only someone who worked for Trump around the clock for over a decade—not a few months or even a couple of years—could know. Cohen describes Trump's racist rants against President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and Black and Hispanic people in general, as well as the cruelty, humiliation, and abuse he leveled at family and staff. Whether he's exposing the fact that Trump engaged in tax fraud by inflating his wealth or election fraud by rigging polls, or outing Trump's Neanderthal views towards women or his hush-money payments to clandestine lovers, Cohen pulls no punches. He shows Trump's relentless willingness to lie, exaggerate, mislead, or manipulate. Trump emerges as a man without a soul—a man who courts evangelicals and then trashes them, panders to the common man, but then rips off small business owners, a con-man who will do or say absolutely anything to win, regardless of the cost to his family, his associates, or his country.

"At the heart of Disloyal, we see how Cohen came under the spell of his charismatic Boss and, as a result, lost all sense of his moral compass. The real real Donald Trump who permeates these pages—the racist, sexist, homophobic, lying, cheating President—will be discussed, written about, and analyzed for years to come."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (32,451 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510764699 ?
Revenge:
How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics
Michael Cohen
Melville House (October 11, 2022)
No Review
"Michael Cohen is the principal of Crisis-X, a crisis management company. He acted as personal attorney to the former President of the United States, Donald. J. Trump, and before that was Executive Vice President for the Trump Organization and Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump. Since his release from the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, he has authored the New York Times number one bestselling book, Disloyal: A Memoir. He also hosts the top-rated news podcast, Mea Culpa With Michael Cohen, and has become a political commentator regularly seen on major news outlets. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children." – Amazon biography

"When Michael Cohen's secret payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels on behalf of Donald Trump made Cohen look like a liability to the by-then-President of the United States, the end to their decade-long relationship came swiftly — with a knock on the door from the FBI. Soon, Cohen would find himself imprisoned — even though he had plenty of evidence to show he was innocent of most of the charges.

"Meanwhile, with the release of the Steele Dossier, Cohen also found himself battling endless news reports citing the Dossier's claims that he'd had clandestine dealings with Russia — reports that only mounted despite his exoneration by the Mueller Report.

"In a story now being echoed in recent breaking news stories about IRS persecution of Trump foes such as former FBI head James Comey and others, Cohen details — in his inimitable blunt language, with absolutely no holds barred and naming names — his attempt to clear his name and tell the truth about Donald Trump. Chillingly, he also makes clear what happens when you try to speak truth to power, and the power knows no bounds."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (871 ratings)
ISBN 978-1685890544 ?
A Higher Loyalty:
Truth, Lies, and Leadership
James Comey
Flatiron Books (April, 2018)
My Review

"On September 4, 2013, James Comey was sworn in as the seventh Director of the FBI.

"A Yonkers, New York native, Jim Comey attended the College of William and Mary and the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, Comey returned to New York and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. There, he took on numerous crimes, most notably Organized Crime in the case of the United States v. John Gambino, et al. Afterwards, Comey became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he prosecuted the high-profile case that followed the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

"Comey returned to New York after 9/11 to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. At the end of 2003, he was tapped to be the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and moved to the Washington, D.C. area.

"Comey left DOJ in 2005 to serve as General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he joined Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based investment fund, as its General Counsel. In early 2013, Comey became a Lecturer in Law, a Senior Research Scholar, and Hertog Fellow in National Security Law at Columbia Law School." – Amazon bios

"In his book, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.

"Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. deputy attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting the Mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change the Bush administration's policies on torture and electronic surveillance, overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of recent history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (17,458 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250192455 ?
Saving Justice:
Truth, Transparency, and Trust
James Comey
Flatiron Books (January 12, 2021)
No Review

"On September 4, 2013, James Comey was sworn in as the seventh Director of the FBI.

"A Yonkers, New York native, Jim Comey attended the College of William and Mary and the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, Comey returned to New York and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. There, he took on numerous crimes, most notably Organized Crime in the case of the United States v. John Gambino, et al. Afterwards, Comey became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he prosecuted the high-profile case that followed the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

"Comey returned to New York after 9/11 to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. At the end of 2003, he was tapped to be the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and moved to the Washington, D.C. area.

"Comey left DOJ in 2005 to serve as General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he joined Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based investment fund, as its General Counsel. In early 2013, Comey became a Lecturer in Law, a Senior Research Scholar, and Hertog Fellow in National Security Law at Columbia Law School.

"After he was fired as FBI Director, Comey held the King Lecture Chair in Public Policy at Howard University for 2017-18 and served as a Distinguished Lecturer in Public Policy at William and Mary for 2018-2019. In September 2020, his first book, A Higher Loyalty, was made into a Showtime limited series, "The Comey Rule."" – Amazon bios

"James Comey might best be known as the FBI director that Donald Trump fired in 2017, but he’s had a long, varied career in the law and justice system. He knows better than most just what a force for good the US justice system can be, and how far afield it has strayed during the Trump Presidency.

"In his much-anticipated follow-up to A Higher Loyalty, Comey uses anecdotes and lessons from his career to show how the federal justice system works. From prosecuting mobsters as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York in the 1980s to grappling with the legalities of anti-terrorism work as the Deputy Attorney General in the early 2000s to, of course, his tumultuous stint as FBI director beginning in 2013, Comey shows just how essential it is to pursue the primacy of truth for federal law enforcement.

"Saving Justice is gracefully written and honestly told, a clarion call for a return to fairness and equity in the law."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,108 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250799128 ?
Only the Strong:
Reversing the Left's Plot to Sabotage American Power
by Tom Cotton
Twelve (November 1, 2022)
No Review
"Tom Cotton is a United States Senator for Arkansas and bestselling author of Sacred Duty. He served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Between combat tours, he served with the 3rd Infantry Regiment ('The Old Guard') at Arlington National Cemetery. His military decorations include the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Ranger Tab. He serves on the Senate Intelligence, Armed Services, and Judiciary Committees. Tom is married to Anna and they have two sons, Gabriel and Daniel."

"If it seems to you that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have weakened America and emboldened our enemies, you’re not alone. But Senator Cotton explains that their failures aren’t just incompetence or bad luck—it’s decline by design.

"Only the Strong reveals the untold inside story of how progressive ideologues and Democratic politicians abandoned the American tradition of strength, pride, and honor. From the beginning, early progressives like Woodrow Wilson repudiated our Founding in favor of globalist fantasies abroad and big government at home. By Vietnam, leftists had begun to blame America first for the world’s problems—just as Barack Obama did for eight years as he apologized and sought to atone for America’s supposed sins. Along the way, Democrats have sold out America’s sovereignty and hollowed out our military to restrain American power. Even when Democrats have acted tough, it usually ends in disaster, from John Kennedy’s debacle at the Bay of Pigs to Bill Clinton’s fiasco in Mogadishu to Joe Biden’s humiliating retreat from Afghanistan."

Rating by Amazon customers: 5.0 (29 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538726792 ?
Justice Corrupted:
How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System
by Ted Cruz
Regnery Publishing (October 25, 2022)
No Review
"Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator for the State of Texas, has dedicated his life to upholding the principles enshrined in our Constitution. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig and Chief Justice William Rehnquist and became the youngest and longest-serving solicitor general in Texas history. Senator Cruz and his wife, Heidi, live in his hometown of Houston with their two young daughters, Caroline and Catherine." – Amazon biography

"The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, silencing, and even imprisoning Americans who stand in the way of their radical agenda. Their 'enemies list' even includes parents who dare to speak up for their children at school board meetings.

"In this shocking new book, Senator Ted Cruz takes readers inside the justice system, showing how the wrong hands on the levers of power can strangle liberty, crush opposition, and wreck lives. The notion of a 'Democratic' or 'Republican' Department of Justice is outrageous. That institution should safeguard the Constitutional rights of all Americans. Justice Corrupted will equip patriots and lovers of liberty to hold their government accountable."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (5 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684513611 ?
High Crimes:
The Corruption, Impunity, and Impeachment of Donald Trump
Michael D'Antonio & Peter Eisner
Thomas Dunne Books (October 20, 2020)
No Review
"As part of a team of journalists from Newsday, Michael D'Antonio won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting before going on to write many acclaimed books, including Atomic Harvest, The State Boys Rebellion, and The Truth About Trump. He has also written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. He lives in New York.
Peter Eisner has won national and international awards for his writing and investigative reporting as a foreign correspondent, editor and reporter at The Washington Post, Newsday, and the Associated Press. His 2004 book The Freedom Line, which won the Christopher Award, is the story of young resistance workers who rescued Allied fighter pilots during World War II. Eisner was nominated for an Emmy in 2010 as a producer at PBS World Focus. He is based in Washington, D.C." – Amazon biography

"Having spent a year essentially embedded inside several House committees, Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner draw on many sources, including key House leaders, to expose the politicking, playcalling, and strategies debated backstage and to explain the Democrats' successes and apparent public failures during the show itself.

"High Crimes opens with Nancy Pelosi deciding the House should take up impeachment, then, in part one, leaps back to explain what Ukraine was really all about: not just Joe Biden and election interference, but a money grab and oil. In the second part, the authors recount key meetings throughout the run up to the impeachment hearings, including many of the heated confrontations between the Trump administration and House Democrats. And the third part takes readers behind the scenes of those hearings, showing why certain things happened the way they did for reasons that never came up in public.

"In the end, having illuminated every step of impeachment, from the schemes that led Giuliani to the Ukraine in 2016 to Fiona Hill's rebuking the Republicans' conspiracy theories, High Crimes promises to be Trump's Final Days."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (61 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250766670 ?
Never Enough:
Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success
Michael D'Antonio
Thomas Dunne Books (September 22, 2015)
No Review
"As part of a team of journalists from Newsday, Michael D'Antonio won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting before going on to write many acclaimed books, including Atomic Harvest, The State Boys Rebellion, and The Truth About Trump. He has also written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. He lives in New York."

"In the hours I spent with President Trump as I researched the biography The Truth About Trump he showed interest in me just once. He suggested that if I wrote a 'good book' — meaning one that pleased him — I could make 'millions.' When I explained that a good biography served the reader and not the subject's whims, he replied, 'Well, if that's how you see it...'

"The way I see it is that the reader always comes first. I owe him/her clarity, precision, and a good story. All this is done with loyalty to the facts and respect for the complexities of human character in context.
"Besides the influence of family and growing-up experiences in small town New Hampshire I have been most affected by two people I met in college, my wife Toni and my first mentor, writer Donald Murray. Both have encouraged me to express my creativity, connect with others, and find ways to serve. They understood intuitively what I later found expressed so well by Viktor Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning. Finally, I've found that if I don't take myself too seriously, and add a little silliness, it's a pretty good recipe.

"Today I live in Long Island, not far from the sound. I have two grown daughters, Amy and Elizabeth, who have become the other great influences on my life."

"In the summer of 2015, as he vaulted to the lead among the many GOP candidates for president, Donald Trump was the only one dogged by questions about his true intentions. This most famous American businessman had played the role of provocateur so often that pundits, reporters, and voters struggled to believe that he was a serious contender. Trump stirred so much controversy that his candidacy puzzled anyone who applied ordinary political logic to the race. But as Michael D'Antonio shows in Never Enough, Trump has rarely been ordinary in his pursuit of success and his trademark method is based on a logic that begins with his firm belief that he is a singular and superior human being.

"As revealed in this landmark biography, Donald Trump is a man whose appetite for wealth, attention, power, and conquest is practically insatiable. Declaring that he is still the person he was as a rascally little boy, Trump confesses that he avoids reflecting on himself 'because I might not like what I see' and he believes 'most people aren't worthy of respect.'

"A product of the media age and the Me Generation that emerged in the 1970s, Trump was a Broadway showman before he became a developer. Mentored by the scoundrel attorney Roy Cohn, Trump was a regular on the New York club scene and won press attention as a dashing young mogul before he had built his first major project. He leveraged his father's enormous fortune and political connections to get his business off the ground, and soon developed a larger-than-life persona. In time, and through many setbacks, he made himself into a living symbol of extravagance and achievement.

"Drawing upon extensive and exclusive interviews with Trump and many of his family members, including all his adult children, D'Antonio presents the full story of a truly American icon, from his beginnings as a businessman to his stormy romantic life and his pursuit of power in its many forms. For all those who wonder: Just who is Donald Trump?, Never Enough supplies the answer. He is a promoter, builder, performer and politician who pursues success with a drive that borders on obsession and yet, has given him, almost everything he ever wanted."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (129 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250042385 ?
The Truth About Trump:
Michael D'Antonio
‎ Griffin (May 31, 2016)
No Review
"As part of a team of journalists from Newsday, Michael D'Antonio won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting before going on to write many acclaimed books, including Mortal Sins. He has also written for publications such as Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and The New York Times Magazine."

"Drawing upon exclusive interviews and exhaustive research, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael D'Antonio presents Trump's full story, from his beginnings as a businessman to his juggernaut presidential campaign. Along the way, D'Antonio charts the successes and failures, scandals and triumphs, and relentless pursuit of money and fame that have made Trump who he is today. D'Antonio also details the origins of the Trump family fortune, Trump's history of using politics to get ahead, and how he has mastered the media to turn publicity into power.

"First published in 2015, and now updated to cover Trump's rise to political prominence, The Truth About Trump is an unsparing, eye-opening account of the life and career of the most talked-about man in America."

Previously published in hardcover as Never Enough.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (611 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250105288 ?
2,000 Mules:
They Thought We'd Never Find Out. They Were Wrong.
Dinesh D'Souza
Regnery Publishing; Reissue edition (October 25, 2022)
No Review
"Dinesh D'Souza has had a prominent career as a writer, scholar, public intellectual, and filmmaker. Born in India, D’Souza came to the U.S. as an exchange student at the age of 17 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College. The author of many bestselling books, he is also the creator of three of the top ten highest-grossing political documentaries ever made."

"At last, bestselling author Dinesh D'Souza exposes the powerful evidence of voting fraud that you were told didn't exist. Also, a major motion picture documentary.

"The 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud orchestrated by the Democratic Party. That’s not just an accusation; it’s now, thanks to bestselling author and investigative journalist Dinesh D’Souza, an established fact. With eyewitness testimony and the pinpoint precision and analytic sophistication of the forensic technique of geotracking, D’Souza demonstrates how an already corrupt system put in place by Democratic Party hacks and “community organizers” was taken over and supercharged by national-level operatives to jeopardize the integrity of the election."

D'Souza also has a 2014 felony conviction for illegal campaign contributions. He was pardoned by Trump on 31 May 2018. In response, D'Souza tweeted: "Obama and his stooges tried to extinguish my American dream & destroy my faith in America. Thank you @realDonaldTrump for fully restoring both." If you read his books, or watch the much-derided documentary, you'll find he has no actual evidence.

An Amazon customer writes: "D'Souza's book version finally came out, two months after the publisher pulled all copies at the last second to trash them. comparing the trashed version (which NPR found in a bookstore) with today's version, you see that D'Souza had to delete all claims about organizations that supposedly created fraudulent ballots for the mules to take to the drop boxes and all claims that BLM and Antifa were involved. True the Vote, the source that provided the data for his claims in the earlier version about the organizations, BLM and Antifa, says it completely disavows his claims and has no idea where he came up with them."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (300 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684514465 ?
Collateral Damage:
Britain, America, and Europe in the Age of Trump
Kim Darroch
PublicAffairs (October 13, 2020)
No Review
"Kim Darroch, Baron Darroch of Kew, was appointed British Ambassador to the US in 2015. He resigned in 2019 after a series of cables containing unflattering descriptions of President Trump were leaked to a 19-year-old freelance journalist and Brexit Party employee and made public. Darroch received a life peerage in November 2019. He will be teaching at Harvard in the Spring of 2020." – Amazon biography

"Kim Darroch is one of the UK's most experienced and respected diplomats, and this unvarnished, behind-the-scenes account will reveal the inside story behind his resignation; describe the challenges of dealing with the Trump White House; and offer a diplomat's perspective on Brexit, and how it looked to Britain's closest ally.

"Darroch was the British Ambassador to the US as the age of Trump dawned and Brexit unfolded. He explains why the British embassy expected a Trump victory from as early as February 2016, what part every key figure - from Steve Bannon to Sarah Sanders - has played in Trump's administration, and what balanced policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic should consider during this era of seismic change and populist politics.

"A riveting account from the best-informed insider, Collateral Damage charts the strangest and most convulsive period in the recent history of Britain and the US - and shows how 30 months threatened to overturn three centuries of history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (234 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541751019 ?
The Useful Idiot:
How Donald Trump Killed the Republican Party with Racism and the Rest of Us with Coronavirus
S.V. Dáte
Independently published (September 4, 2020)
No Review
"S.V. Dáte is a senior White House correspondent at HuffPost. His new work, The Useful Idiot, captures Trump's failed management of the coronavirus pandemic and his corruption of the Republican Party. Dáte is the author of five novels and two political biographies, including one of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He has been a journalist for three decades, including at the Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, National Journal, and NPR. He is a blue water sailor, tallying 15,000 ocean miles aboard a 44-foot cutter with his two sons, as they sailed across the Atlantic, through the Mediterranean and back via the Caribbean." – Amazon biography

"A pandemic never occurred to them. The idea that Donald Trump would ever be required to sit still, pay attention and make rational decisions that would determine whether hundreds of thousands of Americans would live or die not once crossed the minds of those who put him into the Oval Office. For whatever reason, even as they watched the noise and chaos and nonsense generated by candidate Donald Trump for a full year and a half, the consequences of a real crisis requiring real leadership actually happening on the watch of a President Donald Trump never really dawned on them. Three and a half years later, here we are. Approaching 200,000 dead Americans and counting, with a president who grew bored of the crisis months ago. This after the racial and ethnic divisions Trump has inflamed, the endless, wearying lying about things great and small, the pointless chaos, the open abuse of his office to funnel millions into his own pockets and to extort a foreign leader into helping his reelection. If Trump is given another four years, what might his behavior be like, completely unburdened of the need to face the voters ever again? And do Americans really want to find out?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (140 ratings)
ISBN 979-8675754533 ?
The Useful Idiot:
How Donald Trump Killed the Republican Party with Racism and the Rest of Us with Coronavirus, and Why We're Not Done with Him Yet
S.V. Dáte
Independently published (February 19, 2021)
No Review
"S.V. Dáte is a senior White House correspondent at HuffPost. His new update to The Useful Idiot offers a stark warning about the perils facing America, as exposed by Donald Trump's failed 'QAnon Coup' attempt of January 6, 2021, the last gasp in his months-long effort to remain in power despite losing re-election resoundingly."
"Dáte is the author of five novels and two political biographies, including one of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He has been a journalist for three decades, including at the Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, National Journal and NPR. He is a blue water sailor, tallying 15,000 ocean miles aboard a 44-foot cutter with his two children, as they sailed across the Atlantic, through the Mediterranean and back via the Caribbean." – Amazon biography

"America, we got lucky. On the laundry list of things Donald Trump has been terrible at in his life, transforming our country into a fascist autocracy was only the latest."

"After four years of constant chaos, endless lying, the near daily horrors like an official policy to rip children from the arms of their parents to discourage illegal border crossings, we need to keep in mind that it could have been worse. As bad as it was, Donald Trump had zero capacity for strategic thinking, no interest in learning from his mistakes, a non-existent attention span. So, yes, he absolutely admired and praised murderous dictators and had authoritarian tendencies himself, including, of course, his repeated attempts to steal the election he could not win, capped off with the deadly QAnon Coup attempt of January 6. But he was inept, and terrible at implementing his impulses.

"What happens, though, next time, when the fascism-curious president is smarter and more competent? Donald Trump has blazed the trail and shown, with the help of a pliant Republican Party, that there is no consequence for trying to thwart the will of the voters. There will be others.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (158 ratings)
ISBN 979-8711551287 ?
Border Wars:
Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration
by Julie Hirschfeld Davis & Michael D. Shear
Simon & Schuster (October 8, 2019)
No Review
"Julie Hirschfeld Davis is a congressional correspondent at The New York Times. She has covered politics from Washington for 21 years. She joined the Times in 2014 as a White House correspondent after stints at Bloomberg News, the Associated Press, The Baltimore Sun, and Congressional Quarterly. She won the 2009 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. " Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent in The New York Times Washington bureau, where he covers President Trump. A veteran political correspondent, before coming to the Times in 2010, he spent eighteen years writing about local, state and national politics at The Washington Post, where he was also part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007." – Amazon biography

"As his campaign rhetoric in the 2018 midterms demonstrated, no issue matters more to Donald Trump than immigration. And no issue—with the possible exception of his opposition to Robert Mueller's investigation of his 2016 campaign—better defines his administration. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear have covered the Trump administration from its earliest days. In Border Wars, they take readers inside the White House to document how Trump and his allies blocked asylum-seekers and refugees, separated families, threatened deportation and sought to erode the longstanding bipartisan consensus that immigration and immigrants make positive contributions to America. As the authors reveal, Trump has used immigration to stoke fears ('the caravan'), attack Democrats and the courts, and distract from negative news and political difficulties. Even as illegal immigration has fallen in recent years, Trump has elevated it in the imaginations of many Americans into a national crisis. Moreover, his comments about legal immigrants—Nigerians in their 'huts,' Haitians infected with AIDS, and people from '@#$%hole countries'—have been incendiary. Border Wars identifies the players behind Trump's anti-immigration policies, showing how they planned, stumbled, and fought their way toward major immigration changes that have further polarized the nation. This definitive, behind-the-scenes account is filled with previously unreported stories that reveal how Trump's decision-making is driven by gut instinct and marked by disorganization, paranoia, and a constantly feuding staff."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (53 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982117399 ?
Two Years of Trump on the Psychiatrist's Couch
by David Laing Dawson
Marvin Ross (Editor)
Bridgeross Communications (December 28, 2018)
No Review
"David Laing Dawson is a psychiatrist and former chief of psychiatry at the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital (now part of St Joseph's Health Care) and associate professor of psychiatry at McMaster University Faculty of Health Sciences, also in Hamilton Ontario. Dawson is also a noted play write [sic] and film maker both documentary and feature as well as being an artist and co-owner of the Gallery on the Bay in Hamilton Ontario. He still finds time to treat patients." – Amazon biography

"We live in a moment of history when the leader of the free world (as the president of the United States is so often called) may hold in his hands the future path of democracy, the fate of millions all over the world, and, ultimately, the fate of our planet. And that fact, I think, trumps (sorry) all the caveats about diagnosing someone whom you have never seen. It is a time that anyone who can see the dangers posed by this man has a duty to speak up. I started these blogs before Donald J. Trump was improbably elected. The most popular among them has been my assessment of Donald J. Trump's mental and emotional age. I arrived at an age simply from observations of his behaviour and his statements, while asking the question, 'At what age in development would one expect, or not be too shocked, to observe this behaviour?' I came up with an average of 14. Though occasionally his displays of sibling rivalry and his assessment of his own greatness are definitely pre-pubescent. We become easily inured, desensitized. The outrageous and abnormal can be made to feel normal. A step at a time. The German government enacted something like 50 laws over a short historical period, starting with restricting Jews from Union Leadership. Some of the political pundits on television comment regularly on the 'abnormal' becoming 'normal.' But the very presentation on TV contributes to the desensitization. These blogs constitute my interpretation of the journey we are on with the Presidency of one Donald J. Trump as it is happening."

Rating by Amazon customers: 5.0 (2 ratings)
ISBN 978-1927637326 SJ0
Faucian Bargain:
The Most Powerful and Dangerous Bureaucrat in American History
by Steve Deace & Todd Erzen
Post Hill Press (March 26, 2021)
No Review

"Steve Deace is on BlazeTV radio and podcast for two hours each weekday, right after Glenn Beck. He's also the author of several books and is a prolific writer. His 2013 column defending Duck Dynasty and traditional American values was the second most read column of the year for USA Today. In addition to USA Today, he's also been a contributor to Breitbart, Business Insider, Townhall, and Politico. National media coast-to-coast recognize Deace as an influential voice in his home state of Iowa's first in the nation caucuses. He's frequently been quoted in the national media on political issues, especially presidential politics. Deace has also appeared on all three major cable news networks. Deace lives in Iowa with his wife, Amy, and their three children — Anastasia, Zoe, and Noah. You can visit his website at www.blazetv.com/deace to learn more." – Amazon biography

"Can liberty survive in the hands of one all-powerful, unchallenged, and unelected bureaucrat?

"It wasn’t too long ago that the average American didn’t know who Anthony Fauci was. Now, after the coronavirus has spread nationwide, he’s arguably the most powerful bureaucrat in American history. But is it dangerous for a free society to concentrate so much power in the hands of an unelected official? Who or what holds Fauci accountable?

In addition to the self-promotion seen in this book's Amazon biography, it has endorsements from Florida governor Ron DeSantis (who lauds his state's lousy pandemic performance) and Senator Ron Paul (R-KY), who with admirable alliteration but deceitful denigration lambasts "the enemy of both liberty and logic the lockdowns have proven to be."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (5,323 ratings)
ISBN 978-1637581117 ?
The Case Against Impeaching Trump
Alan Dershowitz
Hot Books (July 9, 2018)
No Review
"Alan Dershowitz is one of the most famous and celebrated lawyers in America. He was the youngest full professor in Harvard Law School history, where he is now the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus. The author of numerous bestselling books, from Chutzpah to The Best Defense to Reversal of Fortune (which was made into an Academy Award-winning film) and to The Case for Israel, Dershowitz has advised and defended many of the most famous legal cases of the past fifty years, including O.J. Simpson, Anatoly Sharansky, Michael Milken, Claus von Bulow, and Mike Tyson." – Amazon biography

"The Case Against Impeaching Trump seeks to reorient the debate over impeachment to the same standard that Dershowitz has continued to uphold for decades: the law of the United States of America, as established by the Constitution. In the author's own words:

" 'In the fervor to impeach President Trump, his political enemies have ignored the text of the Constitution. As a civil libertarian who voted against Trump, I remind those who would impeach him not to run roughshod over a document that has protected us all for two and a quarter centuries. In this case against impeachment, I make arguments similar to those I made against the impeachment of President Bill Clinton (and that I would be making had Hillary Clinton been elected and Republicans were seeking to impeach her). Impeachment and removal of a president are not entirely political decisions by Congress. Every member takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution sets out specific substantive criteria that MUST be met.

"I am thrilled to contribute to this important debate and especially that my book will be so quickly available to readers so they can make up their own minds.' "

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (522 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510742284 ?
Confirming Justice―Or Injustice?
A Guide to Judging RBG's Successor
Alan Dershowitz
Hot Books (October 13, 2020)
No Review
"Alan Dershowitz is one of the most celebrated lawyers in the world. He was the youngest full professor in Harvard Law School history, where he is now the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus. The author of numerous bestselling books, from Chutzpah to Guilt by Accusation to The Case Against Impeaching Trump to The Best Defense to Reversal of Fortune (which was made into an Academy Award–winning film) to Defending Israel, Dershowitz has advised presidents and prime ministers and has represented many prominent men and women, half of them pro bono."

"In Confirming Justice—Or Injustice?, Alan Dershowitz—New York Times bestselling author and one of America’s most respected legal scholars—contemplates the past, present, and future of the Supreme Court, from the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the confirmation battle looming over President Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

"Alan Dershowitz has been called 'one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America' by Politico and 'the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights' by Newsweek. He is also a fair-minded and even-handed expert on the Constitution and American government, and in this book offers his knowledge and insight to help readers understand the current circumstances surrounding the Supreme Court and the looming partisan battle for its future.

"Confirming Justice—Or Injustice? is an analysis of every aspect of the possible confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacant seat left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It includes timely commentary on the history and process of confirming justices to the Supreme Court, notes about what might happen if the process is changed—such as by court packing or instituting age or term limits for justices—and discussion of the roles of the various people and groups who might have input on the confirmation, from the president to the senate to the judiciary committee to the Constitution itself.

"In the end, Confirming Justice—Or Injustice? represents an icon in American law and politics reckoning with an increasingly politicized and polarized nomination-and-confirmation process for judges and what those shifts might mean for the country, both now and in days to come. It is essential reading for anyone interested in or concerned about Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett and the process of her possible confirmation, the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the future and fate of the Supreme Court—and American democracy itself."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.0 (6 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510765672 ?
Get Trump:
The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law
Alan Dershowitz
Hot Books (March 14, 2023)
No Review
"Alan Dershowitz is one of the most celebrated lawyers in the world. He was the youngest full professor in Harvard Law School history where he is now the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus. The author of numerous bestselling books, from Chutzpah to Guilt by Accusation to The Case Against Impeaching Trump to The Best Defense to Reversal of Fortune (which was made into an Academy Award–winning film) to Defending Israel, Dershowitz has advised presidents and prime ministers and has represented many prominent men and women, half of them pro bono." – Amazon biography

"Get Trump makes clear that unconstitutional efforts to stop Trump from retaking the presidency challenge the very foundations of our liberty: due process, right to counsel, and free speech. Those who justify these dangerous departures from the rule of law argue that the threat posed by a second Trump presidency is 'different' and 'immediate,' while the departures from constitutional norms are longer term and more abstract.

"Dershowitz explains that defenders of Trump’s constitutional rights—even those like him who oppose Trump politically—are sought to be silenced; their free speech rights attacked, their integrity questioned, and their careers threatened. Much of the media substitutes advocacy against Trump for objective reporting, while many in academia petition and propagandize against rights they previously valued—all in the interest of getting Trump.

"The essence of justice is that it must be equally applicable to all, Dershowitz notes. No one is above the law but digging to find crimes in order to influence an election does not constitute the equal application of the law. In order to assure equal application in comparable situations, he proposes two criteria for indicting a likely candidate of the opposing party: the Richard Nixon standard and the Hillary Clinton standard—and most recently, the Joe Biden standard.

"Get Trump warns that regardless of whether this anti-democratic effort to stop Trump from running succeeds or fails, it is likely to create dangerous precedents that will lie around like loaded weapons ready to be deployed against other controversial candidates, officials, or citizens about whom it can be argued that the danger they pose 'is different.' ”

Like some once-respected scientists who became climate-change deniers at the close of their careers, Dershowitz has "gone emeritus." His defense of Trump in these books, and as counsel during Trump's first impeachment hearing, is untenable. Someone who knew him when asked, "Alan — what happened to you?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (33 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510777811 ?
Days of Trump:
The Definitive Chronology of the 45th President of the United States
Tim Devine
Devine Company, LLC (January 21, 2022)
No Review
"Tim Devine is an award-winning news and editorial writer, former music, entertainment and technology executive and Political Science and Media graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Lynn." – Amazon biography

"A lot happened in the 1,461 days of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. So much so that no one could possibly retain it all without extensive notes. Working off the whirlwind mantra of 'flood the zone,' Trump mesmerized fans and critics by his daily gyrations and machinations, aiming to "own the news cycle" like no previous president ever has.

"Chronicling one of the most unique presidencies of all time, Days of Trump recounts nearly every day of the Trump presidency including domestic and international agendas like the Summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un (aka 'Little Rocketman'), meetings in the Middle East, the G-7, two visits with Queen Elizabeth, meeting the Pope and the historic Helsinki meeting with Vladimir Putin and more. The book also includes coverage of surrounding players like Bill Barr, Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Mike Flynn, Mike Pence and other colorful figures like Kellyanne Conway, Anthony Scaramucci, Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney and more.

"Of course, what would a Trump book be without some of the more uniquely Trump moments like 'Tim Apple,' 'Covfefe' or Kellyanne's 'Alternative Facts' and Bowling Green Massacre, Trump's offer to 'buy Greenland,' Don Jr.'s 'If it's what you say, I love it.' Jim Comey's 'Lordy, I hope there are tapes!' and Trump's final approach to 'Stop the Steal.' It's all there and much more! With over 500 photos, documents and weblinks, Days of Trump may be the most comprehensive resource for political historians and lay people alike."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.0 (82 ratings)
ISBN 978-1737823889 ?
Donald J. Trump as U.S. President:
"It's All About Me!"
by John Dixon & Christina Dixon
Westphalia Press (March 20, 2018)
No Review
"John Dixon is Professor of Public Administration at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. He is a fellow of the British Academy of the Social Sciences in 2004, and has been an honorary life member of the American Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars since 2006." – Amazon biography Christina Dixon — presumably John Dixon's wife — has no biography entry on Amazon.

"This is a wide-ranging book that focus (sic) the man who is the 45th president of the United States of America—Donald J. Trump. Its premise is that Trump's rhetoric and actions become more understandable, perhaps even more predictable, in the light of his personality and his worldview and view-of-the world. It, therefore, has two goals:

  • To delineate his personality traits and his worldview, so as to surmise on how he thinks about himself, others, and the world-at-large, and how he perceives and takes meaning from reality he experiences.
  • To elucidate his idiosyncratic views on governance, government, the presidency, public administration, and domestic and foreign public policy.

"To achieve these goals requires drawing upon concepts, frameworks, paradigms, and theories from philosophy, political science, psychology, public administration, economics, management, organizational theory, social theory, and sociology to understand his personality and worldview, and his views of the world-at-large, governance, government, and public policy.

"This book is targeted at those for whom the Trump phenomenon—as a presidential candidate and as president—is both fascinating and baffling, but who are not intimately familiar with Trump the man of some notoriety or with American political institution, processes, and politics."

Rating by Amazon customers: ? (0 ratings)
ISBN 978-1633916661 ?
Swamp Monsters:
Trump vs. DeSantis―the Greatest Show on Earth (or at Least in Florida)
Matt Dixon
Little, Brown and Company (January 9, 2024)
No Review
"Matt Dixon is a veteran Florida journalist and NBC News senior national politics reporter."

"Ron DeSantis was struggling through Florida’s political wilderness when, in late 2017, Donald Trump extended his hand. Ambitious but charmless, DeSantis was a relatively obscure figure even within his own state’s Republican party, and an unlikely pick for the GOP’s gubernatorial nomination. But when Trump took to Twitter and praised him as 'a brilliant young leader' and 'a true FIGHTER,' everything changed—for DeSantis, for Florida, and for the country. Today, as Florida governor and a GOP presidential frontrunner, DeSantis sits within striking distance of the Oval Office, and his onetime benefactor has turned into his most formidable opponent. Florida, meanwhile, has mutated from the country’s biggest swing state into the stronghold of the extremist wing of the Republican party—a place where COVID denialism and culture-war antics have been battle-tested, and where the nation’s political future might just be forged.

"In Swamp Monsters, veteran Florida journalist and NBC News senior national politics reporter Matt Dixon pulls back the curtain on the titanic clash between a one-time kingmaker and a would-be king, showing how the battle between Trump and DeSantis has escalated, how it might end—and what it will mean for the country."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (8 ratings)
ISBN 978-0316397223 ?
The Trump Century:
How Our President Changed the Course of History Forever
Lou Dobbs (with Dennis Kneale)
Broadside Books (September 22, 2020)
No Review
"Lou Dobbs is the New York Times bestselling author of six books, and the host of the #1 news program on business television, Lou Dobbs Tonight, on Fox Business Network. He is also the host of nationally syndicated "Lou Dobbs Financial Reports," airing on the radio daily. Named "TV's Premier Business News Anchorman" by the Wall Street Journal, Dobbs has numerous Emmys, a CableACE Award, a Peabody Award, and many other distinguished honors. Dennis Kneale has over thirty years of experience in journalism from Forbes and the Wall Street Journal to anchor for CNBC and Fox Business. He is the CEO of Dennis Kneale Media, providing content, training, strategy, and investment advice." – Amazon biography

"How did Donald Trump almost single-handedly reverse America’s decline?

"As the 21st Century began, the world’s only superpower was economically adrift, policing the world at the expense of American lives and trillions of dollars, weighed down by one-sided trade and security agreements with Europe and China ratified in a different era. Elites of both political parties battled over who would manage America’s decline from preeminent world power.

"In The Trump Century, the indomitable Lou Dobbs explains how Trump has steered the debate every day he has been in politics, greatly expanding what Washington thinks is possible. By 2016, the globalist elites demanded no one speak about limiting illegal immigration or securing our borders. The elites told you communist China would soon be like us, and the PC orthodoxy told you what you could or could not say. You were told America’s Middle Class could never grow again and wages would be stagnant into perpetuity. Trump reversed all of that as radical Democrats and the Deep State conspired to overthrow his Presidency, as the deadly pandemic raged, and orchestrated street protests and violent riots dominated news headlines. He has not only made America great again but created a new standard for all future Presidents and likely has set the American agenda for the next hundred years.

"The Trump Century opens a window into Trump’s thinking on the economy, foreign policy, and border security and will energize his allies when they realize the future they’ve shaped."

The "indominable Lou Dobbs" was an early promoter of the "birther" theory that held Barack Obama was born in Kenya and hence ineligible to be president. He is a Trump confidant and a climate-change denier, and his Fox Business show Lou Dobbs Tonight (formerly on CNN) is known for its extremely pro-Trump slant. See Ex-DHS official: Trump wanted us to tune in to Lou Dobbs's show 'every night' (Kaelan Deese, The Hill, 8/21/20)

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (1,301 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063029040 ?
Meme Wars:
The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America
Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss & Brian Friedberg
Bloomsbury Publishing (September 20, 2022)
No Review
"Joan Donovan, PhD is the research director of Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center and one of the foremost experts on media and disinformation in the world. Emily Dreyfuss is a veteran tech journalist and the Senior Managing Editor of the Harvard Shorenstein Technology and Social Change team. Brian Friedberg is an ethnographer and Senior Researcher on the Harvard Shorenstein Technology and Social Change team." – Amazon biography

"Memes have long been dismissed as inside jokes with no political importance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Memes are bedrock to the strategy of conspiracists such as Alex Jones, provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos, white nationalists like Nick Fuentes, and tacticians like Roger Stone. While the media and most politicians struggle to harness the organizing power of the internet, the 'redpill right' weaponizes memes, pushing conspiracy theories and disinformation into the mainstream to drag people down the rabbit hole. These meme wars stir strong emotions, deepen partisanship, and get people off their keyboards and into the streets—and the steps of the US Capitol.

"Meme Wars is the first major account of how 'Stop the Steal' went from online to real life, from the wires to the weeds. Leading media expert Joan Donovan, PhD, veteran tech journalist Emily Dreyfuss, and cultural ethnographer Brian Friedberg pull back the curtain on the digital war rooms in which a vast collection of antiesablishmentarians bond over hatred of liberal government and media. Together as a motley reactionary army, they use memes and social media to seek out new recruits, spread ideologies, and remake America according to their desires.

"A political thriller with the substance of a rigorous history, Meme Wars is the astonishing story of how extremists are yanking our culture and politics to the right. And it's a warning that if we fail to recognize these powerful undercurrents, the great meme war for the soul of America will soon be won."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (14 ratings)
ISBN 978-1635578638 ?
Will He Go?:
Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020
Lawrence Douglas
Twelve (May 19, 2020)
No Review
"Lawrence Douglas is the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College. He is the prize-winning author of seven books, most recently The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial." – Amazon biography

"In advance of the 2020 election, legal scholar Lawrence Douglas prepares readers for a less-than-peaceful transition of power.

"It doesn't require a strong imagination to get a sense of the mayhem Trump will unleash if he loses a closely contested election. It is no less disturbing to imagine Trump still insisting that he is the rightful leader of the nation. With millions of diehard supporters firmly believing that their revered president has been toppled by malignant forces of the Deep State, Trump could remain a force of constitutional chaos for years to come. WILL TRUMP GO? (sic) addresses such questions as:

  • How might Trump engineer his refusal to acknowledge electoral defeat? What legal and extra-legal paths could he pursue in mobilizing a challenge to the electoral outcome?
  • What legal, political, institutional, and popular mechanisms can be used to stop him?
  • What would be the fallout of a failure to remove him from office? What would be the fallout of a successful effort to unseat him?
  • Can our democracy snap back from Trump?

"Trump himself has essentially told the nation he will never accept electoral defeat. A book that prepares us for Trump's refusal to concede, then, is hardly speculative; it is a necessary precaution against a coming crisis."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (17 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538751886 ?
The Toddler in Chief:
What Donald Trump Teaches Us about the Modern Presidency
Daniel W. Drezner
University of Chicago Press (March 25, 2020)
No Review
"Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to the Washington Post. He is the father of two former toddlers, both of whom were more mature than President Trump." – Amazon biography

"Every president faces criticism and caricature. Donald Trump, however, is unique in that he is routinely characterized in ways more suitable for a toddler. What’s more, it is not just Democrats, pundits, or protestors who compare the president to a child; Trump’s staffers, subordinates, and allies on Capitol Hill also describe Trump like a small, badly behaved preschooler.

"In April 2017, Daniel W. Drezner began curating every example he could find of a Trump ally describing the president like a toddler. So far, he’s collected more than one thousand tweets—a rate of more than one a day. In The Toddler-in-Chief, Drezner draws on these examples to take readers through the different dimensions of Trump’s infantile behavior, from temper tantrums to poor impulse control to the possibility that the President has had too much screen time. How much damage can really be done by a giant man-baby? Quite a lot, Drezner argues, due to the winnowing away of presidential checks and balances over the past fifty years. In these pages, Drezner follows his theme—the specific ways in which sharing some of the traits of a toddler makes a person ill-suited to the presidency—to show the lasting, deleterious impact the Trump administration will have on American foreign policy and democracy.

"The 'adults in the room' may not be able to rein in Trump’s toddler-like behavior, but, with the 2020 election fast approaching, the American people can think about whether they want the most powerful office turned into a poorly run political day care facility. Drezner exhorts us to elect a commander-in-chief, not a toddler-in-chief. And along the way, he shows how we must rethink the terrifying powers we have given the presidency."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (369 ratings)
ISBN 978-0226714257 ?
In Trump's Shadow:
The Battle for 2024 and the Future of the GOP
David M. Drucker
Twelve (October 19, 2021)
No Review
"David M. Drucker is a senior correspondent for the Washington Examiner, where he focuses on Congress, campaigns, and national political trends. Prior to joining the Washington Examiner, he was a reporter for Roll Call, a newspaper in Washington, D.C. Before joining Roll Call, Drucker covered California politics, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the Sacramento bureau of the Los Angeles Daily News. Drucker graduated from UCLA with a BA in history, and spent eight years managing a family-run manufacturing business in Southern California, giving him a unique perspective on how what happens inside the Beltway affects the rest of the country. Drucker is a Vanity Fair contributing writer and regular on cable news and nationally syndicated radio programs. A native of Los Angeles, Drucker resides on Capitol Hill with his wife and two sons." – Amazon biography

"With Trump’s four years in the White House now in the rearview, an unprecedented period in American political history is concluded. The transition, however, has set off a mad scramble for control of a Republican Party that for so long has reflected the domineering image of one man—and might even still in the years ahead. Who emerges from the warring factions and familial rivalries that proliferated and quietly festered during Trump’s presidency could determine the fate of the GOP for a generation, and the first hint of what’s to come begins with the 2024 campaign to crown the first Republican nominee, and national party leader, of the post-Trump era.

"With Trump’s exit, a singular era in American political history has ended—and the Republican Party, whose identity had for so long been centered around one man, will be forced to redefine itself for the future.

"Featuring profiles of everyone from Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, and Nikki Haley to Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and those in the Trump family, In Trump's Shadow tells the story of a GOP under—and after—the forty-fifth president, and all of those jousting for influence over the party’s direction in the wake of Donald Trump."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (52 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538754047 ?
A Case for the American People:
The United States v. Donald J. Trump
Norman Eisen
Crown (July 28, 2020)
No Review
"Norman Eisen was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, including for the impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump. He previously served as ethics czar for President Barack Obama and then as his ambassador to the Czech Republic. Eisen is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and his previous books include The Last Palace and Democracy's Defenders. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family." – Amazon biography

"In his behind-the-scenes account of the attempts to bring the president to justice—from filing the very first legal actions against him, through the Mueller report, to the turbulent impeachment and trial, to the president's ongoing wrongdoing today—Norman Eisen, at the forefront of the battle since the day of Trump's inauguration, pulls back the curtain on the process. He reveals ten proposed articles of impeachment, not just the two that were publicly tried, all of which he had a hand in drafting. He then guides us through Trump's lifelong instincts that have dictated his presidency: a cycle of abuse, corruption, and relentless obstruction of the truth.

"Since taking the oath of office, Donald Trump has been on a spree of high crimes and misdemeanors, using the awesome power of the presidency for his own personal gain, at the expense of the American people. He has inflamed our divisions for his electoral benefit, with flagrant disregard for the Constitution that makes us America. Each step of the way, he has lied incessantly, including to cover up his crimes. And yet he remains in the country's highest office.

"Congress, federal and state prosecutors, and courts have worked to hold the president accountable for his myriad offenses—with some surprising successes and devastating failures. Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for Trump's impeachment and trial, presents the case against Trump anew. Eisen's gripping narrative and rousing closing argument—at turns revelatory, insightful, and enraging—will inspire our nation of judges. History has proven that this president's nefarious behavior will continue, no matter the crisis. But, as Eisen's candid retelling affirms, there is an ultimate constitutional power that transcends the president's, a power that can and must defeat him if our nation is to survive. The verdict of the American people remains in the balance. It is time for us to act."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (335 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593238431 ?
Overcoming Trumpery:
How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy
Norman Eisen
Part of: Geopolitics in the 21st Century (17 books)
Brookings Institution Press (March 22, 2022)
No Review
"Ambassador Norman Eisen (ret.) is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and a CNN Legal Analyst. He served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment and trial of President Trump, and as President Obama’s ethics czar and ambassador to the Czech Republic."

"Distinguished scholars and practitioners have come together not only to address what went awry over the past four years, but also the deeper weaknesses that have become more evident, and how those weaknesses can be repaired. The problem areas range from ethics and conflicts of interest to the Hatch Act and big money in politics, and from independence at the Department of Justice and government transparency to reestablishing Congressional oversight, and the government’s role in the broader areas of how Americans vote and of international ethics and rule of law.

"Overcoming Trumpery provides a framework to understand the significant developments that are already happening in Washington with respect to ethics, the rule of law, and democracy. These include the 'For the People Act,' the 'Protecting Our Democracy Act,' and President Biden’s Executive Order on Ethics.

"The ideas outlined in this book for fixing flaws in federal governance come from the more than century of collective experience of its expert authors. The book represents a burst of sunshine after a very dark period in the nation’s history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.7 (10 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593238431 ?
Trying Trump:
A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial
Norman Eisen
Independently published (April 9, 2024)
No Review
"Ambassador Norman Eisen (ret.) is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and a CNN Legal Analyst. He served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment and trial of President Trump, and as President Obama’s ethics czar and ambassador to the Czech Republic."

"The ultimate insider’s guide to the first criminal trial of an American president: the New York election interference prosecution of Donald Trump.

"Counsel in the first impeachment of Donald Trump and CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen has been hailed as 'at the very pinnacle' of commentators addressing the former president’s court troubles. In this new guide to Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial, he explains the landmark prosecution—the first ever of a current or former President of the United States—and what to expect at every stage of the trial. Eisen makes the case that these proceedings concern Trump’s first election interference in 2016, opening the way for similar voter deception to hang onto power in 2020. The volume is an indispensable guide to what may prove to be one of the most important trials in our history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (16 ratings)
ISBN 979-8322236238 ?
A Sacred Oath:
Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times
Mark T. Esper
William Morrow (May 10, 2022)
No Review
"Mark T. Esper served as secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020 and as secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019. A distinguished graduate of West Point, he spent twenty-one years in uniform, including a combat tour in the 1991 Gulf War. Esper earned a Ph.D. from George Washington University while working on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon as a political appointee. He was also a senior executive at a prestigious think tank, at various business associations and commission, and at a Fortune 100 technology company. Esper is the recipient of multiple civilian and military awards, and currently sits on several public policy and business boards." – Amazon biography

"From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history—a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper’s unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (923 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063144316 ?
Hold the Line:
The Insurrection and One Cop's Battle for America's Soul
Michael Fanone & John Shiffman
Atria Books (October 11, 2022)
No Review
"Michael Fanone served as a Metropolitan Police Department Officer assigned to the First District for twenty years. Working briefly as a patrol officer and then spending the majority of his career as a vice investigator in various small mission units, Fanone participated in over 2,000 arrests for violent crimes and narcotics trafficking, served as a special task force officer for the FBI, ATF, and DEA, and earned more than three dozen commendations for his work. Fanone currently serves as an analyst for CNN, a security consultant, and a firearms instructor. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
John Shiffman is an investigative reporter for Reuters and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, DC."

"When Michael Fanone self-deployed to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he had no idea his life was about to change. When he got to the front of the line, he urged his fellow officers to hold it against the growing crowd of insurrectionists—until he found himself pulled into the mob, tased until he had a heart attack, and viciously beaten with a Blue Lives Matter flag as shouts to kill him rang out.

"Now, Fanone is ready to tell the full story of that fateful day, along with exploring our country’s most critical issues as someone who has had firsthand experience with many of them. A self-described redneck who voted for Trump in 2016, Fanone’s closest friend was an informant—a Black, transgender, HIV-positive woman who has helped him mature and rethink his methods as a police officer. With his unique insight as an undercover detective and intense desire to do the right thing no matter the cost, Fanone provides a nuanced look into everything from policing to race to politics in a way that is accessible across all party lines.

"Determined to make sure no one forgets what happened at the Capitol on January 6th, Fanone has written a timely call to action for anyone who wants to preserve our democracy for future generations."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (1,261 ratings)
ISBN 978-1668007198 ?
The Constitution Demands It:
The Case for the Impeachment of Donald Trump
Ron Fein, John Bonifaz, & Ben Clements
John Nichols (Foreword)
Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, August 2018
My Review
Ron Fein is a constitutional lawyer who served as Assistant Regional Counsel in the U.S. EPA. He is now Legal Director for Free Speech for People. John Bonifaz is the co-Founder and President of Free Speech for People. He previously served as the Executive Director and General Counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, and as the Legal Director of Voter Action, a national election integrity organization. Ben Clements is the Chair of the Board of Directors of Free Speech for People and Chair of its Legal Committee. He is also a founding partner of the Boston law firm Clements & Pineault, LLP." – Amazon biography

"Three veteran constitutional attorneys say there's no way around it: The Constitution demands that Donald Trump must be impeached. And in clear language using compelling logic rooted firmly in the Constitution, they detail why the time to start is now—not in the indefinite future after criminal investigations have ended. In fact, much of Trump's impeachable conduct lies outside the scope of ongoing federal criminal investigations."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (28 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-61219-763-0 SJ1 973.933 Fein LM
Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias:
Why the Press Gets So Much Wrong―And Just Doesn't Care
Ari Fleischer
Broadside Books (July 12, 2022)
No Review
"Prior to resigning his post in 2003, Ari Fleischer served as the official liaison between the White House and members of the press, acting as the primary spokesperson for the President and delivering the daily White House briefing." – Amazon biography

"Fox contributor Ari Fleischer says most Americans live in a media-created fantasyland. Never before have we been so information-rich yet so poorly informed. America’s liberal media keeps getting the news wrong.

"In Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias, Fleischer notes that half the country is keenly aware that they are routinely mocked and looked down on by much of the media. The disdain shown by too many reporters for too many Americans is a major reason our nation is polarized and divided.

"Today’s mainstream media is dominated by college-educated Democratic voters who write stories for other college-educated Democrats. These journalists haven’t just slanted the media; they take sides in our debates and are too often activists for a cause. There is no secret meeting where liberals decide how to slant the news. There is no central source of propaganda. It’s worse than that. It comes naturally to the media because they’re too much alike—they have a diversity problem.

"It’s time the press faced up to why so few people trust them and why they’ve been losing viewers and readers for decades. Suppression, Deception, Snobbery, and Bias is the reckoning they will never do on their own."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (54 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063112759 ?
Trump on the Couch:
Inside the Mind of the President
Justin A. Frank
Avery (September 25, 2018)
No Review
"Justin A. Frank, M.D. is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and a physician with more than forty years of experience in psychoanalysis. He is a frequent contributor to HuffingtonPost.com and has served as a columnist for Time Inc., DailyBeast.com, and Salon.com. He is also the bestselling author of Bush on the Couch as well as Obama on the Couch." – Amazon biography

"The New York Times-bestselling author of Bush on the Couch shows that Donald Trump is mentally and emotionally unfit to execute the duties of President.Using observations gained from a close study of Trump's patterns of thought, action, and communication, Dr. Frank uncovers a personality riddled with mental health issues."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.0 (28 ratings)
ISBN 978-0735220324 SJ0
An Ugly Truth:
Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination
Sheera Frenkel & Cecilia Kang
Harper (July 13, 2021)
My Review
"Sheera Frenkel covers cybersecurity from San Francisco for the New York Times. Previously, she spent over a decade in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent, reporting for BuzzFeed, NPR, the Times of London and McClatchy Newspapers. Cecilia Kang covers technology and regulatory policy for the New York Times. Before joining the paper in 2015, she reported on technology and business for the Washington Post for ten years. Frenkel and Kang were part of the team of investigative journalists recognized as 2019 Finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. The team also won the George Polk Award for National Reporting and the Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative Reporting."

"Award-winning New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang unveil the tech story of our times in a riveting, behind-the-scenes exposé that offers the definitive account of Facebook’s fall from grace.

"Once one of Silicon Valley’s greatest success stories, Facebook has been under constant fire for the past five years, roiled by controversies and crises. It turns out that while the tech giant was connecting the world, they were also mishandling users’ data, spreading fake news, and amplifying dangerous, polarizing hate speech.

"The company, many said, had simply lost its way. But the truth is far more complex. Leadership decisions enabled, and then attempted to deflect attention from, the crises. Time after time, Facebook’s engineers were instructed to create tools that encouraged people to spend as much time on the platform as possible, even as those same tools boosted inflammatory rhetoric, conspiracy theories, and partisan filter bubbles. And while consumers and lawmakers focused their outrage on privacy breaches and misinformation, Facebook solidified its role as the world’s most voracious data-mining machine, posting record profits, and shoring up its dominance via aggressive lobbying efforts.

"Drawing on their unrivaled sources, Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang take readers inside the complex court politics, alliances and rivalries within the company to shine a light on the fatal cracks in the architecture of the tech behemoth. Their explosive, exclusive reporting led them to a shocking conclusion: The missteps of the last five years were not an anomaly but an inevitability—this is how Facebook was built to perform. In a period of great upheaval, growth has remained the one constant under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. Both have been held up as archetypes of uniquely 21st century executives—he the tech 'boy genius' turned billionaire, she the ultimate woman in business, an inspiration to millions through her books and speeches. But sealed off in tight circles of advisers and hobbled by their own ambition and hubris, each has stood by as their technology is coopted by hate-mongers, criminals and corrupt political regimes across the globe, with devastating consequences. In An Ugly Truth, they are at last held accountable."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (1,541 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062960672 ?
Trumpocracy:
The Corruption of the American Republic
David Frum
HarperCollins, January 2018
My Review
"David Frum is senior editor at [T]he Atlantic. He is the author of nine books, most recently Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (2018). In 2001-2002, he served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. You can read him at https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-frum/ and on Twitter @davidfrum " – Amazon biography

"While much of the country has been focused on Russia, David Frum has been collecting the lies, obfuscations, and flagrant disregard for the traditional limits placed on the office of the presidency. In Trumpocracy, he documents how Trump and his administration are steadily damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy. During his own White House tenure as George W. Bush's speechwriter, Frum witnessed the ways the presidency is limited not by law but by tradition, propriety, and public outcry, all now weakened. Whether the Trump presidency lasts two, four, or eight more years, he has changed the nature of the office for the worse, and likely for decades."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (1,722 ratings)
ISBN 978-0-06-279673-8 SJ1 973.933 Frum
Trumpocalypse:
Restoring American Democracy
David Frum
Harper (May 26, 2020)
No Review
"David Frum is senior editor at [T]he Atlantic. He is the author of nine books, most recently Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic (2018). In 2001-2002, he served as speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. You can read him at https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-frum/ and on Twitter @davidfrum " – Amazon biography

"A huge swath of Americans has put their faith in Trump, and Trump only, because they see the rest of the country building a future that doesn't have a place for them.

"If they would risk their lives for Trump in a pandemic, they will certainly risk the stability of American democracy. They brought the Trumpocalypse upon the country, and a post-Trumpocalypse country will have to find a way either to reconcile them to democracy—or to protect democracy from them.

"It is not enough to defeat Donald Trump on election day 2020. Even if Trump peacefully departs office, the trauma he inflicted will distort American and world politics for years to come. Americans must start from where they are, build from what they have, to repair the damage Trump inflicted on the country, to amend the wrongs that, under Trump, they inflicted upon each other.

"Americans can do better. David Frum shows how—and inspires all readers of all points of view to believe again in the possibilities of American life. Trumpocalypse is both a warning of danger and a guide to reform that will be read and discussed for years to come."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (587 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062978417 ?
The Big Truth:
Upholding Democracy in the Age of “The Big Lie”
Major Garrett & David Becker
Diversion Books (September 20, 2022)
No Review
"Major Garrett is the Chief Washington Correspondent for CBS News and the CBSN radio host of The Takeout and The Debrief. For over thirty years, his award-winning reporting and writing has tackled the nation's pressing issues. Garrett is the author of four books, Mr. Trump's Wild Ride, The Enduring Revolution, The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics, and Common Cents with former Rep. Tim Penny (D-Minnesota). He lives in Washington, D.C. David Becker is the Executive Director and Founder of the nonpartisan, non-profit Center for Election Innovation & Research, working with election officials of both parties to ensure accessible, secure elections for all eligible voters. David serves as CBS' election law expert, and his many appearances in the media include The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, PBS NewsHour, and NPR." – Amazon biography

"The Big Truth illuminates a crowning achievement in America’s quest for a robust democracy in the face of slander by sore losers and opportunists. Filled with interviews of the guardians of democracy—election workers, January 6th Committee members Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and more—it is an overpowering counterattack against the Big Lie.

"CBS Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett and National Election Expert David Becker, the Executive Director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, reveal why Big Lie “fraud” allegations evaporate under scrutiny. They report what actually happened in 2020 while calling out each Trumpian misdirection designed to con and beguile Americans into chasing phantom allegations of election crimes.

"The 2020 election was not what Trumpist deniers claim. Our political parties knew the rules and procedures. We had record turnout and few election snarls. The result: an accurate count, a seven-million-vote margin of victory, 306 electoral votes for Joe Biden, and Republican gains in congressional and state races. But then-President Trump stoked paranoia—never looking for evidence, contesting results even before anyone cast a ballot, and seeking to bend our system until it almost broke with a violent Capitol riot.

"The Big Lie—the true corruption of American democracy—has shaken our confidence in stable self-government. On the heels of voter-fraud claims, the Capitol siege, and damaging voting laws, the next midterm and presidential election will test our democracy more severely than at any time since the Civil War. How we react may well determine if we are led into another war against ourselves. The Big Truth debunks the 2020 election conspiracy myth once and for all, while celebrating those who held up our democracy under arguably the most intense scrutiny in American electoral history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (1,016 ratings)
ISBN 978-1635767841 ?
Rocket Man:
Nuclear Madness and the Mind of Donald Trump
by John Gartner, Steven Buser, & Leonard Cruz
Chiron Publications (June 9, 2018)
No Review
John Gartner, Ph.D. is a founder of Duty to Warn. Steven Buser, M.D. is a psychiatrist.

"Will President Trump destroy civilization or win the Nobel Peace Prize? Humankind's survival feels like a jump ball that could go either way. We are perched on a precipice, and the reason we are looking into an abyss of nuclear annihilation is that the American president has unencumbered, unilateral control over the nuclear codes. One thing we know for sure is that the mind of Donald Trump is currently in control of our fate. Never before have the nuclear codes been in the hands of a man who many observers view as unstable and erratic. The twenty-four experts who contributed to this book analyze President Trump's behavior hoping to provide insights into what may be the most urgent question of our time. What will Trump do with his 'big button?' "

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (10 ratings)
ISBN 978-1630515911 SJ0
Wicked Game:
An Insider's Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost
by Rick Gates
Post Hill Press (October 13, 2020)
No Review
"Rick Gates rose through multiple senior roles in Donald Trump’s campaign starting in March 2016, serving as deputy convention manager and rising to deputy campaign chairman. Following Trump’s successful election he continued his service as the deputy chairman to the president-elect’s Inaugural Committee, and after, as a co-founder of the America First Super PAC for the president. During this time, he was witness to many incredible moments of history that will define presidential politics for years to come."

""Rick Gates, who served as Donald Trump’s deputy campaign chairman in 2016 and as a cooperating witness in the Mueller investigation, gives readers a rare, in-depth look at one of the most controversial elections—and presidents—in U.S. history.

"From a perspective only he can offer, Rick answers the important questions: How was Trump able to beat sixteen high-profile, experienced Republican contenders, and Hillary Clinton, to win in 2016? How did the campaign work? What really happened with Russian election interference and the Mueller investigation? And more.

"With refreshing candor, Rick shares his story, observations, and facts with the intent that readers form their own opinions and draw their own conclusions. The result is a thought-provoking account that informs and educates readers on both sides of the political aisle as we approach the 2020 election.

"In up-close detail, Rick takes us through his personal journey to explain how Trump defied the odds, the polls, and even his own party to become the 45th president of the United States. He shares pivotal moments behind the scenes of the campaign and inauguration that have never been shared before, revealing critical decisions and political tactics that explain how Donald Trump was able to upset the entire Republican political establishment and beat a system built on centuries-old traditions. He also shows us how Donald Trump brought his personal brand to the presidency and how, in the end, the political establishment had no choice but to adapt to him—because Trump would never adapt to them.

"Following the inauguration, Rick was entangled in the Robert Mueller investigation on Russian election interference. In Wicked Game, Rick lifts the veil to detail exactly what happened behind the operations of the Mueller probe, providing the first major account from an insider indicted in the investigation. In the government’s sentencing memo in their case against him, federal prosecutors took the unusual step of praising Rick for his “extraordinary assistance” in their efforts: “Gates has worked assiduously to provide truthful, complete, and reliable information,” they wrote. Which makes it all the more compelling when Rick’s account reveals the inadequacies of our legal system, and how a small group of people in Washington manipulated the political system for their own purposes—undermining our democracy in the process.

"History has its eyes on America, and as people all over the world try to understand Trump’s presidency in a time of global crisis and uncertainty heading into the 2020 election, Rick’s powerful, firsthand account provides revealing and factual insights that he hopes Republicans and Democrats alike will learn from and apply as our nation moves forward."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (89 ratings)
ISBN 978-1642937923 ?
Understanding Trump
Newt Gingrich
Center Street; Illustrated edition (June 13, 2017)
No Review
"Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the House and 2012 presidential candidate. He is a Fox News contributor and author of thirty-six books, including fifteen New York Times bestsellers. Through Gingrich Productions, he has also produced and hosted documentary films. Recent films include The First American and Nine Days that Changed the World. Newt Gingrich lives in Arlington, Virginia."

"Donald Trump is unlike any president we've ever had. The only person ever elected to be commander in chief who has not first held public office or served as a general in the military, Trump's principles grow out of five decades of business and celebrity success — not politics.

"The president owes his position to the people who believed in him as a candidate, not to the left-wing government and media who have expressed contempt for him since his first day on the campaign trail. Trump has enacted policies and set goals that send our country in a bold new direction — one that is 'unreasonable' to Washington elites but sensible to millions of Americans outside the Beltway."

"With Understanding Trump, Newt Gingrich provides unique insight into how the president's past experiences have helped to shape his life and style of governing, including a thorough analysis of how President Trump thinks and makes decisions, as well as his philosophy, doctrine, and forward-thinking political agenda.

"Discover Trump-style solutions for national security, education, health care, economic growth, government reform, and other important topics. In this eye-opening book, Gingrich also investigates and exposes the forces in the Washington establishment, media, and bureaucracy that oppose the president at every turn.

"Finally, Understanding Trump explains the president's actions so far and lays out a vision for what Americans can do to help make President Trump's agenda a success. With your help, President Trump will be able to overcome corrupt interests in Washington and fulfill his promise to make America great again."

Gingrich has written two other books in support of Trump in the interim between this title and Beyond Biden.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (2,499 ratings)
ISBN 978-1478923084 ?
Beyond Biden:
Rebuilding the America We Love
Newt Gingrich
Center Street (November 2, 2021)
No Review
"Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and 2012 presidential candidate. He is Chairman of Gingrich 360, a multimedia production and consulting company based in Arlington, Virginia. He is also a Fox News contributor and author of 41 books, including New York Times best sellers Understanding Trump, Trump’s America, Trump vs. China, and Trump and the American Future. He lives in McLean, Virginia, with his wife Callista L. Gingrich, former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See."

"The struggle between the defenders of America as an exceptional nation and the forces of anti-Americanism is reaching a fever pitch. These forces have grown so large, so well-financed, so entrenched and aggressive that they must be studied closely and understood completely if America is to survive this imminent civil war.

"In Beyond Biden, bestselling author Newt Gingrich brings together the various strands of the movement seeking to destroy true, historic American values and replace this country with one that's imposed on us by the combined power of government and social acceptance.""

From the book jacket: "Too many conservatives are in despair about America's future: seeing Joe Biden sworn in as president of the united States has emboldened every deranged left-wing radical to come out from hiding and begin demanding that the government impose profoundly destructive values and ideas on Americans."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (1,222 ratings)
ISBN 978-1546000259 ?
BLM:
The Making of a New Marxist Revolution
Mike Gonzalez
Encounter Books (September 7, 2021)
No Review
"Mike Gonzalez is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy in Washington, D.C. He spent close to twenty years as a journalist, fifteen of them writing from Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He left journalism to join the Bush administration, serving as a speechwriter for Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, before moving on to the State Department’s European Bureau, where he wrote speeches and op-eds. Since 2009 he has been at The Heritage Foundation, now writing on critical race theory, national identity, diversity, multiculturalism, assimilation, and nationalism, as well as foreign policy in general." – Amazon biography

"The George Floyd riots that have precipitated great changes throughout American society were not spontaneous events. Americans did not suddenly rise up in righteous anger, take to the streets, and demand not just that police departments be defunded but that all the structures, institutions, and systems of the United States―all supposedly racist―be overhauled.

"The 12,000 or so demonstrations and 633 related riots that followed Floyd’s death took organizational muscle. The movement’s grip on institutions from the classroom to the ballpark required ideological commitment. That muscle and commitment were provided by the various Black Lives Matter organizations.

"This book examines who the BLM leaders are, delving into their backgrounds and exposing their agendas―something the media has so far refused to do. These people are shown to be avowed Marxists who say they want to dismantle our way of life. Along with their fellow activists, they make savvy use of social media to spread their message and organize marches, sit-ins, statue tumblings, and riots. In 2020 they seized upon the video showing George Floyd’s suffering as a pretext to unleash a nationwide insurgency.

"Certainly, no person of good will could object to the proposition that “black lives matter” as much as any other human life. But Americans need to understand how their laudable moral concern is being exploited for purposes that a great many of them would not approve."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (194 ratings)
ISBN 978-1641772235 ?
The Plot to Change America:
How Identity Politics is Dividing the Land of the Free
Mike Gonzalez
Encounter Books (July 28, 2020)
No Review
"Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo Senior Fellow on E Pluribus Unum at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. He spent close to twenty years as a journalist, fifteen of them writing from Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He left journalism to join the Bush administration, where he was a speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox before moving on to the State Department’s European Bureau, where he wrote speeches and op-eds. Since 2009, he has been at The Heritage Foundation, where he writes on national identity, diversity, multiculturalism, assimilation, and nationalism, as well as foreign policy in general." – Amazon biography

"The Plot to Change America exposes the myths that help identity politics perpetuate itself. This book reveals what has really happened, explains why it is urgent to change course, and offers a strategy to do so. Though we should not fool ourselves into thinking that it will be easy to eliminate identity politics, we should not overthink it, either. Identity politics relies on the creation of groups and then on giving people incentives to adhere to them. If we eliminate group making and the enticements, we can get rid of identity politics.

"The first myth that this book exposes is that identity politics is a grassroots movement, when from the beginning it has been, and continues to be, an elite project. For too long, we have lived with the fairy tale that America has organically grown into a nation gripped by victimhood and identitarian division; that it is all the result of legitimate demands by minorities for recognition or restitutions for past wrongs. The second myth is that identity politics is a response to the demographic change this country has undergone since immigration laws were radically changed in 1965. Another myth we are told is that to fight these changes is as depraved as it is futile, since by 2040, America will be a minority-majority country, anyway. This book helps to explain that none of these things are necessarily true."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (297 ratings)
ISBN 978-1641771009 ?
Fake President:
Decoding Trump's Gaslighting, Corruption, and General Bullsh*t
Mark Green & Ralph Nader
Skyhorse (December 3, 2019)
No Review
"Mark Green is the former NYC Consumer Commissioner and elected Public Advocate (1990-2001) as well as past president of Air America Radio. Green is the author or editor of 24 books. He is also the founder of the progressive shadow cabinet @ShadowingTrump, consisting of 21 leading scholars and former officials. Ralph Nader, America's leading public interest lawyer and consumer advocate, was named by The Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century. His first book, the bestselling Unsafe at Any Speed, was responsible for US auto safety standards shown to have saved 3.5 million lives over fifty years." – Amazon biography

"Donald Trump was lawfully selected as the US president...but is still a 'fake' president because he simply lacks the integrity, intelligence, and stability to perform the duties of the office as the Constitution intended. 'If you spend so much time golfing, tweeting, and seething,' write Green and Nader, 'it's understandable that a POTUS doesn't get around to appointing one-third of all agency inspector generals...Might as well expect a surgeon to be an opera singer.'

"As the House Impeachment Inquiry unfolds based on a similar premise, Fake President decodes many of his worst scandals and 'twistifications' (a Jefferson coinage). And it's bound to get even worse as the House gets closer to actual Articles of Impeachment and the Fall election approaches. Since it's nearly impossible to keep track of Trump's 'daily lava of lies,' two of America's foremost public advocates do that work for you. This is your one-stop shop that explains what the Lyin' King means to our democracy. It's a cheeky, deadly rebuke of Trump's incorrigible 'fakery'...from his dishonesty about foreign policy to blatant ignorance about the environment to his messianic narcissism. Fake President is an essential guide to help you understand the two biggest news stories of the coming year—impeachment and the 2020 presidential election."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (66 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510751125 ?
Wrecking America:
How Trump's Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All
Mark Green & Ralph Nader
Skyhorse; Illustrated edition (September 22, 2020)
No Review
"Mark Green is the author or editor of 24 books including the bestselling Who Runs Congress? and The Book on Bush and the former elected public advocate and consumer commissioner of New York City (1990-2001). He is also the founder of the progressive shadow cabinet @ShadowingTrump, consisting of 21 leading scholars and former officials. Ralph Nader, America's leading public interest lawyer and consumer advocate, was named by The Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century. His first book, the bestselling Unsafe at Any Speed, was responsible for US auto safety standards shown to have saved 3.5 million lives over fifty years." – Amazon biography

"Wrecking America is [the] most up-to-date look at Trump's anything-goes 'Fascism 2.0' presidency and campaign. It reveals how Trump's daily 'twistifications' (a Jefferson coinage) are killing tens of thousands of Americans and millions of American jobs, polluting the air and public debate, selling out his country for personal gain...and trying to 'Make the Confederacy Great Again,' as he preoccupies himself with golfing, seething, and tweeting.

"By four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader and bestselling author Mark Green, Wrecking America organizes Trump's lies and lawbreaking issue-by-issue—focusing on Covid-19 and racial protests. This scathing, witty, accessible paperback is the last up-to-date book on 'the Lyin' King' keyed to General Election voters and post-election America.

"This November will test our 231-year experiment in self-governance like no time since 1860 and 1932. Will it be re-election or realignment? A Fascism for the few or Democracy for all? The wrecking ball of American Brownshirts or a new progressive backlash and era?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (29 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510763715 ?
How Would a Patriot Act?:
Defending American Values from a President Run Amok
Glenn Greenwald
Working Assets Publishing; English Language edition (May 12, 2006)
No Review
"Glenn Greenwald is a Constitutional law attorney, and author of the political blog "Unclaimed Territory." Greenwald has written for American Conservative magazine and appeared on a variety of television and radio programs, including C-Span's "Washington Journal," Air America's "Majority Report" and Public Radio International's "To the Point." His reporting and analysis have been credited in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Slate and a variety of other print and online publications."

"Glenn Greenwald was not a political man — neither liberal nor conservative. To him, the U.S. was generally on track and would remain forever centrist. But all that has changed.

"Over the past five years, a creeping extremism has taken hold of our federal government, which threatens to alter our system of governing ourselves and our national character. This extremism is neither liberal nor conservative, but is driven by the Bush administration's radical theories of executive power. Greenwald writes that we cannot abide these unlimited and unchecked presidential powers if we are to remain a constitutional republic. Because when you answer to no one, you're not a president — you're a despot.

"This is one man's story of being galvanized into action to defend his country, and his concise and penetrating analysis of what is at stake for America when its president has secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a king.

"From 9/11 to the question of nuclear war in Iran, Greenwald shows how Bush's claims of unlimited power play out. In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald asks: how would a patriot act today?"

Written for George W. Bush, this book applies even more aptly to Donald J. Trump.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (75 ratings)
ISBN 978-0977944002 ?
I'll Take Your Questions Now:
What I Saw at the Trump White House
Stephanie Grisham
Harper (October 5, 2021)
No Review
"Stephanie Grisham started at the White House on January 20, 2017. She served as White House press secretary and communications director from 2019 to 2020. She also worked as communications director and chief of staff to First Lady Melania Trump. Born in Colorado, Grisham lives in Kansas and Washington, DC." – Amazon biography

"Stephanie Grisham rose from being a junior press wrangler on the Trump campaign in 2016 to assuming top positions in the administration as White House press secretary and communications director, while at the same time acting as First Lady Melania Trump’s communications director and eventually chief of staff. Few members of the Trump inner circle served longer or were as close to the first family as Stephanie Grisham, and few had her unique insight into the turbulent four years of the administration, especially the personalities behind the headlines."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.0 (4,317 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063142930 ?
Fire in the Streets:
How You Can Confidently Respond to Incendiary Cultural Topics
Douglas R. Groothuis
Salem Books (August 2, 2022)
No Review
"Douglas R. Groothuis, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, where he has served since 1993. He is the author or co-author of fourteen books, including the best-selling Unmasking the New Age; the much-used apologetics textbook Christian Apologetics; an introduction to philosophy, Philosophy in Seven Sentences; a memoir, Walking through Twilight; and a children’s book, I Love You to The Stars (with Crystal Bowman)." – Amazon biography

"A dangerous and revolutionary philosophy is responsible for the street fires in America. It fuels the actions of Black Lives Matter and Antifa. It invades curricula in public schools and in our military. It is in our churches. You have heard the phrase 'white privilege,' the need for 'safe spaces' on campuses, and perhaps the tongue-twister 'intersectionality.'

"Behind all of these is an ideology called critical theory, which is a form of cultural Marxism that divides society into the oppressed and the oppressors. It claims that America is “systemically racist” and founded on slavery. It believes that the voices of the minorities should trump the perspective of the dominant (and oppressing) culture. Unfortunately, this flawed perspective is overtaking our culture and infiltrating many of our churches.

"What can we do amidst all the controversies over race and gender in society today? Do we have anything constructive to offer the world? As Jesus followers, we do, and this book shows the way.

"A biblical alternative to matters of justice and politics is available. One that is right and true. One based on the ideals of the American founding. Find it in these pages."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (42 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684513086 ?
Hatemonger:
Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda
Jean Guerrero
William Morrow (August 11, 2020)
No Review
"Jean Guerrero is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. Her first book, Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, won a PEN Literary Award. Her writing is featured in The Best American Essays 2019. She is an Emmy-winning investigative reporter, contributing to NPR and the PBS NewsHour. She started her career at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires as a foreign correspondent in Mexico." – Amazon biography

"Stephen Miller is one of the most influential advisors in the White House. He has crafted Donald Trump’s speeches, designed immigration policies that ban Muslims and separate families, and outlasted such Trump stalwarts as Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions. But he’s remained an enigma.

"Until now. Emmy- and PEN-winning investigative journalist and author Jean Guerrero charts the thirty-four-year-old’s astonishing rise to power, drawing from more than one hundred interviews with his family, friends, adversaries and government officials.

"Radicalized as a teenager, Miller relished provocation at his high school in liberal Santa Monica, California. He clashed with administrators and antagonized dark-skinned classmates with invectives against bilingualism and multiculturalism. At Duke University, he cloaked racist and classist ideas in the language of patriotism and heritage to get them airtime amid controversies. On Capitol Hill, he served Tea Party congresswoman Michele Bachmann and nativist Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

"Recruited to Trump's campaign, Miller met his idol. Having dreamed of Trump's presidency before he even announced his decision to run, Miller became his senior policy advisor and speechwriter. Together, they stoked dystopian fears about the Democrats, 'Deep State' and 'American Carnage,' painting migrants and their supporters as an existential threat to America. Through backroom machinations and sheer force of will, Miller survived dozens of resignations and encouraged Trump’s harshest impulses, in conflict with the president's own family. While Trump railed against illegal immigration, Miller crusaded against legal immigration. He targeted refugees, asylum seekers and their children, engineering an ethical crisis for a nation that once saw itself as the conscience of the world. Miller rallied support for this agenda, even as federal judges tried to stop it, by courting the white rage that found violent expression in tragedies from El Paso to Charlottesville.

"Hatemonger unveils the man driving some of the most divisive confrontations over what it means to be American—and what America will become."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (327 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062986719 ?
Confidence Man:
The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
Maggie Haberman
Penguin Press (October 4, 2022)
No Review
"Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent who joined The New York Times in 2015 and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on the investigations into Donald Trump’s, and his advisers’, connections to Russia. She was part of a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for reporting on the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus. Before joining The New York Times as a campaign correspondent, she worked as a political reporter at Politico from 2010 to 2015. She previously worked at The New York Post and The New York Daily News." – Amazon biography

"Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.

"Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes. Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.

"The through-line of Trump’s life and his presidency is the enduring question of what is in it for him or what he needs to say to survive short increments of time in the pursuit of his own interests.

"Confidence Man is also, inevitably, about the world that produced such a singular character, giving rise to his career and becoming his first stage. It is also about a series of relentlessly transactional relationships. The ones that shaped him most were with girlfriends and wives, with Roy Cohn, with George Steinbrenner, with Mike Tyson and Don King and Roger Stone, with city and state politicians like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani, with business partners, with prosecutors, with the media, and with the employees who toiled inside what they commonly called amongst themselves the “Trump Disorganization.”

"That world informed the one that Trump tried to recreate while in the White House. All of Trump’s behavior as President had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and newsmaking book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (4,576 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593297346 ?
Downfall:
The Demise of a President and His Party
Andrew Hacker
Regan Arts (October 29, 2019)
No Review
"Andrew Hacker is a professor of political science at Queens College. He is the author of ten books, including the New York Times bestseller Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal. Hacker is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and has written for the Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Forbes, Fortune, The Atlantic, and many professional journals. He lives in New York City." – Amazon biography

"Take a tour through the elections since 2016 and the Republican Party's strongest stances to understand the impending defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 Presidential election.

"Downfall does not offer a prediction or wishful thinking—it affirms a certainty. Veteran political scientist Andrew Hacker's vast array of evidence points to the conclusion that Donald Trump will not be reelected, regardless of which Democratic candidate opposes him. Based on a close analysis of midterm and special elections, Hacker has found that Trump's so-called base is shrinking and that a strong majority of voting Americans want Trump out of office.

Alongside comments from Republican Party members on why they stand with their party, Hacker autopsies their most steadfast viewpoints to illustrate from where these opinions stem and why Trump supporters provide him with votes. This includes an examination of Republican positions on:

  • Gun control
  • Abortion and women's rights
  • Sexism and gender disparities
  • Racism and affirmative action
  • LGBTQ rights
  • Climate Change; And more

"Both a look back at the years since Trump's election and a glimpse into what lies ahead for politics, Downfall provides an optimistic outlook that the most divisive leader in the US's history will join the ranks of one-term presidents."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (170 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510760196 ?
How To Beat Trump:
America's Top Political Strategists On What It Will Take
Mark Halperin
Regan Arts (October 29, 2019)
No Review
"Mark Halperin has covered every American national election since 1988, working as a host, correspondent, reporter, and analyst for NBC News, TIME magazine, Bloomberg News, Showtime, and ABC News. He is the co-author of two New York Times #1 bestsellers: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime (2010) and Double Down: Game Change 2012 (2013). He is also the author of The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President (2007), and the co-author of The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008 (2006). He is the author of the daily newsletter Wide World of News." – Amazon biography

"Mark Halperin interviewed the nation's most experienced political strategists to discover what they think the Democratic nominee needs to do to win the 270 electoral votes required for victory. Drawing on first-hand experience, tactical savvy, and war stories from presidential campaigns past, America's top operatives explain how to meet the daunting challenge of defeating President Trump. They provide expert advice on bracing for psychological battle, understanding Trump's voters, picking a running mate, mastering the debates, and dodging black swans—time-tested and creative ideas that reveal the secrets every presidential hopeful wants to know, with specific insights on tackling the volatile, unpredictable force of nature that is Donald Trump.

"While endlessly controversial, the 45th president remains one of the most formidable political campaigners in modern history, with a staggering financial advantage and powerful allies. Only four elected incumbent American presidents have lost reelection bids since 1900. Few of the strategists think beating Trump will be easy. But none believe it is impossible. Their best ideas, gleaned from years of experience at the highest levels of American politics, are all presented in this compelling and fast-paced book."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.0 (24 ratings)
ISBN 978-1682451274 ?
"Sorry Guys, We Stormed the Capitol":
Eye-Witness Accounts of January 6th
Ben Hamilton
The Chasing History Project (March 3, 2022)
No Review
"Ben Hamilton is a former history teacher who’s finally snapped. He thinks America is collapsing, just like other civilizations he once taught about. He lives in a big black van called ‘the Beast’ and spends most of his time searching for interesting events to personally witness and write about so future history classes will have primary source documents about the decline and fall of his own civilization. When not having wacky adventures, he lives with his extremely accommodating wife." – Amazon biography

"What Really Happened on January 6th? I was there.

"When I was a history teacher, I taught that the most accurate historical records are primary source documents: those records written at the time of the events, especially from firsthand witnesses. But in the early 2020s, I kinda snapped. And I decided to become that primary source for my own time.

"So when President Trump gathered his MAGA supporters to do... something... about what they believed was a stolen election, I went to D.C. to record the event. I interviewed the crowd as they gathered that morning and I kept interviewing them after they somehow took over the Capitol Building. I stood just outside the Capitol doors and spoke to the trespassers at the moment they emerged. They told me what they did, what they witnessed, and the motives behind their actions. I even took pictures as events unfolded. This is the true story of January 6th, brought to life in vivid detail, so you can know what it felt like to be there.

"We all have different perceptions of the same reality, but by combining those distinct viewpoints with some critical reasoning, we can piece together something more. Not the narrative pushed by one political agenda or another, but the truth, or as close as we can ever get.

"What really happened on January 6th? Come with me and find out."

-Ben Hamilton

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.7 (27 ratings)
ISBN 979-8985487343 ?
The Case for Trump
by Victor Davis Hanson
Basic Books (March 5, 2019)
No Review
"Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow in military history at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno. He is the author of more than two dozen books, ranging in topics from ancient Greece to modern America, most recently The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won. He lives in Selma, California." – Amazon biography

"In The Case for Trump, award-winning historian and political commentator Victor Davis Hanson explains how a celebrity businessman with no political or military experience triumphed over sixteen well-qualified Republican rivals, a Democrat with a quarter-billion-dollar war chest, and a hostile media and Washington establishment to become president of the United States — and an extremely successful president.

"Trump alone saw a political opportunity in defending the working people of America's interior whom the coastal elite of both parties had come to scorn, Hanson argues. And Trump alone had the instincts and energy to pursue this opening to victory, dismantle a corrupt old order, and bring long-overdue policy changes at home and abroad. We could not survive a series of presidencies as volatile as Trump's. But after decades of drift, America needs the outsider Trump to do what normal politicians would not and could not do."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (3,790 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541673540 ?
Collusion:
Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win
Luke Harding
Vintage Books, November 2017
My Review
"Luke Harding is a journalist, writer and award-winning correspondent with the Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Between 2007 and 2011 he was the Guardian's Moscow bureau chief. In February 2011 the Kremlin deported him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War." – Amazon biography

"December 2016. Luke Harding, the Guardian reporter and former Moscow bureau chief, quietly meets former MI6 officer Christopher Steele in a London pub to discuss President-elect Donald Trump's Russia connections. A month later, Steele's now-famous dossier sparks what may be the biggest scandal of the modern era. The names of the Americans involved are well-known—Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page—but here Harding also shines a light on powerful Russian figures like Aras Agalarov, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and Sergey Kislyak, whose motivations and instructions may have been coming from the highest echelons of the Kremlin."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (636 ratings)
ISBN 978-0-525-56251-1 SJ1 327.7304 Harding
Election Meltdown:
Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy
Richard L. Hasen
Yale University Press; Illustrated Edition (February 4, 2020)
No Review
"Richard L. Hasen is Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. He is a nationally-recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation, and is co-author of a leading casebook on election law. From 2001-2010, he served (with Dan Lowenstein) as founding co-editor of the quarterly peer-reviewed publication, Election Law Journal. He is the author of more than 80 articles on election law issues, published in numerous journals including the Harvard Law Review (forthcoming 2012), Stanford Law Review, and Supreme Court Review. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2009." – Amazon biography

"As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take shape, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. In this timely and accessible book, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting stories illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression has escalated as a Republican tool aimed to depress turnout of likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pockets of incompetence in election administration, often in large cities controlled by Democrats, have created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old‑fashioned and new‑fangled dirty tricks, including foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns via social media, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about “stolen” elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans.

"Taking into account how each of these threats has manifested in recent years—most notably in the 2016 and 2018 elections—Hasen offers concrete steps that need to be taken to restore trust in American elections before the democratic process is completely undermined. This is an indispensable analysis, from the nation’s leading election-law expert, of the key threats to the 2020 American presidential election."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (59 ratings)
ISBN 978-0300248197 ?
The Cult of Trump:
A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control
Steven Hassan
Free Press (October 15, 2019)
No Review
"Steven Hassan is a mental health professional who specializes in helping people to recover from mind control as well as helping loved ones to exit without coercion. He has been helping people leave destructive relationships and organizations since 1976 after he was rescued from the infamous cult, the Moonies. Hassan directs the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, a counseling and publishing organization outside of Boston, teaches at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and is pursuing a doctorate from Fielding University. He is the author of Combating Cult Mind Control and Releasing the Bonds and Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs." – Amazon biography

"In The Cult of Trump, mind-control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our current president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient. Hassan was a former 'Moonie' himself, and he draws on his forty years of personal and professional experience studying hypnosis and destructive cults, working as a deprogrammer, and a strategic communications interventionist. He emphasizes why it's crucial that we recognize ways to identify and protect ourselves and our loved ones."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (434 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982127336 ?
The Drift:
Stopping America's Slide to Socialism
by Kevin A. Hassett
Regnery Publishing (November 2, 2021)
No Review
"Kevin A. Hassett is a world-renowned economist who served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors and Senior Advisor to the President for Economic Issues during the Trump administration. A graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania, he is married to his wife Kristie and is the father of two children." – Amazon biography

"Kevin Hassett wasn’t always a Trump supporter. Before his surprising appointment as the top White House economist, he took a dim view of the populist agenda and mercurial temperament of the man who had won control of the Republican Party. But experience would soon change his mind.

"As chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, Hassett helped Donald Trump bring about a golden age of prosperity, in which Americans who had been left behind by decades of failed policy were given the opportunity to succeed. The miracle lasted three years, until a virus from China killed it.

"Trump proved that a mix of free-market principles and enlightened nationalism could revive the American economic dynamo. Guided by an unlikely team of brilliant advisers and driven by his own force of will, he recognized that Washington bureaucrats had undermined the American dream by inserting themselves into every aspect of the economy. These “experts” were leading us down the path to socialism, and Trump fought like mad to turn things around.

"Enjoying not only direct access to the president but also his trust and respect, Hassett was involved in almost every important policy debate. After two exhausting but successful years, he stepped down from the CEA and returned to private life—only to return as a special adviser on pandemic policy in 2020.

"The Drift offers a unique perspective on a pivotal presidency. Unconnected and unbeholden to Donald Trump, Kevin Hassett came to the administration with a critical eye. But working with Trump the president convinced him that this flawed leader might be the only man who could halt the drift toward a statist and moribund economy. Filled with urgent lessons, this book is essential reading as the drift resumes."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (155 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684512652 ?
Battle for the American Mind:
Uprooting a Century of Miseducation
Pete Hegseth & David Goodwin
Broadside Books (June 14, 2022)
No Review
"Pete Hegseth is a husband, father, patriot, and Christian. He is the co-host of 'Fox & Friends Weekend', America’s number one cable morning show, and he has hosted multiple Fox Nation documentaries. A graduate of both Princeton and Harvard, he is the New York Times bestselling author of In the Arena, Modern Warriors, American Crusade, and Battle for the American Mind. Pete is an Army veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, and has earned two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge.

David Goodwin grew up on an Idaho farm, spent more than a decade in big tech, and quit to help found The Ambrose School in Boise, Idaho. He is the editor of The Classical Difference Magazine."

"President Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has written a revolutionary road map to saving our children from leftist indoctrination.

"Behind a smokescreen of 'preparing students for the new industrial economy,' early progressives had political control in mind. America’s original schools didn’t just make kids memorize facts or learn skills; they taught them to think freely and arrive at wisdom. They assigned the classics, inspired love of God and country, and raised future citizens that changed the world forever.

"Today, after 16,000 hours of K-12 indoctrination, our kids come out of government schools hating America. They roll their eyes at religion and disdain our history. We spend more money on education than ever, but kids can barely read and write—let alone reason with discernment. Western culture is on the ropes. Kids are bored and aimless, flailing for purpose in a system that says racial and gender identity is everything.

"Battle for the American Mind is the untold story of the Progressive plan to neutralize the basis of our Republic – by removing the one ingredient that had sustained Western Civilization for thousands of years. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin explain why, no matter what political skirmishes conservatives win, progressives are winning the war—and control the 'supply lines' of future citizens. Reversing this reality will require parents to radically reorient their children’s education; even most homeschooling and Christian schooling are infused with progressive assumptions. We need to recover a lost philosophy of education – grounded in virtue and excellence – that can arm future generations to fight for freedom. It’s called classical Christian education. Never heard of it? You’re not alone.

"Battle for the American Mind is more than a book; it’s a field guide for remaking school in the United States. We’ve ceded our kids’ minds to the left for far too long—this book gives patriotic parents the ammunition to join an insurgency that gives America a fighting chance.

"Whether you're a conservative looking to push back against the progressive agenda or simply someone who cares about the education of our children, this book is for you.""

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (6,695 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063215047 ?
America Last:
The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators
Jacob Heilbrunn
Liveright (February 20, 2024)
No Review
"Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of The National Interest and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He has written on both foreign and domestic issues for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Reuters, Washington Monthly, and The Weekly Standard. He has also written for German publications such as Cicero, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Der Tagesspiegel. In 2008, his book They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons was published by Doubleday. It was named one of the one hundred notable books of the year by The New York Times.

"A leading journalist and public intellectual explains the long, disturbing history behind the American Right’s embrace of foreign dictators, from Kaiser Wilhelm and Mussolini to Putin and Orban.

"Why do Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and much of the far Right so explicitly admire the murderous and incompetent Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? Why is Ron DeSantis drawing from Victor Orbán’s illiberal politics for his own policies as governor of Florida―a single American state that has more than twice the population of Orbán’s entire nation, Hungary?

"In America Last, Jacob Heilbrunn, a highly respected observer of the American Right, demonstrates that the infatuation of American conservatives with foreign dictators―though a striking and seemingly inexplicable fact of our current moment―is not a new phenomenon. It dates to the First World War, when some conservatives, enthralled with Kaiser Wilhelm II, openly rooted for him to defeat the forces of democracy. In the 1920s and 1930s, this affinity became even more pronounced as Hitler and Mussolini attracted a variety of American admirers. Throughout the Cold War, the Right evinced a fondness for autocrats such as Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet, while some conservatives wrote apologias for the Third Reich and for apartheid South Africa. The habit of mind is not really about foreign policy, however. As Heilbrunn argues, the Right is drawn to what it perceives as the impressive strength of foreign dictators, precisely because it sees them as models of how to fight against liberalism and progressivism domestically.

America Last is a guide for the perplexed, identifying and tracing a persuasion―or what one might call the “illiberal imagination”―that has animated conservative politics for a century now. Since the 1940s, the Right has railed against communist fellow travelers in America. Heilbrunn finally corrects the record, showing that dictator worship is an unignorable tradition within modern American conservatism―and what it means for us today."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (47 ratings)
ISBN 978-1324094661 ?
Trump / Russia:
A Definitive History
Seth Hettena
Melville House (May 8, 2018)
No Review
Seth Hettena: "Author, journalist living in San Diego. Former correspondent for The Associated Press. Author of Trump/Russia: A Definitive History and Feasting on the Spoils. My work has been featured in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The American Lawyer, Columbia Journalism Review, newspapers, and other places. Married, father of two. I can be found on twitter at @seth_hettena. For publicity inquiries, please contact publicity@mhpbooks.com." – Amazon biography

"In Trump/Russia: A Definitive History, Seth Hettena chronicles the many years Trump has spent wooing Russian money and power. From the collapse of his casino empire—which left Trump desperate for cash—and his first contacts with Russian deal-makers and financiers, on up to the White House, Hettena reveals the myriad of shady people, convoluted dealings, and strange events that suggest how indebted to Russia our forty-fifth president might be."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (92 ratings)
ISBN 978-1612197395 SJBr 658.049 TRUMP Hettena
Painting the Map Red:
The Fight to Create a Permanent Republican Majority
Hugh Hewitt
Regnery Publishing; English Language edition (March 27, 2006)
No Review
Hugh Hewitt is a lawyer, professor, and broadcast journalist whose nationally syndicated radio show is heard in more than 120 cities across the United States every weekday morning. An analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, he is the author a more than a dozen books. Hewitt is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, and has taught Constitutional Law at Chapman University Law School since it opened in 1995. He is a partner with the Los Angeles law firm of Larson O’Brien LLP and writes daily at HughHewitt.com." – Amazon biography

"Nationally syndicated talk show host and political strategist Hugh Hewitt delivers this insider's guide to the 2006 elections and the crucial messages GOP candidates and activists will be adopting to foster the spread of Red States."

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.8 (16 ratings)
ISBN 978-0895260024 ?
Team Trump and the Evangelical White House
G. J. Hocking
Independently published (July 3, 2020)
No Review
G. J. Hocking is an Australian part-time author. He has written three books; his first, The Pentecostal Paradox (written in 2019), is a much-needed critique of the movement. It comes from many years of observation and study of Pentecostalism and its associated phenomena. The author's second book, The Twenty Revivals of the Twentieth Century, has been ten years in the making and is published to mark the year 2020." – Amazon biography

"Evangelicals for Trump! Those three words would be a good description of Team Trump and the Evangelical White House. In this work, the author paints perhaps a different picture of Donald J. Trump than you will find in the mainstream media. Trump-Thumping books are a dime a dozen these days, just as Bush-bashing books were when George W. Bush presided over the U.S. for eight years. Most of the information written for public consumption usually focuses on the president's (often-quirky) personality. Even today, political insiders' tell-all accounts of Donald Trump line the bookshelves, and some ultimately become best-sellers. Yet this book is different because it looks at the president's faith-friendly policies, which few regard. As the author proposes throughout—the Trump Team has energized the religious right—in a way, not seen for a long time. Some even hark back in their comparisons of the Trump White House to the Reagan era. Trump and the Evangelical White House will explore these evangelical connections by looking at the impact of these faith-friendly policies from both a biblical and historical perspective. The reader will see how different the Religious Right's influence is in today's White House from past presidencies.The book explores subjects from why picking V P Pence made sense by helping evangelicals to come on board with the Trump agenda. You'll also see how the White House welcome mat is once again out for evangelicals as the front door is always open to people of faith. Prayer Force One will give you a glimpse; perhaps of a side of Donald Trump, you may not have seen as he prays with faith leaders. These fifteen chapters will look at how the White House was won, and may yet be won again with evangelical support in 2020."

Rating by Amazon customers: 5.0 (3 ratings)
ISBN 979-8657110517 ?
Liar's Circus
A Strange and Terrifying Journey Into the Upside-Down World of Trump's MAGA Rallies
by Carl Hoffman
Custom House; Illustrated edition (September 1, 2020)
No Review
Carl Hoffman is the author of the New York Times bestseller Savage Harvest, hailed as a “masterpiece” by Outside and named a New York Times editors’ choice and one of the Washington Post’s 50 notable works of nonfiction for 2014, as well as The Lunatic Express. He is a former contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler and Wired, and has traveled on assignment to eighty countries." – Amazon biography

"In this daring work of immersive journalism, based on hundreds of hours of reporting, Carl Hoffman journeys deep inside Donald Trump’s rallies, seeking to understand the strange and powerful tribe that forms the president’s base.

"Hoffman, who has written about the most dangerous and remote corners of the world, pierced this alternate society, welcomed in and initiated into its rites and upside-down beliefs, and finally ushered to its inner sanctum. Equally freewheeling and profound, Liar’s Circus tracks the MAGA faithful across five thousand miles of the American heartland during a crucial arc of the Trump presidency stretching from the impeachment saga to the dawn of the coronavirus pandemic that ended the rallies as we know it (sic).

"Trump’s rallies are a singular and defining force in American history—a kind of Rosetta stone to understanding the Age of Trump. Yet while much remarked upon, they are, in fact, little examined, with the focus almost always on Trump’s latest outrageous statement. But who are the tens of thousands of people who fill these arenas? What do they see in Trump? And what curious alchemy—between president and adoring crowd—happens there that might explain Trump’s rise and powerful hold over both his base and the GOP?

"To those on the left, the rallies are a Black Mass of American politics at which Trump plays high priest, recklessly summoning the darkest forces within the nation. To the MAGA faithful, the rallies are a form of pilgrimage, a joyous ceremony that like all rituals binds people together and makes them feel a part of something bigger than themselves. Both sides would acknowledge that this traveling roadshow is the pressurized, combustible core of Trump’s political power, a meeting of the faithful where Trump is unshackled and his rhetoric reaches its most extreme, with downstream consequences for the rest of the nation.

"To date, no reporter has sought to understand the rallies as a sociological phenomenon examined from the bottom up. Hoffman has done just this. He has stood in line for more than 170 hours with Trump's most ardent superfans and joined them at the very front row; he has traveled from Minnesota to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Hampshire immersing himself in their culture.

"Liar’s Circus is a revelatory portrait of Trump’s America, from one of our most intrepid journalists."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (67 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063009769 ?
The Case for Impeaching Trump
by Elizabeth Holtzman
Hot Books | Skyhorse Publishing (July 23, 2018)
My Review
Elizabeth Holtzman is a lawyer and political leader who was Democratic Congresswoman from New York. She served on the House Judiciary Committee charged with investigating the Watergate scandal and prepared articles of impeachment that precipitated the resignation of President Nixon. Congreswoman Holtzman later became District Attorney of Brooklyn, New York, where she prosecuted major crimes, including those political and organized. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and and currently practices law in New York. Congresswoman Holtzman is a frequent speaker on political affairs on CNN, MSNBC and other major news networks, a well published author in the New York Times and other media outlets, and is the co-author with Cynthia L. Cooper of The Impeachment of George W. Bush, Who Said it Would be Easy, and Cheating Justice." – Amazon biography

Elizabeth Holtzman has been a principled leader and a persistent voice for equality and accountability since she became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in 1973, which she remained for forty-two years. But she sees American democratic ideals, and the rule of law in the United States, eroding under President Trump. And as a member of the House Judiciary Committee that voted to impeach Nixon, and one of the members of the Homeland Security advisory council who resigned in protest of President Donald Trump's policy of separating families at the border, former Congresswoman Holtzman knows that of which she speaks.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (128 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-5107-4477-6 ?
Hatchet Man:
How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor's Code and Corrupted the Justice Department
Elie Honig
Harper (July 6, 2021)
No Review
Elie Honig worked as a federal and state prosecutor for 14 years. He prosecuted and tried cases involving violent crime, human trafficking, public corruption, and organized crime, including successful prosecutions of over 100 members and associates of the mafia. Honig now is a CNN Legal Analyst, hosts podcasts and writes for Cafe, is a Rutgers University scholar, and is Special Counsel to the law firm Lowenstein Sandler." – Amazon biography

"In Hatchet Man, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig uncovers Barr’s unprecedented abuse of power as Attorney General and the lasting structural damage done to the Justice Department. Honig uses his own experience as a prosecutor at DOJ to show how, as America’s top law enforcement official, Barr repeatedly violated the Department’s written rules, and those vital, unwritten norms and principles that comprise the 'prosecutor’s code.'

"Barr was corrupt from the beginning. His first act as AG was to distort the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, earning a public rebuke for his dishonesty from Mueller himself and, later, from a federal judge. Then, Barr tried to manipulate the law to squash a whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine—the report that eventually led to Trump’s first impeachment. Barr later intervened in an unprecedented manner to undermine his own DOJ prosecutors on the cases of Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, both political allies of the President. And then Barr fired the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York under false pretenses. Finally, Barr amplified baseless theories about massive mail-in ballot fraud, pouring gasoline on the dumpster fire battle over the 2020 election results and contributing to the January 6 insurrection that led to Trump’s second impeachment.

"In Hatchet Man, Honig proves that Barr trampled the two core virtues that have long defined the department and its mission: credibility and independence – ultimately in service of his own deeply-rooted, extremist legal and personal beliefs. Honig shows how Barr corrupted the Justice Department and explains what we must do to prevent this from ever happening again."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (837 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063092365 ?
Broken Code:
Inside Facebook and the Fight to Expose Its Harmful Secrets
Jeff Horwitz
Doubleday (November 14, 2023)
No Review
"Jeff Horwitz is a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal. His work on 'The Facebook Files' won the George Polk Award for Business Reporting and the Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting. Previously an investigative reporter for the Associated Press in Washington, DC, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area."

"Once the unrivaled titan of social media, Facebook held a singular place in culture and politics. Along with its sister platforms Instagram and WhatsApp, it was a daily destination for billions of users around the world. Inside and outside the company, Facebook extolled its products as bringing people closer together and giving them voice.>

"But in the wake of the 2016 election, even some of the company’s own senior executives came to consider those claims pollyannaish and simplistic. As a succession of scandals rocked Facebook, they—and the world—had to ask whether the company could control, or even understood, its own platforms.

"Facebook employees set to work in pursuit of answers. They discovered problems that ran far deeper than politics. Facebook was peddling and amplifying anger, looking the other way at human trafficking, enabling drug cartels and authoritarians, allowing VIP users to break the platform’s supposedly inviolable rules. They even raised concerns about whether the product was safe for teens. Facebook was distorting behavior in ways no one inside or outside the company understood.

"Enduring personal trauma and professional setbacks, employees successfully identified the root causes of Facebook's viral harms and drew up concrete plans to address them. But the costs of fixing the platform—often measured in tenths of a percent of user engagement—were higher than Facebook's leadership was willing to pay. With their work consistently delayed, watered down, or stifled, those who best understood Facebook’s damaging effect on users were left with a choice: to keep silent or go against their employer.

"Broken Code tells the story of these employees and their explosive discoveries. Expanding on 'The Facebook Files,' his blockbuster, award-winning series for The Wall Street Journal, reporter Jeff Horwitz lays out in sobering detail not just the architecture of Facebook’s failures, but what the company knew (and often disregarded) about its societal impact. In 2021, the company would rebrand itself Meta, promoting a techno-utopian wonderland. But as Broken Code shows, the problems spawned around the globe by social media can’t be resolved by strapping on a headset."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (3 ratings)
ISBN 978-0385549189 ?
The Impeachment Report
The House Intelligence Committee's Report on Its Investigation into Donald Trump and Ukraine
The House Intelligence Committee
Jon Meacham (Intro.)
Broadway Books (December 17, 2019)
No Review
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence oversees the nation's intelligence agencies including components of the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State, Treasury, and Energy. Congressman Adam Schiff, who represents California's 28th Congressional District, serves as the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship; Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush; Songs of America; and The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels. He is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University, a contributing writer for The New York Times Book Review, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians." – Amazon biography

"For only the fourth time in American history, the House of Representatives has conducted an impeachment inquiry into a sitting United States president. This landmark document details the findings of the House Intelligence Committee's historic investigation of whether President Donald J. Trump committed impeachable offenses when he sought to have Ukraine announce investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

"Penetrating a dense web of connected activity by the president, his ambassador Gordon Sondland, his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani, and many others, these pages offer a damning, blow-by-blow account of the president's attempts to 'use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election' and his subsequent attempts to obstruct the House investigation into his actions. Published here with an introduction offering critical context from bestselling presidential historian Jon Meacham, The Impeachment Report is necessary reading for every American concerned about the fate of our democracy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (110 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593237540 ?
Enough
Cassidy Hutchinson
Simon & Schuster (September 26, 2023)
No Review
"Cassidy Hutchinson is a former special assistant to President Donald Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows. She received national attention after being a key witness in the hearings led by the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. Hutchinson previously worked for the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and interned for Republican leaders Steve Scalise and Ted Cruz. She was born and raised in Pennington, New Jersey. Enough is her first book."

"Cassidy Hutchinson’s desk was mere steps from the most controversial president in recent American history. Now, she provides a riveting account of her extraordinary experiences as an idealistic young woman thrust into the middle of a national crisis, where she risked everything to tell the truth about some of the most powerful people in Washington.

"Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.

"Her life took a dramatic turn on January 6th, 2021, when, at twenty-four, she found herself in one of the most extraordinary and unprecedented calamities in modern political history.

"Hutchinson was faced with a choice between loyalty to the Trump administration or loyalty to the country by revealing what she saw and heard in the attempt to overthrow a democratic election. She bravely came forward to become the pivotal witness in the House January 6 investigations, as her testimony transfixed and stunned the nation. In her memoir, Hutchinson reveals the struggle between the pressures she confronted to toe the party line and the demands of the oath she swore to defend American democracy.

"Enough reaches far beyond the typical insider political account. It’s the saga of a woman whose fierce determination helped her overcome childhood challenges to get her dream job, only to face a crisis of conscience—one that more senior White House aides tried to evade—and, in the process, find her voice and herself. This is a portrait of how the courage of one person can change the course of history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (9,482 ratings)
ISBN 978-1668028285 ?
Find Me the Votes:
A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election
Michael Isikoff & Daniel Klaidman
Twelve (January 30, 2024)
No Review
"Michael Isikoff is an American investigative journalist, who has worked for the Washington Post, Newsweek and NBC News. He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story and Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War (co-written with David Corn.) He is a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, and other TV talk shows. Isikoff is currently the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News. Daniel Klaidman, former editor-in-chief at Yahoo News, is an investigative reporter for CBS News, based in New York."

"From veteran award-winning investigative journalists Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman, the epic inside story of the prosecution of a president.

"In Find Me the Votes, two years of immersive reporting by Isikoff and Klaidman has produced the most authoritative and dramatic account yet of a defeated president’s conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election and how a local Georgia prosecutor—a daughter of the civil rights movement—decided to indict him and his allies for his desperate attempt to hold on to power. From the beginning, Fani Willis saw Donald Trump’s crimes as a voting rights case, and an attempt by the former president to deprive the citizens of Georgia of the franchise, a right for which her forebears had bled.

"Isikoff and Klaidman take us deep inside both the nerve center of Trump’s effort to steal the election and the DA’s team of prosecutors as they build their case against the president. Their reporting reveals new information on the plot to criminally seize voting equipment in several states; Sidney Powell’s attempt to obtain preemptive pardons from Trump; and revelatory communications between the president and his co-conspirators. We see the prosecution take shape in Willis’s office in the face of heinous threats of violent retaliation from Trump’s supporters.

"With blockbuster original reporting and exclusive access to thousands of secret documents, emails, text messages, and audio recordings, Find Me the Votes is investigative journalism at its finest. The authors also conducted exclusive interviews with key sources in the Trump conspiracy, as well as with the president’s top targets, including Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and the Fulton County DA’s team–featuring hours of interviews with Fani Willis herself. This is riveting contemporary history, and a lasting account of the prosecution of a president who tested the rule of law as no president ever had before. Isikoff and Klaidman have written a story for the ages."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (71 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538739990 ?
The Victory Lab:
The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns
Sasha Issenberg
Crown; Reprint edition (September 17, 2013)
No Review
"Sasha Issenberg is a columnist for Slate and the Washington correspondent for Monocle. He covered the 2008 election as a national political correspondent for The Boston Globe, and his work has also appeared in New York, The Atlantic, and The New York Times Magazine. His first book, The Sushi Economy, was published in 2007."

"The book Politico calls 'Moneyball for politics' shows how cutting-edge social science and analytics are reshaping the modern political campaign.

"Renegade thinkers are crashing the gates of a venerable American institution, shoving aside its so-called wise men and replacing them with a radical new data-driven order. We’ve seen it in sports, and now in The Victory Lab, journalist Sasha Issenberg tells the hidden story of the analytical revolution upending the way political campaigns are run in the 21st century.

"The Victory Lab follows the academics and maverick operatives rocking the war room and re-engineering a high-stakes industry previously run on little more than gut instinct and outdated assumptions. Armed with research from behavioural psychology and randomized experiments that treat voters as unwitting guinea pigs, the smartest campaigns now believe they know who you will vote for even before you do. Issenberg tracks these fascinating techniques—which include cutting edge persuasion experiments, innovative ways to mobilize voters, heavily researched electioneering methods—and shows how our most important figures, such as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, are putting them to use with surprising skill and alacrity.

"Provocative, clear-eyed and energetically reported, The Victory Lab offers iconoclastic insights into political marketing, human decision-making, and the increasing power of analytics."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (283 ratings)
ISBN 978-0307954800 ?
On the Brink:
Trump, Kim, and the Threat of Nuclear War
Van Jackson
Cambridge University Press (November, 2018)
No Review
"Dr. Van Jackson is an American scholar and foreign policy pundit specializing in the intersection of the US and Asia. A Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, he also holds multiple think tank appointments: as the Defence & Strategy Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies, and a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He is the former host of the Pacific Pundit podcast series. Prior to joining Victoria University, Dr. Jackson taught at Hawaii Pacific University, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Georgetown University and the Catholic University of America. He has also held fellowships with the Council on Foreign Relations, Center for a New American Security, and Pacific Forum CSIS. Although he writes, researches, and speaks about a wide range of topics—from defense strategy and U.S. foreign policy to international relations theory and nuclear coercion—he is best known as an expert on Korean affairs. Dr. Jackson started his career by enlisting in the U.S. Air Force as a Korean linguist and intelligence analyst, working his way through school before serving in several policy and strategy positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. See his official site for more details: www.vanjackson.org" – Amazon biography

"In 2017, the world watched as President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traded personal insults and escalating threats of nuclear war amid unprecedented shows of military force. Former Pentagon insider and Korean security expert Van Jackson traces the origins of the first American nuclear crisis in the post-Cold War era, and explains the fragile, highly unpredictable way that it ended. Jackson analyzes the US response to North Korea's increasing nuclear threat in the context of Trump's aggressive rhetoric, prior US policy failures, the geopolitics of East Asia, North Korean strategic culture and the acceleration of its nuclear program. Jackson argues that the Trump administration's policy of 'maximum pressure' brought the world much closer to inadvertent nuclear war than many realize — and charts a course for the prevention of future conflicts."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (29 ratings)
ISBN 978-1108473484 ?
The Rural Voter:
The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America
Nicholas F. Jacobs & Daniel M. Shea
Columbia University Press (November 21, 2023)
No Review
"Nicholas F. Jacobs is assistant professor of government at Colby College. He is a coauthor of What Happened to the Vital Center? Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the Fracturing of America (2022). Daniel M. Shea is professor and chair of government at Colby College. His books include Why Vote? Essential Questions About the Future of Elections in America (2019)."

"The widening gulf between rural and urban America is becoming the most serious political divide of our day. Support for Democrats, up and down the ballot, has plummeted throughout the countryside, and the entire governing system is threatened by one-party dominance. After Donald Trump’s surprising victories throughout rural America, pundits and journalists went searching for answers, popping into roadside diners and opining from afar. Rural Americans are supposedly bigots, culturally backward, lazy, scared of the future, and radical. But is it that simple? Is the country splintering between two very different Americas―one rural, one urban?

"This pathbreaking book pinpoints forces behind the rise of the “rural voter”―a new political identity that combines a deeply felt sense of place with an increasingly nationalized set of concerns. Combining a historical perspective with the largest-ever national survey of rural voters, Nicholas F. Jacobs and Daniel M. Shea uncover how this overwhelmingly crucial voting bloc emerged and how it has roiled American politics. They show how perceptions of economic and social change, racial anxieties, and a traditional way of life under assault have converged into a belief in rural uniqueness and separateness. Rural America believes it rises and falls together, and that the Democratic Party stands in the way.

"An unparalleled exploration of rural partisanship, this book offers a timely warning that the chasm separating urban and rural Americans cannot be papered over with policies or rhetoric. Instead, The Rural Voter shows how this division is the latest chapter in the enduring conflict over American identity."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (7 ratings)
ISBN 978-0231211581 ?
Cyberwar:
How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President: What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Oxford University Press (October, 2018)
My Review
"Kathleen Hall Jamieson is Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor at Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of its Annenberg Public Policy Center and an award-winning scholar. She has authored many books, including Packaging the Presidency, Eloquence in an Electronic Age, Spiral of Cynicism (with Joseph Cappella), and The Obama Victory (with Kate Kenski and Bruce Hardy)." – Amazon biography

"The question of how Donald Trump won the 2016 election looms over his presidency. In particular, were the 78,000 voters who gave him an Electoral College victory affected by the Russian trolls and hackers? Trump has denied it. So has Vladimir Putin. Others cast the answer as unknowable. In Cyberwar, Kathleen Hall Jamieson marshals the troll posts, unique polling data, analyses of how the press used hacked content, and a synthesis of half a century of media effects literature to argue that, although not certain, it is probable that the Russians helped elect the 45th president of the United States. In the process, she asks: How extensive was the troll messaging? What characteristics of social media did the Russians exploit? Why did the mainstream press rush the hacked content into the citizenry's newsfeeds? Was Clinton telling the truth when she alleged that the debate moderators distorted what she said in the leaked speeches? Did the Russian influence extend beyond social media and news to alter the behavior of FBI director James Comey? After detailing the ways in which Russian efforts were abetted by the press, social media, candidates, party leaders, and a polarized public, Cyberwar closes with a warning: the country is ill-prepared to prevent a sequel."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (126 ratings)
ISBN 978-0190915810 ?
The Making of Donald Trump
David Cay Johnston
Melville House (August 2, 2016)
No Review
"David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, has hunted down a killer the police failed to catch, exposed LAPD abuses, caused two television stations to lose their licenses over news manipulations, and revealed Donald Trump's true net worth. He has uncovered so many tax dodges that he has been called the 'de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States.' His book Perfectly Legal was a New York Times bestseller and honored as Book of the Year by the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors. Over his forty-year career he has won many other honors, including a George Polk Award." – Amazon biography

"Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, who had spent thirty years chronicling Donald Trump for the New York Times and other leading newspapers, takes readers from the origins of the Trump family fortune—his grandfather's Yukon bordellos during the Gold Rush—to his tumultuous gambling and real estate dealings in New York and Atlantic City, all the way to his election as president of the United States, giving us a deeply researched and shockingly full picture of one of the most controversial figures of our time."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,184 ratings)
ISBN 978-1612196329 SJ3 333.3309 TRUMP Johnston
It's Even Worse than You Think:
What the Trump Administration Is Doing To America
David Cay Johnston
Simon & Schuster, January 2018
My Review
"David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, has hunted down a killer the police failed to catch, exposed LAPD abuses, caused two television stations to lose their licenses over news manipulations, and revealed Donald Trump's true net worth. He has uncovered so many tax dodges that he has been called the 'de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States.' His book Perfectly Legal was a New York Times bestseller and honored as Book of the Year by the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors. Over his forty-year career he has won many other honors, including a George Polk Award." – Amazon biography

"Bestselling author and longtime Trump observer David Cay Johnston shines a light on the political termites who have infested our government under the Trump Administration, destroying it from within and compromising our jobs, safety, finances, and more."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,555 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-5011-7416-2 SJ1 973.933 Johnston
The Big Cheat:
How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family
David Cay Johnston
Simon & Schuster (November 30, 2021)
No Review
"David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, has hunted down a killer the police failed to catch, exposed LAPD abuses, caused two television stations to lose their licenses over news manipulations, and revealed Donald Trump's true net worth. He has uncovered so many tax dodges that he has been called the 'de facto chief tax enforcement officer of the United States.' His book Perfectly Legal was a New York Times bestseller and honored as Book of the Year by the journalism organization Investigative Reporters and Editors. Over his forty-year career he has won many other honors, including a George Polk Award." – Amazon biography

"While the world watched Donald Trump’s presidency in horror or delight, few noticed that his lifelong grifting quietly continued. Less than forty minutes after taking the oath of office, Trump began turning the White House into a money machine for himself, his family, and his courtiers.

"More than $1.7 billion flowed into Donald Trump’s bank accounts during his four years as president. Foreign governments rented out whole floors of his hotel five blocks from the White House while lobbyists conducted business in the hotel’s restaurants. Payday lenders and other trade groups moved their annual conventions to Trump golf resorts. And individual favor seekers joined his private Mar-a-Lago club with its $200,000 admission fee in hopes of getting a few minutes with the President. Despite earning more than $1 million every day he was in office, Trump left the White House as he arrived—hard up for cash. More than $400 million in debt comes due by 2024, and Trump still lacks the resources to pay it back.

"The Big Cheat takes you on a guided tour of how money flowed in and out of Trump’s hundreds of enterprises, showing in simple terms how his family and courtiers used his presidency to enrich themselves, even putting national security at risk. Johnston details the four most recent years of the corruption that has defined the Trump family since 1885 and reveals the costs of Trump’s extravagant lifestyle for American taxpayers."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (748 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982178031 SJ1 973.933 Johnston
Front Row at the Trump Show
by Jonathan Karl
Dutton (March 31, 2020)
No Review
"Jonathan Karl is the chief White House correspondent and chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and the president of the White House Correspondents' Association (2019-2020). He has reported from the White House during the administrations of four presidents and thirteen press secretaries and covered every major beat in Washington, including Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Karl also has a long history of reporting on Donald Trump, beginning in the early 1990s, when he was a reporter for The New York Post, and including Trump's first network interview of the 2016 presidential campaign cycle. Karl has won numerous awards, including the Walter Cronkite Award for National Individual Achievement and the National Press Foundation's Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, the highest honor for Congressional reporting. According to the Tyndall Report, Karl was the single most used network correspondent for the first two years of the Trump presidency, logging nearly 400 minutes of air time in 2017 on the World News Tonight broadcast alone." – Amazon biography

"We have never seen a president like this...norm-breaking, rule-busting, dangerously reckless to some and an overdue force for change to others. One thing is clear: We are witnessing the reshaping of the presidency.

"Jonathan Karl brings us into the White House in a powerful book unlike any other on the Trump administration. He's known and covered Donald Trump longer than any other White House reporter. With extraordinary access to Trump during the campaign and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Karl delivers essential new reporting and surprising insights. These are the behind-the-scenes moments that define Trump's presidency—an extraordinary look at the president, the person, and those closest to him. This is the real story of Trump's unlikely rise; of the struggles and battles of those who work in the administration and those who report on it; of the plots and schemes of a senior staff enduring stunning and unprecedented unpredictability.

"Karl takes us from a TV set turned campaign office to the strange quiet of Trump's White House on Inauguration Day to a high-powered reelection campaign set to change the country's course. He shows us an administration rewriting the role of the president on the fly and a press corps that has never been more vital. Above all, this book is only possible because of the surprisingly open relationship Donald Trump has had with Jonathan Karl, a reporter he has praised, fought, and branded an enemy of the people."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (5,610 ratings)
ISBN 978-1524745622 ?
Betrayal:
The Final Act of the Trump Show
by Jonathan Karl
Dutton (November 16, 2021)
No Review

"Jonathan Karl is the chief White House correspondent and chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (2019-2020).

"He has reported from the White House during the administrations of four presidents and thirteen press secretaries and covered every major beat in Washington, including Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. Karl also has a long history of reporting on Donald Trump, beginning in the early 1990s, when he was reporter with The New York Post, and including Trump’s first network interview of the 2016 presidential campaign cycle.

"Karl has won numerous awards, including the Walter Cronkite Award for National Individual Achievement and the National Press Foundation’s Everett McKinley Dirksen Award, the highest honor for Congressional reporting." – Amazon biography

"Nobody is in a better position to tell the story of the shocking final chapter of the Trump show than Jonathan Karl. As the reporter who has known Donald Trump longer than any other White House correspondent, Karl told the story of Trump’s rise in the New York Times bestseller Front Row at the Trump Show. Now he tells the story of Trump’s downfall, complete with riveting behind-the-scenes accounts of some of the darkest days in the history of the American presidency and packed with original reporting and on-the-record interviews with central figures in this drama who are telling their stories for the first time.

"This is a definitive account of what was really going on during the final weeks and months of the Trump presidency and what it means for the future of the Republican Party, by a reporter who was there for it all. He has been taunted, praised, and vilified by Donald Trump, and now Jonathan Karl finds himself in a singular position to deliver the truth."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (5,378 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593186329 ?
Tired of Winning:
Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
by Jonathan Karl
Dutton (November 14, 2023)
No Review

"Jonathan Karl is the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Karl has covered every major beat in Washington, D.C., including the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the State Department. He has reported from the White House under four presidents and fourteen press secretaries. He is a former president of the White House Correspondents' Association. Front Row at the Trump Show and Betrayal were instant New York Times bestsellers."

"Picking up where the New York Times bestseller Betrayal left off, Tired of Winning explores how Donald Trump remade the Republican Party in his own image—and the wreckage he’s left in his wake.

"Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party.

"From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he’s re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

"Jonathan Karl has known Donald Trump since his days as a New York Post reporter in the 1990s, and he covered every day of Trump’s administration as ABC News’s chief White House correspondent. No one is in a better position to detail the former president’s quest for retribution and provide a glimpse at what the GOP would be signing up for if it once again chooses him as its standard bearer.

"In 1964, Ronald Reagan told Americans it was 'a time for choosing.' Sixty years later, Republicans have their own choice to make: Are they tired of winning?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,337 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593473986 ?
Impeach:
The Case Against Donald Trump
by Neal Katyal & Sam Koppelman
Mariner (November 26, 2019)
No Review
"Neal Katyal is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of Law at Georgetown University and a partner at a law firm where he leads one of the largest U.S. Supreme Court practices in the nation. He previously served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States (the government's top courtroom lawyer). He has argued more Supreme Court cases in U.S. history than has any minority attorney (39 in total), recently breaking the record held by Thurgood Marshall. American Lawyer magazine recently named him the very top litigator of the year nationwide and the Justice Department awarded him the Edmund Randolph Award, the highest award the department can give a civilian. A frequent contributor to MSNBC and the New York Times, he has been named one of GQ's Men of the Year and has appeared on virtually every major American news program, as well as House of Cards, where he played himself. Sam Koppelman is a senior speechwriter at Fenway Strategies, where he's written for public officials, philanthropists, business leaders, and organizations working to make the world a better place. He has also been a speechwriter to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and has written under his own name for publications including The Boston Globe and Harper's Magazine. Koppelman holds a B.A. in government from Harvard College, where he was named a John Harvard Scholar and worked as Op-Eds Editor for The Harvard Crimson." – Amazon biography

"Why President Trump has left us with no choice but to remove him from office, as explained by celebrated Supreme Court lawyer and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal.

"No one is above the law. This belief is as American as freedom of speech and turkey on Thanksgiving—held sacred by Democrats and Republicans alike. But as celebrated Supreme Court lawyer and former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal argues in Impeach, if President Trump is not held accountable for repeatedly asking foreign powers to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, this could very well mark the end of our democracy. To quote President George Washington's Farewell Address: 'Foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.' Impeachment should always be our last resort, explains Katyal, but our founders, our principles, and our Constitution leave us with no choice but to impeach President Trump—before it's too late."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (900 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541724167 ?
Real Anthony Fauci:
Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Skyhorse Publishing; Standard Edition (November 16, 2021)
No Review

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the chairman of the board and chief legal counsel for Children’s Health Defense. He is also counsel to Morgan and Morgan, a nationwide personal injury practice, and the founder of Waterkeeper Alliance. Kennedy is an esteemed author, with a long list of published books including the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Nature, as well as American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family and Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak. Mr. Kennedy was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his success helping Riverkeeper lead the fight to restore the Hudson River. His reputation as a resolute defender of the environment and children’s health stems from a litany of successful legal actions. He received recognition for his role in the landmark victory against Monsanto, as well as in the DuPont case that inspired the movie Dark Waters (2019)."

"#1 on AMAZON, TWENTY WEEKS on the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST, and a WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY and PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NATIONAL BESTSELLER! Over 1,000,000 copies sold despite censorship, boycotts from bookstores and libraries, and hit pieces against the author! Pharma-funded mainstream media has convinced millions of Americans that Dr. Anthony Fauci is a hero. Hands down, he is anything but.

"As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci dispenses $6.1 billion in annual taxpayer-provided funding for rigged scientific research, allowing him to dictate the subject, content, and outcome of scientific health research across the globe—truly a dark agenda. Fauci uses the financial clout at his disposal in a back handed manner to wield extraordinary influence over hospitals, universities, journals, and thousands of influential doctors and scientists—whose careers and institutions he has the power to ruin, advance, or reward in an authoritarian manner.

"During more than a year of painstaking and meticulous research on his laptop and through interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unearthed a shocking story that obliterates media spin on Dr. Fauci . . . and that will alarm every American—Democrat or Republican—who cares about democracy, our Constitution, and the future of our children’s health.

"The Real Anthony Fauci reveals how “America’s Doctor” launched his career during the early AIDS crisis by partnering with pharmaceutical companies to sabotage safe and effective off-patent therapeutic treatments for AIDS. Fauci orchestrated fraudulent do-nothing studies, and then pressured US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators into approving a deadly chemotherapy treatment he had good reason to know was worthless against AIDS. Fauci did the unthinkable and repeatedly violated federal laws to allow his Pharma partners to use impoverished and dark-skinned children as lab rats in beyond order, deadly experiments with toxic AIDS and cancer chemotherapies.

"In early 2000, Fauci shook hands with Bill Gates in the library of Gates’ $147 million Seattle mansion, cementing a partnership that would aim to control an increasingly profitable $60 billion global vaccine enterprise with unlimited growth potential. Through funding leverage and carefully cultivated personal relationships with heads of state and leading media and social media institutions, the Pharma-Fauci-Gates alliance exercises dominion over global health policy and our beautiful country.

"This is not just another political book. The Real Anthony Fauci details how Fauci, Gates, and their cohorts use their control of media outlets—both conservative and liberal leaning, scientific journals, key government and quasi-governmental agencies, global intelligence agencies, and influential scientists and physicians to flood the public with fearful propaganda about COVID-19 virulence and pathogenesis, and to muzzle debate and ruthlessly censor dissent."

Amazon's blurb touts this book as "#1 in Immunology." Robert Kennedy Jr is neither a doctor nor a scientist, and this book is not immunology but political misinformation. In fact it is anti-immunology, for its author promotes the unsound and dangerous view that vaccines are harmful.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (25,609 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510766808 ?
Renegade:
Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country
Adam Kinzinger & Michael D'Antonio
The Open Field (October 31, 2023)
No Review
"Adam Kinzinger served in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2023, representing Illinois’ Sixteenth Congressional District. During his tenure, he served on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, as well as the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Prior to being elected to Congress, Kinzinger served in the Air Force in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air National Guard and a Senior Political Commentator on CNN. Michael D'Antonio is the author of many acclaimed books." – Amazon biography

"Adam Kinzinger captures one of the most transformative periods in recent political history in a riveting, personal account from inside Congress, including the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol and his vote to impeach Donald Trump.

"On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump incited a violent mob to storm the US Capitol in attempts to overturn the presidential election. It was a betrayal of our Constitution, and one of the darkest days in recent history. Yet to former congressman Adam Kinzinger it was also the culmination of a cultural and political rupture he’d long seen coming. Constructive criticism from within the Republican Party was no longer enough. It was time to stand up, even if it meant betraying his own party.

"In Renegade, Kinzinger tells his story of faith, service, and political duty in a democracy under siege. From the small Illinois county board where he got his start, to his years in the Air Force flying tanker missions over Iraq, to his final tumultuous term in Congress as one of the few Republican members to vote to impeach Trump and join the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Kinzinger takes readers inside the most critical moments and pivotal decisions of the last years. The result is both a searing examination of the rise of extremism and the GOP’s subsequent descent into a dysfunctional and destructive force, and a rousing call to return to unity.

"Raw, provocative, and clear-eyed, Renegade captures one of the most transformative periods in recent American history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,000 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593654163 ?
Trump Revealed:
The Definitive Biography of the 45th President
Michael Kranish & Marc Fisher
Scribner; Reprint Edition (January, 2017)
No Review
"Michael Kranish is an investigative political reporter for The Washington Post. He is the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Trump Revealed, John F. Kerry, The Real Romney, and the author of The World’s Fastest Man and Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War. He was the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists Award for Washington Correspondence in 2016. Visit MichaelKranish.com.
Marc Fisher is a senior editor at The Washington Post, where he has been the enterprise editor, local columnist, and Berlin bureau chief, among other positions over thirty years at the paper. He is the author of Something in the Air, a history of radio, and After the Wall, an account of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Fisher wrote several of the Washington Post articles that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2016 and the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2014. Visit MarcFisher.com."

"Who is Donald J. Trump? To discover Trump in full, the Washington Post assembled a team of award-winning reporters and researchers to investigate every aspect of his life, from his privileged upbringing in Queens to his hundreds of lawsuits, his infamous womanizing, his shifting position on abortion rights, his dizzying seven changes in party affiliation, and his astonishing, disruptive election as president in November 2016.

"Coauthored by Washington Post investigative political reporter Michael Kranish and senior editor Marc Fisher, Trump Revealed details the 1970s Justice Department suit against Trump and his father for racial discrimination, his business and political machinations and alleged organized crime connections, his disastrous Atlantic City casino projects, and his relentless pursuit of the attentions of the media. What emerges is a portrait of “a man certain of his views, hugely confident in his abilities, not terribly well informed, quick to take offense,” a man with a penchant for big bets—on real estate, branded businesses, and, ultimately, on himself.

"In the wake of the most controversial and polarizing election in modern American history, Trump Revealed provides essential insight into this billionaire businessman, celebrity, and global brand who is now the president of the United States."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (859 ratings)
ISBN 978-1501156526 ?
Going Big:
FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy
Robert Kuttner
Joseph E. Stiglitz (Foreword)
The New Press (April 26, 2022)
No Review

"Robert Kuttner is cofounder and coeditor of The American Prospect magazine, and the Meyer and Ida Kirstein chair at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He was a founder of the Economic Policy Institute, and serves on its executive committee.

"Kuttner is author of eleven books, including the 2008 New York Times best seller Obama’s Challenge. His other writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New Yorker, Harpers, the New York Review of Books, the New Republic, Foreign Affairs, Dissent, New Statesman, Harvard Business Review, Columbia Journalism Review, Political Science Quarterly, and the New York Times Magazine and New York Times Book Review. He has contributed major articles for the New England Journal of Medicine as a national policy correspondent. He is a featured columnist for Huffington Post.

"He previously served as a national staff writer on the Washington Post, chief investigator of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, economics editor of The New Republic, and was a longtime columnist for Business Week and for the Boston Globe, syndicated by the Washington Post. He is the two-time winner of the Sidney Hillman Journalism Award, the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism, the Jack London Award for Labor Writing, and the Paul G. Hoffman Award of the United Nations Development Program for his lifetime work on economic efficiency and social justice. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, German Marshall Fund Fellow, and John F. Kennedy Fellow.

"Educated at Oberlin College, The London School of Economics, and the University of California at Berkeley, Kuttner is the recipient of honorary degrees from Swarthmore College and Oberlin. In addition to Brandeis, he has also taught at the University of Massachusetts, the University of Oregon, Boston University and Harvard’s Institute of Politics. He lives in Boston with his wife, Joan Fitzgerald, a professor of public policy at Northeastern. He is the father of two grown children and has six grandchildren."

"With history and the extraordinary parallels between Biden and FDR as his guide, the veteran political analyst diagnoses what’s at stake for America in 2022 and beyond.

"Joe Biden has found his way back to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. After four decades of diminishing prospects for ordinary people, the public likes what Biden is offering. Yet American democracy is in dire peril as Republicans, increasingly the national minority, try to destroy democracy in order to cling to power. It is the best of times and the worst of times. In Going Big, bestselling author and political journalist Robert Kuttner assesses the promise and peril of this critical juncture.

"Biden, like FDR in his time, faces multiple challenges. Roosevelt had to make terrible compromises with racist legislators to win enactment of his program. Biden, to achieve the necessary governing coalition, needs to achieve durable multiracial coalitions. Roosevelt had to conquer fascism in Europe; Biden must defeat it at home. And after four decades of neoliberal policy disasters reflecting Wall Street’s political influence, Biden needs to go beyond what even FDR achieved, to restore a democratic economy of broad possibility.

"From a writer with an unparalleled understanding of the history and politics that have made this moment possible, this book is the essential guide to what is at stake for Joe Biden, for America, and for our democracy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (15 ratings)
ISBN 978-1620977279 ?
Mar-a-Lago:
Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace
Laurence Leamer
Flatiron Books (January 29, 2019)
No Review
"Laurence Leamer has taught in a mountain school in Nepal in the Peace Corps, as well as worked in a factory in France and a coal mine in West Virginia. He has also written more than a dozen books, including several New York Times bestsellers and an off-Broadway play. The award-winning author's books include The Kennedy Women, The Price of Justice, and the Edgar-nominated The Lynching. He lives in Palm Beach, Florida, and Washington, D.C, with his wife, Vesna." – Amazon biography

"To know Donald J. Trump it is best to start in his natural habitat: Palm Beach, Florida. It is here he learned the techniques that took him all the way to the White House. Painstakingly, over decades, he has created a world in this exclusive tropical enclave and favorite haunt of billionaires where he is not just president but a king. The vehicle for his triumph is Mar-A-Lago, one of the greatest mansions ever built in the United States. The inside story of how he became King of Palm Beach—and how Palm Beach continues to be his spiritual home even as president—is rollicking, troubling, and told with unrivaled access and understanding by Laurence Leamer.

"In Mar-A-Lago, the reader will learn:

  • How Donald Trump bought a property now valued by some at as much as $500,000,000 for less than three thousand dollars of his own money.
  • Why Trump was blackballed by the WASP grandees of the island and how he got his revenge.
  • How Trump joined forces with the National Enquirer, which was headquartered nearby, and engineered his own divorce.
  • How by turning Mar-A-Lago into a private club, Trump was the unlikely man to integrate Palm Beach's restricted country club scene, and what his real motives were.
  • What transpires behind the gates of today's Mar-A-Lago during "the season," when President Trump and assorted D.C. power players fly down each weekend.

"In addition to copious interviews and reporting from inside Mar-A-Lago, Laurence Leamer brings an acute and unparalleled understanding of the society of Palm Beach, where he has lived for twenty-five years. He has written an essential book for understanding Donald Trump's inner character."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (71 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250177513 ?
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div. (Editor)
St. Martin's Press, October 2017
My Review
"Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is Assistant Clinical Professor in Law and Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. She earned her degrees at Yale, interned at Bellevue, was Chief Resident at Mass General, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She was also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. She worked in several maximum-security prisons, cofounded Yale's Violence and Health Study Group, and leads a violence prevention collaborators group for the World Health Organization. She's written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited several academic books, and is author of the textbook Violence." – Amazon biography

"Since the start of Donald Trump's presidential run, one question has quietly but urgently permeated the observations of concerned citizens: What is wrong with him? Constrained by the American Psychiatric Association's 'Goldwater rule,' which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to answer this question have shied away from discussing the issue at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both. In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health experts argue that, in Mr. Trump's case, their moral and civic 'duty to warn' America supersedes professional neutrality. They then explore Trump's symptoms and potentially relevant diagnoses to find a complex, if also dangerously mad, man."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (3,359 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-250-17945-6 SJ3 973.933 Dangerou
Profile of a Nation:
Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul
Bandy X. Lee
World Mental Health Coalition, Inc. (October 1, 2020)
No Review
"Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is a faculty member in the Law and Psychiatry Division of Yale School of Medicine. She earned her degrees at Yale, interned at Bellevue, was Chief Resident at Mass. General, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She was also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. She worked in several maximum-security prisons, played a key role in Rikers Island reforms, co-founded Yale’s Violence and Health Study Group, and leads a violence prevention collaborators group for the World Health Organization. She co-teaches criminal justice clinic and immigration legal services at Yale Law School, and teaches a university-wide course on violence prevention for Yale’s Global Health Studies Program. She’s written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited eleven academic books, and is author of the textbook Violence.

"An unprecedented report for unprecedented times, Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul is a unique and timely accomplishment by one of America’s leading intellectuals.Dr. Bandy Lee’s previous New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, opened the door to understanding the Trump presidency from a mental health perspective and has been published in many countries and languages. This new book goes beyond Donald Trump to explaining the followers who elevated him and the nation that tolerated him as president. Why does Donald Trump have such a hold on his followers? Why must he provoke violence? What is going on in the minds of those who support and follow him, after so many scandals, failed policies, and even a deadly insurrection? What caused his ascendancy, and how can we prevent another one? Dr. Lee’s epic new book is 'the missing piece' that answers these questions with accessible language. She was the first to call out Donald Trump’s psychological dangers in a major way at the start of his presidency. Written over the summer of 2020, she explains why, after almost 200,000 coronavirus deaths and economic devastation, he is still a candidate for reelection and correctly predicts that he would not concede an election loss, would declare it a fraud, and would not let go of power unless severe limits are set on him from without. She outlines what citizens can do at this critical time to help the nation heal and prevent another Trump travesty. With 20 years of experience treating violent offenders and advising on violence prevention programming for prisons, communities, and governments, Dr. Lee is uniquely well positioned with a considerable track record of accuracy. She has also blown the whistle on the American Psychiatric Association’s misuse of the now-infamous 'Goldwater rule' to silence mental health professionals under the Trump presidency. The muzzling of intellectuals and journalists, she has warned, is the first sign of tyranny. Melding the techniques of CIA profiling with established methods of public health, this report represents an attempt to meet mental health professionals’ responsibility to society. At this critical time all seriously concerned Americans need to be aware of Dr. Lee’s conclusions and recommendations."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (194 ratings)
ISBN 978-1735553740 ?
The Psychology of Trump Contagion:
An Existential Danger to American Democracy and All Humankind
Bandy X. Lee
World Mental Health Coalition, Inc. (September 2, 2024)
No Review
"Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is a faculty member in the Law and Psychiatry Division of Yale School of Medicine. She earned her degrees at Yale, interned at Bellevue, was Chief Resident at Mass. General, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She was also a Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health. She worked in several maximum-security prisons, played a key role in Rikers Island reforms, co-founded Yale’s Violence and Health Study Group, and leads a violence prevention collaborators group for the World Health Organization. She co-teaches criminal justice clinic and immigration legal services at Yale Law School, and teaches a university-wide course on violence prevention for Yale’s Global Health Studies Program. She’s written more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, edited eleven academic books, and is author of the textbook Violence.

"Why is Donald Trump so popular? How has he amassed such a following, despite his deadly Covid-19 mismanagement, a violent insurrection against the government, and a felony conviction, with others likely to come? Specializing in treating violent offenders and advising on violence prevention programming for prisons, communities, governments, and international organizations, Dr. Bandy X. Lee explains the phenomenon of 'Trump Contagion' as no other.

"Dr. Lee’s 2017 New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, was so unexpectedly successful, it took one of the Big Five publishers five weeks of repeat printings to catch up with the demand! Even White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is reported to have used it as an 'owner’s manual' for dealing with Donald Trump, which may have prevented a nuclear war with North Korea. Her second book on Trump, Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul, predicted in 2020 a violent insurrection and 'a presidency that will not end with the loss of an election.' Her warnings were so accurate, Congress members messaged her from the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, 'You are vindicated!' and a major Mother Jones article was subtitled, 'The vindication of Bandy Lee.'

"But Dr. Lee says it is not over. She brings her prescience to a third book, The Psychology of Trump Contagion: An Existential Danger to American Democracy and All Humankind, and her warnings are stark: she explains the rise of fascism, which she calls, 'not a political ideology but mental pathology in politics.' No one has elucidated 'the dangerous case of Donald Trump' so accurately and so early as Dr. Lee, and similarly no one will illustrate 'the more dangerous case of Donald Trump,' from his deterioration to his spread of symptoms across the culture at large, as Dr. Lee in her new book!"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (20 ratings)
ISBN 979-8990053335 ?
Thank You for Your Servitude:
Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
Mark Leibovich
Penguin Press (July 12, 2022)
No Review
"Mark Leibovich is a recipient of the National Magazine Award for profile writing. He is the author of four books, including the number one New York Times bestseller This Town, about the political culture of twenty-first-century Washington, D.C. He recently joined The Atlantic, after a ten-year stint as chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine. Before arriving at the magazine in 2012, Leibovich covered national politics in the Times' Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury News. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C." – Amazon biography

"In the early months of Trump’s candidacy, the Republican Party’s most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united—and loud—in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won.

"Why does Donald Trump speak and act as he does? Why does he need to deny the obvious seriousness of a pandemic? Why must he provoke violence? Why do many in the country still support and follow him? What caused his ascendancy in the first place?

"Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich’s unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration’s chief enablers, and the swamp’s lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their “relevance”? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump’s savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were “in on the joke.” As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don’t read The New York Times, and they won’t read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It’s a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison.

"Thank You for Your Servitude isn’t another view from the Oval Office: it’s the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (117 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593296318 ?
The Big Lie:
Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020
Jonathan Lemire
Flatiron Books (July 26, 2022)
No Review
"Jonathan Lemire is the White House Bureau Chief at Politico, as well as the host of MSNBC's Way Too Early. A native of the Boston area, he now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and children. The Big Lie is his first book." – Amazon biography

"Jonathan Lemire uncovers that "The Big Lie," as it’s been termed, isn’t just about the 2020 election. It's become a political philosophy that has only further divided the two parties.

"Donald Trump first tried it out in 2016, at an August rally in Ohio. He said that perhaps he wouldn’t accept the election results in his race against Hillary Clinton, that the election was 'rigged.' He then mentioned it at more rallies and even at one of the fall debates. He didn’t have to challenge the result that year, but the stage was set. When he lost in 2020, he started the lie back up again and to devastating results: an insurrection at the Capitol in January 2021.

"Republicans are still wholly under Trump’s sway. From his retirement at his Florida and New Jersey clubs he meets with Republican officials, aspiring candidates, and advisers and demands loyalty about this twisted way of thinking. And Democrats still deal with him as their opposition party is driven by a blatant lie. The parties aren’t divided by the aisle―they’re on different planets.

"In the more than five tumultuous, paradigm-shifting years of Donald Trump’s presidency and beyond, his near-constant lying has become a fixture of political life. It is inextricably linked with how his party behaves, how the Democrats respond to it, and how he remains relevant, even after a decisive loss in 2020. Jonathan Lemire brings his connections, profile, and dogged reportorial instincts to bear in his first book that explores how this phenomenon shapes our politics.

"Written with sharp political insight and detailed with dozens of interviews, The Big Lie is the first book to examine this unprecedented and tenuous moment in our nation’s politics."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (707 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593296318 ?
I Alone Can Fix It:
Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year
Carol Leonnig & Philip Rucker
Penguin Press (July 20, 2021)
My Review
"Carol Leonnig is a national investigative reporter at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2000, covering Donald Trump’s presidency and previous administrations. She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on security failures and misconduct inside the Secret Service. She also was part of the Post teams awarded Pulitzers in 2018, for reporting on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and in 2014, for revealing the U.S. government’s secret, broad surveillance of Americans. Leonnig is an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC and the author of Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service.

Philip Rucker is the senior Washington correspondent at The Washington Post and led its coverage of President Trump and his administration as White House Bureau chief. He and a team of Post reporters won the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award for their reporting on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. In 2021, the White House Correspondents’ Association honored Rucker with the Aldo Beckman Award for overall excellence in White House coverage. Rucker joined the Post in 2005 and previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House, and the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He serves as an on-air political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and graduated from Yale University with a degree in history." – Amazon biography

"The true story of what took place in Donald Trump’s White House during a disastrous 2020 has never before been told in full. What was really going on around the president, as the government failed to contain the coronavirus and over half a million Americans perished? Who was influencing Trump after he refused to concede an election he had clearly lost and spread lies about election fraud? To answer these questions, Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig reveal a dysfunctional and bumbling presidency’s inner workings in unprecedented, stunning detail.

"Focused on Trump and the key players around him—the doctors, generals, senior advisers, and Trump family members—Rucker and Leonnig provide a forensic account of the most devastating year in a presidency like no other. Their sources were in the room as time and time again Trump put his personal gain ahead of the good of the country. These witnesses to history tell the story of him longing to deploy the military to the streets of American cities to crush the protest movement in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, all to bolster his image of strength ahead of the election. These sources saw firsthand his refusal to take the threat of the coronavirus seriously—even to the point of allowing himself and those around him to be infected. This is a story of a nation sabotaged—economically, medically, and politically—by its own leader, culminating with a groundbreaking, minute-by-minute account of exactly what went on in the Capitol building on January 6, as Trump’s supporters so easily breached the most sacred halls of American democracy, and how the president reacted. With unparalleled access, Rucker and Leonnig explain and expose exactly who enabled—and who foiled—Trump as he sought desperately to cling to power.

"A classic and heart-racing work of investigative reporting, this book is destined to be read and studied by citizens and historians alike for decades to come."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (13,572 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593298947 ?
Men in Black:
How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America
Mark R. Levin
Regnery Publishing (February 7, 2005)
No Review
"Mark R. Levin is a nationally syndicated talk radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation. He has also worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Reagan's cabinet. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Liberty and Tyranny, as well as New York Times bestselling books Rescuing Sprite and Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America. Mark holds a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law." – Amazon biography

"The Supreme Court has broken through the firewalls constructed by the framers to limit judicial power.

'America’s founding fathers had a clear and profound vision for what they wanted our federal government to be,' says constitutional scholar Mark R. Levin in his explosive book Men in Black. 'But today, our out-of-control Supreme Court imperiously strikes down laws and imposes new ones to suit its own liberal whims—robbing us of our basic freedoms and the values on which our country was founded.'

"In Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America, Levin exposes countless examples of outrageous Supreme Court abuses, from promoting racism in college admissions, expelling God and religion from the public square, forcing states to confer benefits on illegal aliens, and endorsing economic socialism to upholding partial-birth abortion, restraining political speech, and anointing terrorists with rights.

"Levin writes: 'Barely one hundred justices have served on the United States Supreme Court. They’re unelected, they’re virtually unaccountable, they’re largely unknown to most Americans, and they serve for life…in many ways the justices are more powerful than members of Congress and the president.… As few as five justices can and do dictate economic, cultural, criminal, and security policy for the entire nation.'

"In Men in Black, you will learn:

  • How the Supreme Court protects virtual child pornography and flag burning as forms of free speech but denies teenagers the right to hear an invocation mentioning God at a high school graduation ceremony because it might be 'coercive.'
  • How a former Klansman and virulently anti-Catholic Supreme Court justice inserted the words “wall of separation” between church and state in a 1947 Supreme Court decision—a phrase repeated today by those who claim to stand for civil liberty.
  • How Justice Harry Blackmun, a one-time conservative appointee and the author of Roe v. Wade, was influenced by fan mail much like an entertainer or politician, which helped him to evolve into an ardent activist for gay rights and against the death penalty.
  • How the Supreme Court has dictated that illegal aliens have a constitutional right to attend public schools, and that other immigrants qualify for welfare benefits, tuition assistance, and even civil service jobs."
Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (1,210 ratings)
ISBN 978-0895260505 ?
Let Trump Be Trump:
The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency
Corey R. Lewandowski & David N. Bossie
Center Street; 2nd edition (December 5, 2017)
No Review
"Corey R. Lewandowski is a senior advisor to President Trump's 2020 campaign. He is also president and CEO of Lewandowski Strategic Advisors, LLC. He previously served as the chief political advisor and campaign manager to Donald J. Trump for President. Prior to that, he was an executive for Americans for Prosperity. Lewandowski appears regularly on television and serves as an on-the-record spokesman to major print outlets. He is a contributor to the Hill newspaper and was recently named a visiting fellow at Harvard University. Corey previously served as a certified police officer with the state of New Hampshire, where he lives with his family. David N. Bossie is the national committeeman for the GOP in Maryland. He has served as president of Citizens United since 2001 and is a Fox News contributor. Beginning in August 2016, Bossie served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President and then as deputy executive director of the Presidential Transition Team. In 2015, Bossie was ranked number two in Politico's top fifty most influential people in American politics. In 2016, he was elected Republican national committeeman from Maryland. David, proudly served as a volunteer firefighter for over fifteen years in Maryland where he lives with his wife Susan and their four children, Isabella, Griffin, Lily and Maggie."

"A New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller, this book offers the ultimate behind-the-scenes account of how Donald Trump, an extraordinary candidate, became President of the United States and why that matters today.

Donald Trump’s startling rise to the White House is the greatest political tale in the history of our republic. Much has been written about this once-in-a-millennial event but all of those words come from authors outside the orbit of Donald Trump.

"Now, for the first time, comes the inside story.

"Written by the guys in the room—two of Trump's closest campaign advisors—Let Trump Be Trump is the eyewitness account of the stories behind the headlines. From the Access Hollywood recording and the Clinton accusers, to Paul Manafort, to the last-moment comeback and a victory that reads like something out of the best suspense novel, Let Trump Be Trump pulls back the curtain on a drama that has mesmerized the whole world-including the palace intrigues of the Mooch, Spicer, Preibus, Bannon, and more.

"By turns hilarious and intimate, Let Trump Be Trump also offers a view of Donald Trump like you've never seen him, the man whose success in business was built not only on great skill but on loyal relationships and who developed the strongest of bonds with the band of outsiders and idealists who became his team because they believed in him and his message.

"Written by Trump's campaign manager, the fiery Corey Lewandowski, and Dave Bossie, the consummate political pro and the plaintiff in the famous Citizens United Supreme Court case who helped steer the last critical months of the Trump campaign, Let Trump Be Trump is destined to be the seminal book about the Trump campaign and presidency."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (2,667 ratings)
ISBN 978-1546083306 ?
What Were We Thinking:
A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era
Carlos Lozada
Simon & Schuster (October 6, 2020)
No Review
"Carlos Lozada is the nonfiction book critic of The Washington Post and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for criticism." – Amazon biography

"As a book critic for The Washington Post, Carlos Lozada has read some 150 volumes claiming to diagnose why Trump was elected and what his presidency reveals about our nation. Many of these, he’s found, are more defensive than incisive, more righteous than right.

"In What Were We Thinking, Lozada uses these books to tell the story of how we understand ourselves in the Trump era, using as his main characters the political ideas and debates at play in America today. He dissects works on the white working class like Hillbilly Elegy; manifestos from the anti-Trump resistance like On Tyranny and No Is Not Enough; books on race, gender, and identity like How to Be an Antiracist and Good and Mad; polemics on the future of the conservative movement like The Corrosion of Conservatism; and of course plenty of books about Trump himself.

"Lozada’s argument is provocative: that many of these books—whether written by liberals or conservatives, activists or academics, Trump’s true believers or his harshest critics—are vulnerable to the same blind spots, resentments, and failures that gave us his presidency. But Lozada also highlights the books that succeed in illuminating how America is changing in the 21st century. What Were We Thinking is an intellectual history of the Trump era in real time, helping us transcend the battles of the moment and see ourselves for who we really are.

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (270 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982145620 ?
Mad Politics
Keeping Your Sanity in a World Gone Crazy
by Dr. Gina Loudon
Regnery Publishing (September 4, 2018)
No Review
"Dr. Gina Loudon is a radio and TV show host, national speaker, and columnist. She has been named one of America's Top Ten Hottest Conservatives in New Media and has two Master's Degrees and a Ph.D. in psychological fields." – Amazon biography

"If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, America has been insane for decades. We've elected establishment politicians on both sides of the aisle; we've hoped for change; and we've been disappointed. But with the election of Donald Trump, America tried something new. So we have to ask ourselves: what if Trump isn't the crazy man that the media pretends he is? What if he's actually the cure for a country who's been going mad for years?

"In Mad Politics, Fox News commentator, radio host, and psychological analyst Dr. Gina Loudon diagnoses the problem with America's status quo politics. Loudon has unique insight into both the Trump campaign and the larger political landscape as a member of the president's 2020 media advisory board, a former surrogate for his campaign, the wife of a former Senator from Missouri, the co-host of a national Television show, a seasoned psychological analyst on FOX News, CNN and others, and a twice pedigreed Master and Ph.D.

"With authority and wit, Mad Politics exposes cultural patterns that have led to today's political narcissism. She scans the psychological literature and illuminates a formula to answer the question: How can we restore a sound mind to the body politic? The answer, Loudon concludes, may be in joining Trump in a complete rejection of political correctness."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (105 ratings)
ISBN 978-1621578031 ?
Revolution:
Trump, Washington and "We the People"
by KT MacFarland
Post Hill Press (February 25, 2020)
No Review

"The Hon. KT MacFarland is one of the country's most prominent conservative foreign policy experts. She was President Trump's first Deputy National Security Advisor and helped turn Trump's campaign promises into his America First foreign policy. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, she was FOX News' National Security Analyst. McFarland appeared regularly on all FOX and FOX Business News programs, hosted FOXNews.com's 'DEFCON3,' and wrote a regular column for the FOX Opinion page.

"McFarland held national security posts in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan Administrations, including as an aide to Dr. Henry Kissinger on the National Security Council. She received the Defense Department's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Service Award, for her work in the Reagan Administration. She is an alumna of George Washington University (BA), Oxford (MA), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD program (all but dissertation)." – Amazon biography

"For decades, KT McFarland has been one of the country's most prominent conservative foreign policy experts. She was part of the Trump Revolution from the beginning. As Trump's first Deputy National Security Advisor, she had a seat at the table for everything: Trump's unconventional campaign and upset victory; his throw-out-the-rule-book Trump Tower Transition; the chaotic first months in the West Wing; the unusual events surrounding General Flynn's firing; and the sprawling Mueller investigation.

"In Revolution, she walks the reader through the Washington Establishment's relentless efforts to destroy Trump, populism, and nationalism in order to keep their own hands on the levers of power. The Trump Revolution, like the Reagan Revolution and all the anti-Establishment political revolutions before it, will ultimately prevail. It is this ability to reinvent ourselves, not just as individuals but as a society, that lies at the heart of American Exceptionalism."

"When McFarland left the Trump Administration and Washington, she disappeared from public view and refused to discuss her experiences. Now, for the first time, McFarland tells a story that reads more like a political thriller than a tour through this unique moment in history. Written with unusual candor, with insights into Trump and his inner circle, Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un, McFarland’s book is destined to become a classic."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (1,126 ratings)
ISBN 978-1642934045 ?
Trump:
Evangelical Plague
Robert Mamrak
Pin Oak Bottom Press (September, 2018)
No Review
"Dr. Robert Mamrak is a retired Baptist pastor with over 30 years in ministry. He began his career as a syndicated music columnist for the Harte Hanks newspaper group before becoming a public school administrator and entering the ministry. He has written three books: Trump: Evangelical Plague, Rake at the Gates of Hell: Shane MacGowan in Context, and Improving Schools through the Arts. He lives in the Mississippi woods with his wife and dogs." – Amazon biography

"Donald Trump's election in 2016 would not have been possible without the overwhelming support of white evangelical Christians. He has rewarded their backing by supporting many of the positions they hold dear, but at what cost? Evangelical support of Trump has associated the church with cruelty, racism, sexism, corruption, lawlessness, neo-Nazism, name-calling, and mocking the disabled. Evangelicals once claimed the high moral ground. Today, in many minds, the term is synonymous with hypocrite. While Trump was still seeking the GOP nomination, 25 high profile Christians, many of them pentecostal, all of them evangelical, came together to form Trump's Faith Advisory Committee. They helped Trump form policies and develop a message that would resonate with evangelicals. In effect, they provided the candidate with religious cover for a life of immoral decadence. They ignored basic moral and ethical standards for access to power. Trump: Evangelical Plague gives a biblical perspective on Donald J. Trump. The book concentrates on Trump's character and actions in light of Christian teaching, examining the hypocrisy of many evangelical leaders in the process. While not overtly political, it considers those presidential policies clearly related to Judeo-Christian values. Dr. Robert Mamrak is a retired Southern Baptist minister with over 30 years in evangelical ministry. This is his third book."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (8 ratings)
ISBN 978-0692180099 ?
The Weaponization of Loneliness:
How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer
Stella Morabito
Bombardier Books (October 11, 2022)
No Review
"Stella Morabito has published numerous articles at The Federalist about the social fallout of propaganda and mob psychology. She has been a senior contributor there since 2014, and has also written on those themes for other publications, including the Washington Examiner, American Greatness, Public Discourse, Townhall, and the Human Life Review. Stella served for several years as an intelligence analyst with a focus on propaganda and media analysis. She has a master's degree in Russian and Soviet history from the University of Southern California. – Amazon biography

"The Weaponization of Loneliness offers the first deep dive into how power elites weaponize the fear of loneliness to enforce social conformity and wage war on the private sphere of life. Do you keep your opinions to yourself because you’re afraid people will reject you? Do you sign on to a cause just because everyone around you acts like it’s the right thing to do? Welcome to The Weaponization of Loneliness. Tyrants of all stripes want to tell you what to believe and how to live your life. They get away with it by using the most potent weapon at their disposal: your fear of ostracism.

"This book explains how dictators—from the French Revolution to the Communist Party of China to today’s globalists—aim to atomize us in order to control us. We fall for it because our need to connect with others and our fear of social rejection are so hardwired that they trigger our conformity impulse. These dynamics can even cause us to comply with evil orders.

"We all need a better understanding of how the merchants of loneliness—power elites in Big Tech, Big Media, Big Government, academia, Hollywood, and the corporate world— exploit our terror of social isolation. Their divide-and-conquer tactics include identity politics, political correctness, and mob agitation. Their media monopoly spawns the propaganda essential to demonization campaigns, censorship, cancel culture, snitch culture, struggle sessions, the criminalization of comedy, and the subversion of society’s most fundamental institutions. It all adds up to a machinery of loneliness. Ironically, people tend to comply with this machinery to avoid loneliness, but such compliance only isolates us further.

"The Weaponization of Loneliness offers a message of hope. We can resist this psychological warfare if we have strong bonds in our families, faith communities, and friendships. Let’s resolve to talk to one another openly and often, especially about the consequences of giving in to social pressures and media hype. Indeed, totalitarians always seek to destroy private life because it is the very fount of freedom."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (70 ratings)
ISBN 978-1637582022 ?
Sinking in the Swamp:
How Trump's Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington
Lachlan Markay & Asawin Suebsaeng
Viking (February 11, 2020)
No Review
"Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng are investigative and White House reporters for The Daily Beast. Before joining the publication, Suebsaeng worked for Mother Jones and the Bangkok Post, and Markay wrote for the Washington Free Beacon and the Heritage Foundation. NPR has compared the unlikely duo to "Bert and Ernie." Trump acolyte Sebastian Gorka has accused one of them of having a cocaine habit and the other of having no moral center." – Amazon biography

"Two of Washington's most meddlesome reporters take readers on a deep dive into the murky underworld of President Trump's Washington, dishing the hilarious and frightening dirt on the charlatans, conspiracy theorists, ideologues, and run-of-the-mill con artists who have infected the highest echelons of American political power.

"For the past three years, reporting from the White House, the Trump hotel, and other dens of intrigue and influence, Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng have revealed the sordid shenanigans of a rogue's gallery of Trumpworld incompetents and improbable A-listers — earning them angry denunciations (or at least some vexed side-eye) from Trumpists such as the actor Jon Voight and Trump's former campaign czar and renowned obfuscator Corey Lewandowski as well as requisite threats of physical violence and ruin. Sinking in the Swamp will similarly pull no punches. Everyone from assorted Trump family members to Stephen Miller, Sean Hannity, and Diamond & Silk to Trumpworld's even more obscure accomplices will be plumbed, prodded, and exposed for their roles in the most shambolic moment in modern American political history. When they go low, Swin and Lachlan are right there with them, recorders running and notebooks at the ready.

"Sinking in the Swamp is an uncompromising account of the financial and moral degradation of our capital, told with righteous indignation and through the lens of key power players and foot soldiers whose own antics have often escaped the notice of the overworked press corps.

"As the 2020 election approaches, this page-turning, letting-it-all-hang-out narrative shows how the nation got to this nadir, tracing the story back to years before Trump's improbable run for the White House and cataloguing the stomach-turning moments that followed."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (107 ratings)
ISBN 978-1984878564 ?
The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump:
A Psychological Reckoning
Dan P. McAdams
Oxford University Press (March 16, 2020)
No Review
"Dan P. McAdams is the Henry Wade Rogers Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Education and Social Policy, at Northwestern University. He is the author of nearly 300 scientific articles and chapters and seven books on personality development and psychological biography. He is a recipient of the Jack Block Award for career contributions to personality psychology, the Henry A. Murray Award for excellence in the study of lives, and the William James Award for his book The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (Oxford University Press, 2006). He is the author most recently of The Art and Science of Personality Development (Guilford Press, 2015). His work has been featured in many media outlets, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, as well as CNN, NPR, and other television and radio venues." – Amazon biography

"The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump provides a coherent and nuanced psychological portrait of Donald Trump, drawing upon biographical events in the subject's life and contemporary scientific research and theory in personality, developmental, and social psychology.

"Dan P. McAdams, renowned psychologist who pioneered the study of lives, examines the central personality traits, personal values and motives, and the interpersonal and cultural factors that together have shaped Trump's psychological makeup, with an emphasis on the strangeness of the case—that is, how Trump again and again defies psychological expectations regarding what it means to be a human being. The book's central thesis is that Donald Trump is the episodic man. The chapters, structured as stand-alone essays each riffing on a single psychological theme, build on each other to present a portrait of a person who compulsively lives in the moment, without an internal story to integrate his life in time. With an emphasis on scientific personality research, rather than political rhetoric, McAdams shows that Trump's utter lack of an inner life story is truly exceptional. This book is a remarkable case study which should be of as much interest to psychologists as it is to readers trying to reckon with the often confounding behavior and temperament of the 45th President of the United States."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (102 ratings)
ISBN 978-0197507445 ?
The Threat:
How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump
Andrew G. McCabe
St. Martin's Press, February 2019
My Review
"Andrew G. McCabe served as deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from February 2016 to January 2018. He began his career at the FBI in 1996, working first as a street agent on the Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force, and eventually as its supervisor. Later, he led the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, the National Security Branch, and the Washington Field Office, and was the first director of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which developed new methods for lawfully and effectively questioning suspected terrorists. He lives in Virginia with his wife Jill, their two children and a dog." – Amazon biography

"The Threat recounts in compelling detail the time between Donald Trump's November 2016 election and McCabe's firing, set against a page-turning narrative spanning two decades when the FBI's mission shifted to a new goal: preventing terrorist attacks on Americans. But as McCabe shows, right now the greatest threat to the United States comes from within, as President Trump and his administration ignore the law, attack democratic institutions, degrade human rights, and undermine the U.S. Constitution that protects every citizen."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (4,519 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-250-20757-9 SJ1 363.2509 McCabe
Treason & Betrayal:
The Rise and Fall of Individual-1
Kenneth Foard McCallion
HHI Media (April 15, 2019)
No Review
"Kenneth F. McCallion is a nationally recognized expert on constitutional law, especially the impeachment clause, and has significant expertise in the fields of civil RICO, criminal law, and the history of Treason and Espionage in U.S. history. McCallion spent the early part of his law career working as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, handling high-profile organized crime prosecutions and working on major labor racketeering cases, including some investigations that dealt with the construction of Trump Tower and other major construction projects in the New York area. He also worked on numerous sensitive counterintelligence investigations involving Russian espionage in the U.S., involving coordination between and among U.S. Department of Justice and FBI agents with the CIA and U.S. State Department. McCallion received his B.A. from Yale, and his J.D. from Fordham Law School. He is an Adjunct Professor at Cardozo Law School in New York, and Fairfield University in Connecticut. An avid sailor, he enjoys sailing with his family. Previous publications include Shoreham and the Rise and Fall of Nuclear Power, and The Essential Guide to Donald Trump." – Amazon biography

" 'Treason & Betrayal makes a strong case for when and how a sitting president can be indicted, especially where the crimes involve the illegal manner in which he obtained the presidency, with help from a foreign hostile power,' McCallion explains. 'The book provides detail and substance that can be used by opinion makers and Congress to sort through the mountains of evidence accumulating against Trump for impeachment and indictment purposes.' Written in the style of a legal thriller, Treason & Betrayal provides:

  • An in-depth look into President Trump's life history, from early childhood to the present
  • Detailed information about Trump's ties to Russia, and the evidence that should be used to impeach him immediately
  • Insight into what it will take to indict President Trump, and on what charges
  • The background and history of Trump's money laundering and contacts with Russia[n] agents and oligarchs that helped jump-start certain aspects of the federal probe into the Trump Campaign and its relationship with Russia.

'There is more than sufficient public evidence available to date to prosecute Trump, and these crimes may also provide the basis for his impeachment for Treason and High Crimes and Misdemeanors,' says McCallion. 'We have an actual traitor in the White House for the first time in our nation's history who must be removed as quickly as possible.' "

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (38 ratings)
ISBN 978-0997929232 ?
The Exvangelicals:
Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church
Sarah McCammon
St. Martin's Press (March 19, 2024)
No Review
"Sarah McCammon is a National Political Correspondent for NPR and cohost of The NPR Politics Podcast. Her work focuses on political, social and cultural divides in America, including the intersections of politics and religion, reproductive rights, and the conservative movement. She is also a frequent guest host for NPR news magazines and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, PBS, and MSNBC. During the 2016 election cycle, Sarah was NPR’s lead political reporter assigned to the Donald Trump campaign and previously reported for NPR Member stations in Georgia, Iowa, and Nebraska. She lives in Norfolk, Virginia with her husband and two children."

"The first definitive book that names the massive social movement of people leaving the church: the exvangelicals.

"Growing up in a deeply evangelical family in the Midwest in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah McCammon was strictly taught to fear God, obey him, and not question the faith. Persistently worried that her gay grandfather would go to hell unless she could reach him, or that her Muslim friend would need to be converted, and that she, too, would go to hell if she did not believe fervently enough, McCammon was a rule-follower and―most of the time―a true believer. But through it all, she was increasingly plagued by fears and deep questions as the belief system she'd been carefully taught clashed with her expanding understanding of the outside world.

"After spending her early adult life striving to make sense of an unraveling worldview, by her 30s, she found herself face-to-face with it once again as she covered the Trump campaign for NPR, where she witnessed first-hand the power and influence that evangelical Christian beliefs held on the political right.

"Sarah also came to discover that she was not alone: she is among a rising generation of the children of evangelicalism who are growing up and fleeing the fold, who are thinking for themselves and deconstructing what feel like the “alternative facts” of their childhood.

"Rigorously reported and deeply personal, The Exvangelicals is the story of the people who make up this generational tipping point, including Sarah herself. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is the first definitive book that names and describes the post-evangelical movement: identifying its origins, telling the stories of its members, and examining its vast cultural, social, and political impact."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (6 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250284471 ?
Trump in Exile
Meridith McGraw
Random House (August 6, 2024)
No Review
"Meridith McGraw is a national political correspondent at Politico, where she has worked since 2019, first as a White House reporter. She previously worked as a White House reporter and producer at ABC News, where she began her career. She is a regular contributor on television and has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She grew up in West Virginia and now resides in Washington, D.C."

"Filled with deep insights and never-before-seen details, Trump in Exile is an explosive, all-access account from behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago as former president Donald Trump regroups from an election defeat that he refuses to acknowledge and plots his return.

"The Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, put a horrific closing note on a norm-shattering presidency, as the twice-impeached Donald Trump rode a wave of denial and resentment out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and crashed back at Mar-a-Lago—seemingly wounded, seemingly done.

"But he wasn’t. And what, exactly, was he building in there?

"Meridith McGraw vividly chronicles the incredible period of Trump’s exile in South Florida—a postpresidency like no other in American history—and brings us inside the gilded walls of his private club, where an alternate reality in which the 2020 election was stolen became Republican Party orthodoxy. How did the country go from Trump’s political banishment to his renewed dominance over his party, as he effortlessly destroyed the once-formidable Ron DeSantis and now stands on the verge of returning to the White House—all while facing the heavy shadow of multiple federal and state criminal indictments? The Mar-a-Lago period is essential for understanding Trump’s implausible resurgence and the many missed opportunities to stop him.

"From a reporter who has covered the Trump era from its beginning, through the White House years, to his 2024 campaign, Meridith McGraw’s Trump in Exile is riveting contemporary history, vital to our understanding of this defining American moment."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (64 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593729632 ?
At War with Ourselves:
My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House
H. R. McMaster
Harper (August 27, 2024)
No Review
"H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Stanford University. He is also the Susan and Bernard Liautaud Fellow at The Freeman Spogli Institute and Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He serves as chairman of the advisory board of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Japan Chair at the Hudson Institute. A native of Philadelphia, H.R. graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1984. He served as a U.S. Army officer for thirty-four years and retired as a lieutenant general in 2018. He remained on active duty while serving as the twenty-sixth assistant to the president for national security affairs. He taught history at West Point and holds a PhD in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."

"A revealing account of National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster’s turbulent and consequential thirteen months in the Trump White House.

"At War with Ourselves is the story of helping a disruptive President drive necessary shifts in U.S. foreign policy at a critical moment in history. McMaster entered an administration beset by conflict and the hyper partisanship of American politics. With the candor of a soldier and the perspective of a historian, McMaster rises above the fray to lay bare the good, the bad, and the ugly of Trump’s presidency and give readers insight into what a second Trump term would look like.

"While all administrations are subject to backstabbing and infighting, some of Trump’s more unscrupulous political advisors were determined to undermine McMaster and others to advance their narrow agendas. McMaster writes candidly about Cabinet officials who, deeply disturbed by Trump’s language and behavior, prioritized controlling the President over collaborating to provide the President with options.

"McMaster offers a frank and fresh assessment of the achievements and failures of his tenure as National Security Advisor and the challenging task of maintaining one’s bearings and focus on the mission in a hectic and malicious environment.

"Determined to transcend the war within the administration and focus on national security priorities, McMaster forged coalitions in Washington and internationally to help Trump advance U.S. interests. Trump’s character and personality helped him make tough decisions, but sometimes prevented him from sticking to them. McMaster adroitly assesses the record of Trump’s presidency in comparison to the Obama and Biden administrations.

"With the 2024 election on the horizon, At War with Ourselves highlights the crucial importance of competence in foreign policy, and makes plain the need for leaders who possess the character and intellect to guide the United States in a tumultuous world."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (139 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062899507 ?
Pandemic, Inc.:
Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick
J. David McSwane
Atria/One Signal Publishers (April 12, 2022)
No Review
"J. David McSwane is a reporter in ProPublica’s DC office. Previously, he was an investigative reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the Austin American-Statesman. McSwane’s reporting has spurred new laws, state and federal criminal investigations, and forced belt-tightening lawmakers to invest in social programs. He has won numerous awards, including Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize, a Scripps Howard Award, two Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards, and the Peabody." – Amazon biography

"The United States federal government has spent over $10 billion on medical protective wear and emergency supplies, yet as COVID-19 swept the nation, life-saving equipment such as masks, gloves, and ventilators was nearly impossible to find.

"In this brilliant nonfiction thriller, award-winning investigative reporter J. David McSwane takes us behind the scenes to reveal how traders, contractors, and healthcare companies used one of the darkest moments in American history to fill their pockets. Determined to uncover how this was possible, he spent over a year on private jets and in secret warehouses, traveling from California to Chicago to Washington DC, to interview both the most treacherous of profiteers and the victims of their crimes.

"Pandemic, Inc. is the story of the fraudster who signed a multi-million-dollar contract with the government to provide lifesaving PPE, and yet never came up with a single mask. The Navy admiral at the helm of the national hunt for additional medical resources. The Department of Health whistleblower who championed masks early on and was silenced by the government and conservative media. And the politician who callously slashed federal emergency funding and gutted the federal PPE stockpile.

"Winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, McSwane connects the dots between backdoor deals and the spoils systems to provide the definitive account of how this pandemic was so catastrophically mishandled. Shocking and revelatory, Pandemic, Inc. exposes a system that is both deeply rigged, and singularly American."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (166 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982177744 ?
The Chief's Chief
by Mark Meadows
All Seasons Press (December 7, 2021)
No Review
"Mark Meadows served as the chief of staff to President Donald Trump from March 2020 to January 2021. He represented North Carolina’s 11th congressional district from 2013 to 2020. In 2016, he was elected chairman of the Freedom Caucus. He lives in Virginia with his wife, Debbie." – Amazon biography

"When Mark Meadows became President Trump’s fourth chief of staff on March 6, 2020, life in the United States had never been better. Unemployment was at an all-time low, and the stock market was at an all-time high. During his first three years in office, President Trump had kept more of his campaign promises than any president in modern history, and that record of success was only going to continue. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, a deadly coronavirus arrived on our shores, and brought the Trump economy screeching to a halt. Suddenly, our streets were empty, and our hospitals were full. Millions of Americans were scared, lonely, and unemployed, all while the global economy teetered on the edge of collapse. President Trump and his team worked tirelessly to keep the country going and get a vaccine to the American people. In this frank, candid account of his ten months in the White House, Mark Meadows—known simply as “The Chief” around the West Wing—tells the story of how he and a close team of loyal advisors helped President Trump navigate one of the worst years in American history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (1,341 ratings)
ISBN 978-1737478522 ?
America Is Better Than This:
Trump's War Against Migrant Families
Jeff Merkley
Twelve (August 20, 2019)
No Review
"Jeff Merkley is a senator from Oregon, serving in the US Senate since 2009." – Amazon biography

"An exposé and cry of outrage at the cruelty and chaos the Trump administration has wrought at the border with child separations, border blockades, and a massive gulag of child prisons housing thousands. Jeff Merkley couldn't believe his eyes. He never dreamed the United States could treat vulnerable young families with such calculated brutality. Few had witnessed what Merkley discovered just by showing up at the border and demanding to see what was going on behind closed doors. Contrary to the official stories and soothing videos, he found mothers and children, newborn babies and infants, stranded for days on border bridges in blistering heat or locked up in ice-cold holding pens. There were nearly 1,500 boys jammed into a former Walmart, a child tent prison in the desert with almost 3,000 boys and girls, and children struggling to survive in gang-filled Mexican border towns after they were blocked from seeking asylum in the United States. Worst of all, there were the children ripped out of their parents' arms and sorted into cages in some profoundly warped attempt to discourage migration. This was how the Trump administration treated the child victims of unspeakable violence that had driven them from their homes: as pawns in a power play rather than as humans worthy of respect and dignity. It was Merkley's visits—captured live on viral video—that triggered worldwide outrage at the forced separation of children from their parents. Just by taking an interest—by caring about the people legally claiming asylum at America's borders—Merkley helped expose the Trump administration's war on migrant families. Along the way, he helped turn the tide against some of its worst excesses. AMERICA IS BETTER THAN THIS tells the inside story of how one Senator, with no background as an immigration activist, became a leading advocate for reform of the brutal policies that have created a humanitarian crisis on the southern U.S. border. It represents the heartfelt and candid voice of a concerned American who believes his country stands for something far bigger and better."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (23 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538734193 ?
Woke Jesus:
The False Messiah Destroying Christianity
by Lucas Miles
Humanix Books (June 6, 2023)
No Review

"Lucas Miles is a trusted voice in the American church who has consistently addressed some of the most challenging topics in theology, politics, and culture. He is the host of Edifi’s award-winning The Lucas Miles Show and a co-host of The Church Boys podcast, where he has interviewed some of the biggest names in media such as Mario Lopez, Jim Cavaziel, Kathie Lee Gifford, Candace Bure, Charlie Kirk, and Sean Hannity. Lucas and his work have been featured in books and on TV and radio programs, as well as syndicated in articles across both political and religious news outlets, such as Newsmax, The Blaze, Faithwire, Fox News, The Washington Times, CBN, The Stream, Bible Gateway, and The Christian Post. He is also the author of the best selling book The Christian Left: How Liberal Thought Has Hijacked the Church, as well as the critically acclaimed book Good God: The One We Want to Believe In but Are Afraid to Embrace.

"An ordained pastor with over twenty years of ministry experience, Lucas has been involved in dozens of church planting efforts in the US and in remote locations in Latin America, East Africa, and Asia, not least of which is his local ministry, Nfluence Church, where he and his wife, Krissy, have been serving since planting the church in 2004. Lucas had the honor of receiving an invitation to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., in both 2018 and 2020, as well as an invitation as a US delegate to the 2018 Ukrainian National Christian Thanksgiving Celebration.

"Additionally, Lucas is known for his work in Hollywood producing films and offering confidential pastoral support to many up-and-coming and established actors and artists. He has directed and produced several nationally released films, including Rodeo Girl, Crowning Jules, and The Penitent Thief, as well as consulted on dozens of entertainment and literary projects. His work has been featured on Netflix, Showtime, Fox, Redbox, Sony, and Pure Flix.

"Lucas is a sought-after speaker at colleges, conferences, and churches on topics such as theology, Christian living, politics, and media. Whether he is preaching through the book of Romans or discussing trends in media and culture, Lucas’ heart for the gospel, philosophical prowess, and love of people always shines through, making him a perfect keynote speaker or lecturer for meetings of all sizes.

"Lucas and his wife, Krissy, have been married since 2001 and and live in the South Bend metro area."

"Today’s social justice movements call for equality, civil rights, love . . . solid Christian values, right? What if there is more to social justice than Christians understand? Even worse: What if we have been duped into preaching ideas that actually oppose the Kingdom of God?

"Woke Jesus uncovers the real dangers to Christianity and America from the Christian Left, Progressive or Woke Christianity. These radical alternatives abandon traditional biblical interpretations regarding marriage, gender, racial equality, justice, original sin, heaven and hell, and salvation, replacing them within a new fabricated morality. This fabrication is built around political correctness, cancel culture, hedonistic values, obsession with public health, allegiance to the leftist state, universalism, and virtue signaling.

"Author Lucas Miles—a pastor and trusted voice in the American church who has consistently addressed some of the most challenging topics in religion—not only outlines how the radical left wing is co-opting Jesus for their own anti-religious views, but also provides a call to action for Christians to resist the siren song of social justice and Wokeism. Rather than ignoring the problems within the church, Miles shows Christians how to grow in the truth of God’s word by expanding their understanding of solid orthodox theology.

"The church’s best days are still ahead!"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (44 ratings)
ISBN 978-1630062514 ?
The Apprentice:
Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy
Greg Miller
Custom House (October 2, 2018)
My Review
"Greg Miller is a national security reporter for the Washington Post. He was among the Post reporters awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for the news organization's groundbreaking stories on Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the resulting investigations of the Trump campaign and administration. He was also part of the team awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of American surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden. He is coauthor of the book The Interrogators, and in addition to the United States and Europe has reported in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco, and Turkey." – Amazon biography

"It has been called the political crime of the century: a foreign government, led by a brutal authoritarian leader, secretly interfering with the American presidential election to help elect the candidate of its choice. Now two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post national security reporter Greg Miller investigates the truth about the Kremlin's covert attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump win the presidency, Trump's steadfast allegiance to Vladimir Putin, and Robert Mueller's ensuing investigation of the president and those close to him."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (64 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062803702 ?
In the Shadow of Liberty:
The Invisible History of Immigrant Detention in the United States
Ana Raquel Minian
Viking (April 16, 2024)
No Review
"Ana Raquel Minian is a professor of history at Stanford University and the author of the award-winning book Undocumented Lives, published by Harvard University Press in 2018. They are a recipient of the prestigious Andrew Carnegie fellowship, and their writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Affairs, among other outlets. Originally from Mexico City, they now live in the Bay Area."

"A probing work of narrative history that reveals the hidden story of immigrant detention in the United States, deepening urgent national conversations around migration.

"In 2018, many Americans watched in horror as children were torn from their parents at the US-Mexico border under Trump's 'family separation' policy. But as historian Ana Raquel Minian reveals in In the Shadow of Liberty, this was only the latest chapter in a saga tracing back to the 1800s—one in which immigrants to the United States have been held without recourse to their constitutional rights. Braiding together the vivid stories of four migrants seeking to escape the turmoil of their homelands for the promise of America, In the Shadow of Liberty gives this history a human face, telling the dramatic story of a Central American asylum seeker, a Cuban exile, a European war bride, and a Chinese refugee.

"As we travel alongside these indelible characters, In the Shadow of Liberty explores how sites of rightlessness have evolved, and what their existence has meant for our body politic. Though these 'black sites' exist out of view for the average American, their reach extends into all of our lives: the explosive growth of the for-profit prison industry traces its origins to the immigrant detention system, as does the emergence of Guantánamo and the gradual unraveling of the right to bail and the presumption of innocence. Through these narratives, we see how the changing political climate surrounding immigration has played out in individual lives, and at what cost. But as these stories demonstrate, it doesn't have to be like this, and a better way might be possible."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.9 (22 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593654255 ?
Cyber in the Age of Trump:
The Unraveling of America's National Security Policy
Charlie Mitchell
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (March 15, 2020)
No Review
"Charlie Mitchell is the author of Hacked: The Inside Story of America's Struggle to Secure Cyberspace (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016). He is the editor and co-founder of Inside Cybersecurity, the first online news service dedicated to exploring and explaining the policy challenges of securing cyberspace. Inside Cybersecurity is an independent, premium service that goes inside Congress, the White House, the corporate boardrooms and security command centers to explain cyber policy making to a professional audience. Charlie also previously authored a column on cybersecurity for the Washington Examiner that was a must-read feature for cyber insiders and concerned citizens alike. He is a regular speaker and panelist at cybersecurity events in Washington, D.C." – Amazon biography

"In this book, one of America's leading analysts of cybersecurity policy presents an incisive, first-time examination of how President Trump's unique, often baffling governing style has collided with the imperatives of protecting the nation's cybersecurity. Mitchell reveals how qualities that drove success in business and reality TV — impatience and unpredictability, posturing as an unassailable 'strong man,' and aversion to systematic approaches — have been antithetical to effective leadership on cybersecurity. Mitchell reveals how the United States is trying to navigate through one of the most treacherous passages in history. Facing this challenge, He argues that the strategic pieces put forth by Trump do not add up to a coherent whole, or a cybersecurity legacy likely to endure past his presidency. Cyber in the Age of Trump will be required reading for both insiders and citizens concerned about American response to the wide variety of cyberthreats at home and abroad."

Rating by Amazon customers: 5.0 (2 ratings)
ISBN 978-1538130681 ?
The Storm Is Here:
An American Crucible
Luke Mogelson
Penguin Press (September 13, 2022)
No Review
"Luke Mogelson has written for The New Yorker since 2013, covering the wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and Iraq. During the pandemic, he reported from across the U.S. Previously, Mogelson was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Kabul. He has won two National Magazine Awards and two George Polk Awards." – Amazon biography

"After years of living abroad and covering the Global War on Terrorism, Luke Mogelson went home in early 2020 to report on the social discord that the pandemic was bringing to the fore across the US. An assignment that began with right-wing militias in Michigan soon took him to an uprising for racial justice in Minneapolis, then to antifascist clashes in the streets of Portland, and ultimately to an attempted insurrection in Washington, D.C. His dispatches for The New Yorker revealed a larger story with ominous implications for America. They were only the beginning.

"This is the definitive eyewitness account of how—during a season of sickness, economic uncertainty, and violence—a large segment of Americans became convinced of the need to battle against dark forces plotting to take their country away from them. It builds month by month, through vivid depictions of events on the ground, from the onset of COVID-19 to the attack on the US Capitol—during which Mogelson followed the mob into the Senate chamber—and its aftermath. Bravely reported and beautifully written, The Storm Is Here is both a unique record of a pivotal moment in American history and an urgent warning about those to come."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (123 ratings)
ISBN 978-05934892153 ?
Trumponomics:
Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy
Stephen Moore & Arthur B. Laffer
All Points Books (October 30, 2018)
No Review
"Stephen Moore is a former member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, and the Distinguished Visiting Fellow for The Heritage Foundation's Project for Economic Growth. He is the co-author of Trumponomics. Arthur B. Laffer, the Father of Supply-Side Economics, was a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board. Laffer and Stephen Moore are the economists behind the job creation platform that brought Trump to victory."

"Donald Trump promised the American people a transformative change in economic policy after eight years of stagnation under Obama. But he didn’t adopt a conventional left or right economic agenda. His is a new economic populism that combines some conventional Republican ideas–tax cuts, deregulation, more power to the states–with more traditional Democratic issues such as trade protectionism and infrastructure spending. It also mixes in important populist issues such as immigration reform, pressuring the Europeans to pay for more of their own defense, and keeping America first."

In Trumponomics, conservative economists Stephen Moore and Arthur B. Laffer offer a well-informed defense of the president's approach to trade, taxes, employment, infrastructure, and other economic policies. Moore and Laffer worked as senior economic advisors to Donald Trump in 2016. They traveled with him, frequently met with his political and economic teams, worked on his speeches, and represented him as surrogates. They are currently members of the Trump Advisory Council and still meet with him regularly. In Trumponomics, they offer an insider’s view on how Trump operates in public and behind closed doors, his priorities and passions, and his greatest attributes and liabilities.

Trump is betting his presidency that he can create an economic revival in America’s industrial heartland. Can he really bring jobs back to the rust belt? Can he cut taxes and bring the debt down? Above all, does he have the personal discipline, the vision, the right team, and the right strategy to pull off his ambitious economic goals? Moore and Laffer believe that he can pull it off and that Trumponomics will usher in a new era of prosperity for all Americans."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (192 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250193711 ?
The Great Reset:
Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown
Marc Morano
Sebastian Gorka (Foreword)
Regnery Publishing (August 30, 2022)
No Review
"Marc Morano is a former senior staff member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, publisher of ClimateDepot.com, bestselling author [of] The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change and Green Fraud, and producer of Climate Hustle (2016) and Climate Hustle 2: Rise of the Climate Monarchy (2020)."

"Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.

"This is the vision of the Great Reset, according to globalist leaders. While proponents of the Great Reset push slogans like 'Build Back Better,' 'The Fourth Industrial Revolution,' and 'A New Normal,' the Reset is nothing short of a rebranded Soviet system, threatening to strip away property rights, restrict freedom of movement and association, and radically reshape our diets and way of life."

Marc Morano served on the staff of the Senate and Public Works Committee when James Inhofe was its chairman. He was a climate-change denialist then and he's a climate-change denialist now. He's also broadened his deception to encompass the entire basis of Democratic policies.

An Amazon customer writes: "The Great Reset is a conspiracy theory about how some elite used the COVID pandemic to enact some agenda. A large part of his claim is that no one voted for lockdowns. In fact, all states in the US have what is known as police power to [do] what is needed to do when there is a epidemic that endangers the community. Each state has its own laws that govern the use of this police power. Each governor did what they thought best. In FL, TX, AL, MS and similar states they did almost nothing until their hospital systems were close to collapsing from all the patients with COVID."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (54 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684512386 ?
The Trump Indictments:
The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary
Melissa Murray & Andrew Weissmann
W. W. Norton & Company (February 27, 2024)
No Review

"Melissa Murray is the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law Faculty and the director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at New York University School of Law, where she teaches constitutional law. She previously served as the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law and interim dean of Berkeley Law. She is a cohost of the podcast Strict Scrutiny and a regular commentator on MSNBC. Murray has written for a range of legal and lay publications, including the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the Nation, and offered commentary for numerous media outlets, including NPR, CNN, ABC, and PBS. Murray clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, then a judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Stefan Underhill of the US District Court for the District of Connecticut. Andrew Weissmann is a professor of practice at New York University School of Law. His distinguished Department of Justice career encompasses serving as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, the FBI general counsel, director of the Enron Task Force, chief of the DOJ’s Fraud Section, and chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District of New York. He is a regular commentator on MSNBC and cohost of the podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation."

"Collecting the four unprecedented indictments against Donald Trump, this essential volume features extensive commentary by NYU law professors and MSNBC contributors Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann.

"In the long span of American history, Donald Trump is the first former president to face criminal indictment. He is the subject of a series of explosive charges across four cases: the January 6 case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith; the election interference case in Georgia; the classified documents case also brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith; and the 'hush mone' case in New York. The first trial, in New York City, is set to begin on March 4, 2024.

"Collecting the four indictments in a single, accessible volume, prominent legal scholars and commentators Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann walk us through each one in turn, with explanatory and contextual notes that enhance our understanding of these historic documents. The Trump Indictments includes:"

  • An introduction offering background―historical and contemporary―for the charges against the former president.
  • The four indictments with annotations throughout, including insider notes from an eminent scholar (Murray) and a former federal prosecutor (Weissmann).
  • A cast of characters, from Trump and his alleged co-conspirators to notable Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who face prison sentences as a result of related January 6 cases.
  • A timeline that brings together in one place the critical events that led to the four indictments.

"A necessary handbook for any concerned citizen following the trials of Donald Trump in early 2024, The Trump Indictments will also endure as an indispensable record of a democracy in peril."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (91 ratings)
ISBN 978-1324079200 ?
The Plot To Betray America:
How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It
Malcolm Nance
Legacy Lit (November 12, 2019)
No Review
"Malcolm Nance is author of the New York Times bestseller The Plot to Hack America and The Plot to Destroy Democracy. He is a globally recognized Intelligence community member and a counter-terrorism analyst for NBC News and MSNBC." – Amazon biography

"When former FBI Director Robert Mueller III was assigned to the Special Counsel investigation looking into the possibility of Russian interference in the 2016 US election, many Americans felt relieved. But when the report was delivered in April 2019, it was clear that the case was far from closed — and pinning Trump down on conspiracy charges was going to be a lot more difficult than it had first seemed.

"In The Plot to Betray America, Malcolm Nance, New York Times bestselling author and renowned intelligence expert, reveals exactly how Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest act of treachery in the history of the United States: compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.

"Seduced by the promises of riches dangled in front of them by Vladimir Putin, the Trump administration eagerly decided to reap the rewards of the plan to put a Kremlin-friendly crony in the Oval Office. And instead of interfering, the Republican Party's faithful William Barr, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Mitch McConnell, Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos, and Jeff Sessions, among others, did everything they could to facilitate Trump's damage to national security to fill his own pockets. Through in-depth research and interviews with intelligence experts and insiders, Nance charts Trump's deep financial ties to Russia through his family's investments, including those of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner, and the corrupt behavior of his other double-crossing pro-Moscow associates.

"Only by untangling the spider web of personal and financial relationships into an easily understood account based on facts, linking the White House to the Kremlin, can we start to free ourselves from the constricting clutches of our foreign adversaries and work to rebuild our fractured nation.

"In this hard-hitting yet hopeful geopolitical page-turner, The Plot to Betray America ultimately sketches the tracks and blueprint of the Trump administration's conspiracy against our country — and presents clear arguments on how we can still fight to defend democracy, protect our national security, and save the Constitution."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (1,920 ratings)
ISBN 978-0316535762 ?
They Want To Kill Americans:
The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency
Malcolm Nance
St. Martin's Press (July 12, 2022)
No Review
"Malcolm Nance is a globally renowned, highly engaging expert on terrorism, extremism, and insurgency, and a multiple New York Times bestselling author, whose books include The Plot to Hack America. A 34-year, Arabic-speaking veteran of the US intelligence community's Combating Terrorism program, he has been called the “Neil DeGrasse Tyson of Counterterrorism” and is considered one of the Great African-Americans in Espionage by the International Spy Museum. He is counter-terrorism analyst for NBC News and MSNBC." – Amazon biography

"To varying degrees, as many as 74 million Americans have expressed hostility towards American democracy. Their radicalization is increasingly visible in our day to day life: in neighbor’s or family member’s open discussion of bizarre conspiracy theories, reveling in the fantasy of mass murdering the liberals they believe are drinking the blood of children. These are the results of the deranged series of lies stoked by former President Donald Trump, made worse by the global pandemic.

"The first steps of an American fracture were predicted by Malcolm Nance months before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, heralding the start of a generational terror threat greater than either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Nance calls this growing unrest the Trump Insurgency in the United States or TITUS.

"The post-2020 election urge to return to a place of “normalcy”―to forget―is the worst response we can have. American militiamen, terrorists, and radicalized political activists are already armed in mass numbers and regularly missed in the media; principally because Trump’s most loyal and violent foot soldiers benefit from the ultimate privilege―being white.

"They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (932 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250279002 ?
In Trump Time:
My Journal of America’s Plague Year
by Peter Navarro
All Seasons Pr [sic] (November 2, 2021)
No Review
"Of those who served in the Trump Administration who might offer an insider’s account, Peter Navarro is uniquely qualified. He is one of only three senior White House officials who would be by President Trump’s side from the 2016 campaign to the end of the president’s first term in office.At the White House, Dr. Navarro served as an Assistant to the President and the Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy. He would play a key role in helping President Trump create nearly half a million manufacturing jobs while saving our shipyards and strengthening our defense industrial base. When the pandemic from Communist China attacked America in 2020, Navarro would serve as the Defense Production Act Policy Coordinator. He would play a pivotal role in securing a travel plan on China in January 2020, a courageous action by the president but saved hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of lives. Dr. Navarro holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University, a Master’s in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. An accomplished author, Dr. Navarro has published more than a dozen books on economic and foreign policy. His China trilogy – the Coming China wars (2006), Death by China (2011), and Crouching Tiger (2015) – established him as one of the leading scholars and experts on Communist China and its war of economic aggression against American businesses in America’s working class. Prior to joining the White House, Professor Navarro taught macroeconomics and public policy at the University of California-Irvine. A recipient of UCI’s Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, Professor Navarro was a pioneer in online learning dating back to the 1990s, and more than a million students around the world in more than 140 countries have taken his classes." – Amazon biography

"In Trump Time: A Journal of America’s Plague Year tells the story of a President who worked night and day for the American people, who built the strongest economy in modern history, who would deliver a life-saving suite of vaccines to the American people literally at warp speed, but who would ultimately lose the 2020 election.

"Peter Navarro is one of only three senior White House officials by President Trump’s side from the 2016 campaign to the end of the president’s first term in office. Always moving In Trump Time as was his signature, Dr. Navarro was the first to sound the alarm within the West Wing about the pandemic. He played a pivotal role in the rapid development of both vaccines and therapeutics like Remdesivir. As Defense Production Act Policy Coordinator, Navarro was at the center of ramping up domestic production of critically needed Personal Protective Equipment and while helping President Trump insure that every American who needed a ventilator had a ventilator."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (4,331 ratings)
ISBN 978-9659278848 ?
The Best People:
Trump's Cabinet and the Siege on Washington
Alexander Nazaryan
Hachette Books (June 18, 2019)
No Review
"Alexander Nazaryan is the Washington National Affairs correspondent for Yahoo. A former Newsweek staff writer, Nazaryan has written on politics, books and culture for the New York Times, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, the New Criterion, Salon, and many other publications." – Amazon biography

"The Best People takes complete measure of the Trump administration, to grasp with clarity the president and his intentions, and how those intentions are being carried out—or subverted—by the people he has hired. Alexander Nazaryan argues that the "assault on the administrative state" promised by Steve Bannon in early 2017 never came. What the American people got instead was Wilbur Ross hauling his tennis pro to confirmation hearing preparations; Scott Pruitt running away from rattlesnakes; Reince Priebus enduring insults from junior White House staffers. And yet, bungling as Trump's cabinet members have been, they have managed to either damage or arrest many of the gears that make government run. They have given away public lands to oil companies and allowed corporate lobbyists to make decisions about what is best for the American people, and have done it all while flying on private jets and dining at the finest restaurants, at taxpayers' expense.

"Meticulously reported and enthrallingly told, The Best People takes readers inside the federal government under Trump's control, a government assailed by the very people charged to lead it, a government awash in confusion and corruption."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (71 ratings)
ISBN 978-0316421430 ?
Unhinged:
An Insider's Account of the Trump White House
Omarosa Manigault Newman
Gallery Books (August, 2018)
No Review
"Omarosa Manigault Newman is the former Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in Donald Trump’s White House, and was an aide in the Office of Presidential Personnel and the Office of the Vice President in the Clinton White House. She has served as an adjunct professor in the Howard University School of Business. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Omarosa served as a chaplain in the California State Military Reserve. She currently serves in pastoral ministry at The Sanctuary @ Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, where her husband, John Allen Newman, is the senior pastor."

"The former Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison in the Trump White House provides an eye-opening look into the corruption and controversy of the current administration.

"Few have been a member of Donald Trump’s inner orbit longer than Omarosa Manigault Newman. Their relationship has spanned fifteen years—through four television shows, a presidential campaign, and a year by his side in the most chaotic, outrageous White House in history. But that relationship has come to a decisive and definitive end, and Omarosa is finally ready to share her side of the story in this explosive, jaw-dropping account.

"A stunning tell-all and takedown from a strong, intelligent woman who took every name and number, Unhinged is a must-read for any concerned citizen."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (4,138 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982109707 ?
TrumpNation:
The Art of Being The Donald
Timothy L. O'Brien
Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (September 1, 2007)
No Review
"Timothy L. O'Brien is an award-winning author and journalist with more than 20 years of experience at leading media enterprises, including Bloomberg LP, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and HuffPost.

"He's currently the executive editor of Bloomberg LP's two premier public policy, politics and business commentary platforms: View and Gadfly. O'Brien edited a series on wounded war veterans that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012. He's also the recipient of a 1999 Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism and is the author of three books. He was a reporter and a senior editor at The New York Times, where he oversaw the Sunday Business section and helped lead a team of reporters that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Public Service for a series of articles about the 2008 financial crisis. The same series received a Loeb Award in 2009.

"O'Brien is the author of two non-fiction books—TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald and Bad Bet: The Inside Story of the Glamour, Glitz and Danger of America's Gambling Industry. He is also the author of an historical novel, The Lincoln Conspiracy. Donald Trump sued O'Brien for libel in 2006. Trump lost."

"Available for the first time in a decade—the book that launched a $5 billion lawsuit—with a new introduction by the author in which O'Brien reflects on the recent wave of TrumpMania.

"This entertaining look inside the world of Donald Trump is chock full of rip-roaring anecdotes, jaw-dropping quotes, and rigorous research into the business deals, political antics, curious relationships, and complex background of the leading Republican presidential candidate.

"The world of Donald Trump is seemingly full of glitz and glamour. Yet despite glaring cracks in the shimmering fa?àövüade, the myth of the man has remained impenetrable to a fascinated public. Through interviews with Trump's closest friends-and with Trump himself-award-winning journalist and author Timothy L. O'Brien presents a look inside the life of one of the world's most famous businessmen, pulling back the curtain on the wizard of hype known as The Donald. Prepare to enter..."

Trump Nation

"This 'myth-busting biography' (Kirkus Reviews) is the only argument you need against making America a TrumpNation, providing all the necessary details to 'separate Trump the reality from Trump the reality show' (USA Today.)"

Rating by Amazon customers: 3.9 (604 ratings)
ISBN 978-0446696173 ?
Created Equal:
Clarence Thomas in His Own Words
Michael Pack & Mark Paoletta (Editors)
Regnery Publishing (June 21, 2022)
No Review

"Michael Pack is President of Manifold Productions, Inc. and the writer, director, and producer of numerous award-winning nationally broadcast documentaries. Pack served as the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media under President Donald Trump, as the President and CEO of the Claremont Institute, and as the Senior Vice President for Television Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, among other distinguished positions. Mark Paoletta served as general counsel to the Office of Management and Budget under President Trump from 2018 to 2021 and as chief counsel and assistant to Vice President Mike Pence from 2017 to 2018. A veteran lawyer, Paoletta specializes in representing clients in congressional investigations and is noted for his work on the confirmations of Justice Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh."

"Drawing on historical documents and exclusive interviews, authors tell the inspiring story of Clarence Thomas's rise from a childhood of poverty and prejudice in the segregated South to Supreme Court Justice. Companion to blockbuster documentary Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, but a fascinating stand alone read, as well!

*The full story behind the wildly successful documentary film, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words*

"Born into dire poverty in the segregated South and abandoned by his father as a child, Justice Clarence Thomas triumphed over seemingly insurmountable odds to become one of the most influential justices on the Supreme Court. Yet after three decades of honorable service, few know him beyond his contentious confirmation and the surrounding media firestorm.

"Who is Justice Clarence Thomas, in his own words?

In the follow-up to the wildly successful documentary by the same name, Created Equal builds on dozens of hours of groundbreaking, one-on-one interviews with Thomas to share a new, expanded account of his powerful story for the first time.

"Producer Michael Pack and Mark Paoletta, a lawyer who worked alongside Thomas during his confirmation, dive deep into the Justice’s story. Drawing on a rich array of historical documents and unreleased conversations with Thomas, his wife, and those who knew him best, Created Equal is a timeless account of faith, race, power, and personal resilience."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (568 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684512706 ?
The Fixers:
The Bottom-Feeders, Crooked Lawyers, Gossipmongers, and Porn Stars Who Created the 45th President
Joe Palazzolo & Michael Rothfeld
Random House (January 14, 2020)
No Review
Joe Palazzolo has been a reporter for the The Wall Street Journal since 2010. He has covered federal law enforcement, criminal justice issues, corporate corruption, and state and federal courts. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Tara Kelly. Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter on the Metro desk of The New York Times. He previously reported for The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He lives in Brooklyn with his daughters, Annabel and Georgia. [Palazzolo and Rothfeld] led a team at The Wall Street Journal that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series of stories that revealed the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, and President Trump's direct participation in both." – based on Amazon biography

"With his blunt-force fame and the myths he's propagated about himself, Donald Trump has always moved in a world of gossip barons, crooked lawyers, and porn stars. But when he became the Republican nominee for the presidency in 2016, all of these characters crawled out from the underbelly of Trump's stardom and stumbled onto the global stage with him.

"In The Fixers, Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld have produced a deeply reported and exquisitely drawn portrait of that world, full of secret phone calls, hidden texts, and desperate deals, unearthing the practice of 'catch and kill' by which Trump surrogates paid hush money to cover up his affairs, and detailing Trump's historic relationship with his fixers—from his early, influential relationship with Roy Cohn to his reliance on Michael Cohen, National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. It traces the arc of their interactions from the 1970s through the 2016 campaign and beyond. It is a distinctly American saga that navigates the worlds of reality TV, cash-for-trash tabloids, single-shingle law shops, celebrity bashes, high-end real estate, pornography, and politics. The characters and settings of this book are part of a vulgar circus that crisscrosses the country, from New York to L.A. to D.C.

"Terrifying, darkly comic, and compulsively readable, The Fixers is an epic political adventure in which greed, corruption, lust, and ambition collide, and that leads, ultimately, to the White House."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (43 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593132395 ?
Government Gangsters:
The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy
Kash Pramod Patel
Post Hill Press (September 26, 2023)
No Review

"Kash Pramod Patel served as the chief of staff to the Department of Defense (DOD), where his responsibilities included implementing the secretary of defense’s mission involving three-million-plus employees, a $740-billion budget, and $2 trillion in assets.

"Prior to his experience at the Pentagon, Mr. Patel served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council (NSC). In that capacity, Mr. Patel oversaw the execution of several of President Trump’s top priorities, including eliminating Al-Qa’ida and ISIS senior leadership, and safely repatriating dozens of American hostages. As one of the highest-ranking officials at the ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the White House, Mr. Patel gained unique expertise straddling the nexus of government and private sector operations for the defense of our nation to include defense, cyber, and intel.

"Before joining the NSC, Mr. Patel served as the national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), where he spearheaded the investigation into the Russian active measures campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election.

"A native of New York, Mr. Patel graduated from the University of Richmond with a bachelor’s in criminal justice and history, received a juris doctor from law school in New York, and a certificate in international law from the University College London Faculty of Laws in the United Kingdom. Mr. Patel left government service in January 2021 and is now in the private sector. He has established the Kash Foundation and FightWithKash.com to continue his work fighting for Americans and holding corrupt government accountable."

"The highest levels of government have been infiltrated by an anti-democratic Deep State that can be defeated by refocusing our national security mission and relentlessly defending the truth.

"A sinister cabal of corrupt law enforcement personnel, intelligence agents, and military officials at the highest levels of government plotted to overthrow a president. Even after they failed, they continue to secretly pull the levers of power without any accountability to the American people. This isn’t the synopsis of a fictional spy thriller. This is what is actually happening in the United States government.

"In Government Gangsters, Kash Patel—a former top official in the White House, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and the Department of Justice—pulls back the curtain on the Deep State, revealing the major players and tactics within the permanent government bureaucracy, which has spent decades stripping power away from the American people and their elected leaders. Based on his firsthand knowledge, Patel reveals how we can defeat the Deep State, reassert self-government, and restore our democracy."

" 'A brilliant roadmap highlighting every corrupt actor, to ultimately return our agencies and departments to work for the American People…we will use this blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government!' —Donald J. Trump"

"Government gangsters off on a spree;
Deep State from here to eternity.
Lord, have mercy on such as we
MA-MA-GA
"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.9 (1,697 ratings)
ISBN 978-1637588246 ?
Don't Lie To Me:
And Stop Trying to Steal Our Freedom
by Jeanine Pirro
Center Street (September 22, 2020)
No Review

"Jeanine Pirro is the host of Justice with Judge Jeanine. Previously, she hosted Judge Jeanine Pirro, a syndicated court show for which she won an Emmy. In 1990, she was the first woman elected Judge to sit on the Westchester County Court bench. In 1993, she again made history as the first woman elected District Attorney in Westchester County, New York. As a prosecutor, Pirro received national recognition for founding one of the nation's first domestic violence units, and has tirelessly crusaded on behalf of the silent victims of violent crime. She also created one of the first operations to catch Internet pedophiles. Judge Pirro has two children and two dogs, and she lives in Westchester, New York." – Amazon biography

"It's been nearly four years since President Trump took office, and Judge Jeanine Pirro has had enough of the left's countless lies and false accusations. She is now forced to ask: How could anyone vote against President Trump this November? What more could you possibly want?

"In Don't Lie to Me, Judge Jeanine brings her signature writing style and acute legal mind to topics such as the impeachment inquiry, the military, and the road to the 2020 presidential election. She will highlight President Trump's triumphs and his strength during the coronavirus crisis."

In Ms. Pirro's third book she holds true to the party line: praising Trump and panning liberals. Perhaps it portends a third TV show — undoubtedly to be titled "Jeanine Pirro's Justly Judicious Judgements."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (2,619 ratings)
ISBN 978-1546059738 ?
People vs. Donald Trump:
An Inside Account
Mark Pomerantz
Simon & Schuster (February 7, 2023)
No Review
"Mark Pomerantz was born in Brooklyn and received a BA from Harvard College in 1972 and a JD from the University of Michigan Law School in 1975. He worked as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Pomerantz has also been on the faculty of Columbia Law School and has lectured on criminal procedure and white-collar law at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. From February 2021 to February 2022, he worked pro bono as special assistant district attorney in the office of the New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to assist with that office’s criminal investigation into the personal and business finances of former president Donald Trump."

"People vs. Donald Trump is a fascinating inside account of the attempt to prosecute former president Donald Trump, written by one of the lawyers who worked on the case and resigned in protest when Manhattan’s district attorney refused to act.

"Mark Pomerantz was a retired lawyer living a calm suburban life when he accepted an unexpected offer to join the staff of the district attorney of New York County in February 2021 to work on the investigation of former president Donald Trump. The Manhattan DA was interested in Pomerantz because he brought vast experience in litigating white collar and organized crime cases, having worked as a federal prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney for decades. Pomerantz had prosecuted and defended cases involving murder, drug trafficking, political corruption, tax evasion, and financial fraud. His clients had included governors and senators, business leaders, financial institutions, and also gangsters and murderers.

"Over the next year, Pomerantz investigated the world of Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. He interviewed potential witnesses, scrutinized financial records, and learned everything he could about Trump’s business practices. The investigation led him to believe that the former president’s approach to business had much in common with the business practices of another well-known public figure—former mob boss John J. Gotti. Ultimately, Pomerantz gathered enough evidence to support the view—held by many of his colleagues on the case, including former Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.—that former president Donald Trump should be indicted for a number of financial crimes. But that indictment never happened. This book explains why.

"Pomerantz’s work ultimately led to the indictment of the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud. But that indictment was merely the prelude to a larger criminal case that Pomerantz urged the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, to bring against Donald Trump. When the DA refused to authorize that prosecution, Pomerantz and his colleague Carey Dunne resigned. Aspects of the case Pomerantz wanted to bring are currently being pursued against Trump by the attorney general of New York State in a civil fraud case that does not involve criminal penalties.

"In People vs. Donald Trump, Pomerantz tells the story of his unprecedented investigation, why he believes Donald Trump should be prosecuted, and what we can learn about the nature of justice in America from this extraordinary case. Pomerantz draws from a lifetime of legal experience to tell a devastating and frequently entertaining story of how prosecutors think, how criminals act, and how our justice system works—and sometimes doesn’t work. Pomerantz has written a cautionary tale that illuminates the challenges of prosecuting Donald Trump, why Trump manages to dance between the raindrops of accountability, and how others might bring him to justice."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (400 ratings)
ISBN 978-1668022443 ?
Never Give an Inch:
Fighting for the America I Love
Mike Pompeo
Broadside Books (January 24, 2023)
No Review

"Mike Pompeo served as the 70th Secretary of State of the United States of America and as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency during the Trump Administration. A native of Southern California, Mike graduated first in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1986. He served as a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army before graduating from Harvard Law School. From 2011-2017, he represented the Fourth District of Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mike and his wife Susan are proud parents of their son Nick and in-laws to his lovely wife Rachael, each of whom they consider to be the greatest blessings of their lives. He is currently a distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute." – Amazon biography

"Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spearheaded the Trump Administration’s most significant foreign policy breakthroughs. Now, he reveals how he did it, and how it could happen again.

"As the only four-year national security member of President Trump’s Cabinet, he worked to impose crushing pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran, avert a nuclear crisis with North Korea, deliver unmatched support for Israel, and bring peace to the Middle East. Drawing on his commitment to America’s founding principles and his Christian faith, his efforts to promote religious freedom around the world were unequaled in American diplomatic history. Most importantly, he led a much-needed generational transformation of America's relationship with China.

"Blending remarkable and often humorous stories of his interactions with world leaders and unmatched analysis of geopolitics, Never Give an Inch tells of how Pompeo helped the Trump Administration craft the America First approach that upended Washington's wisdom—and made him America’s enemies’ worst nightmare. It is a raw account of what it took to deliver winning outcomes, including answers to questions like:

  • Why Trump thought his Secretary of State was too tough on China
  • What he said to Kim Jong-un that set him apart from other American negotiators
  • How Mike Pence could have lost his spot on the 2020 ticket
  • Who still has him high on their list of enemies

"A road map of the trends and players shaping the world today, Never Give an Inch is more than a historical review of the Trump Administration's greatest victories. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the challenges of the future. And it is an inspirational story of leadership through dangerous times that will leave you with a greater appreciation for America."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (1,253 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063247444 ?
Unhumans:
The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them)
Jack Posobiec & Joshua Lisec
Stephen K Bannon (Foreword)
War Room Books (July 9, 2024)
No Review

"Jack Posobiec is senior editor at Human Events and host of Human Events Daily, which has more than 250 million downloads. He is a veteran US Navy intelligence officer with deployments to Guantanamo Bay and East Asia. Posobiec's final deployment was as intelligence director for Navy Expeditionary Forces Command Pacific – Task Force 75. Posobiec has authored three books: Citizens for Trump: The Inside Story of the People’s Movement to Take Back America, 4D Warfare: A Doctrine for a New Era of Political Warfare, and The Antifa: Stories from Inside the Black Bloc. In 2019, Posobiec was awarded a Lincoln Fellowship by the Claremont Institute. A Temple University - Philadelphia, graduate, Posobiec lived in China before settling in Washington, DC with his wife and two sons. Joshua Lisec writes books of consequence. He is a Wall Street Journal bestselling ghostwriter with more than eighty books ghostwritten that have been translated into a dozen languages. Lisec is best known for his literary collaborations with controversial public figures, capturing their authentic voice and conveying the whole story. Lisec is also the author of the bestselling irreverent guide to entrepreneurship So Good They Call You a Fake and creator of The Best Way to Say It® writing programs. In 2021, he was executive producer of Better Left Unsaid, an award-winning documentary exposing the suppressed history of communist uprisings. Joshua has been featured in Publishers Weekly, Newsweek, Forbes, BBC, TEDx, Sky News, and TMZ, among others. Joshua lives with his wife and children near Dayton, Ohio."

"If you don’t understand communist revolutions, you aren’t ready for what’s coming.

"The old rules are over. The old order is over. Accusations are evidence. Activism means bigotry and hate. Criminals are allowed to roam free. Citizens are locked up. An appetite for vengeance is unleashed—to deplatform, debank, destroy. This is the daily news, yet none of it’s new. Patterns from the past make sense of our present. They also foretell a terrifying future we might be condemned to endure.

"For nearly 250 years, far-left uprisings have followed the same battle plans—from the first call for change to last innocent executed, from denial a revolution is even happening to declaration of the new order. Unhumans takes readers on a shocking, sweeping, and succinct journey through history to share the untold stories of radical takeovers that textbooks don’t teach.

"And there is one conclusion: We're in a new revolution right now.

But this is not a book about ideology or politics. Unhumans reveals that communism, socialism, Marxism, and all other radical-isms are not philosophies but tactics—tactics that are specifically designed to unleash terror on everyday people and revoke their human rights to life, liberty, and property. These are the forces of unhumanity. This is what they do. Every. Single. Time. Unhumans steals their playbook, breaks apart their strategies piece by piece, and lays out the tactics of what it takes to fight back—and win, using real-world examples.

"Unhumans is an essential read for every concerned citizen both in the US and worldwide. We must stop what is coming."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (208 ratings)
ISBN 978-1648210853 ?
Dangerous Charisma:
The Political Psychology of Donald Trump and His Followers
Jerrold Post & Stephanie Doucette
Pegasus Books (November 5, 2019)
No Review
"Jerrold M. Post, M.D. is considered the founding father of political personality profiling, having served a 21-year career with the CIA as the founding director of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. Following his CIA career, he became Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology and International Affairs at George Washington University. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale College and received his M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine. He received postgraduate training in psychiatry from Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Post is the author of fourteen books in the field of political psychology, most recently Narcissism and Politics: Dreams of Glory from Cambridge University Press. Over the course of his career, Dr. Post has been interviewed on CNN, ABC, NBC, FoxNews, MSNBC, CNBC, and has made frequent appearances on CBS's Hardball with Chris Matthews and CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, as well as ABC's Nightline, CBS's Face the Nation, and ABC's Good Morning America.
Stephanie Doucette. is the Director of Research at Political Psychology Associates, Ltd. She has conducted research on the psychology of political leaders and on the changing psychological face of terrorism in collaboration with Dr. Post, and has co-authored scholarly work with Dr. Post on the subject published by the Oxford University Press and elsewhere. Ms. Doucette earned her B.A. in international affairs, with a minor in psychology, at The George Washington University, and earned her M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University, with a concentration in terrorism and sub-state violence. Her research has focused on the psychology of female and adolescent terrorists." – Amazon biography

"Offering an in-depth psychological and political portrait of what makes Donald Trump tick, Dangerous Charisma combines psychoanalysis with an investigation into the personality of the current American president. This narrative not only examines the life and psychology of Donald Trump, but will also provide an analysis of the charismatic psychological tie between Trump and his supporters.

"While there are many books on Donald Trump, there has been no rigorous psychological portrait by a psychiatrist who specializes in political personality profiling. As the founding director of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior, Dr. Post has created profiles of world leaders for the use of American presidents during historic events. As once stated by Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, who characterized Dr. Post as 'a pioneer in the field of political personality profiling,' 'he may be the only psychiatrist who has specialized in the self-esteem problems of both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.'

"In this new book, the psychiatrist who once served under five American presidents applies his expertise to profiling the current resident in the White House, with surprising and revelatory results."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (255 ratings)
ISBN 978-1643132181 ?
Trump Must Go:
The Top 100 Reasons To Dump Trump (and One To Keep Him)
Bill Press
Thomas Dunne Books, September 2018
My Review
"Bill Press is host of The Bill Press Show, simulcast on Free Speech TV. He is the former co-host of MSNBC's Buchanan and Press and CNN's Crossfire and The Spin Room. Press is the author of several books including From the Left and The Obama Hate Machine. He currently resides in Washington, DC." – Amazon biography

"Beginning with the man himself and moving through Trump's executive action damage, Press covers Trump's debasement of the United States political system and degrading of the American presidency. Ranging from banning federal employees' use of the phrase 'climate change,' to putting down Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as 'shithole' countries, we have to wonder what he'll do next. He has a bromance with Putin that enables several meetings between Trump staffers and Russian officials, and he has a wrecking crew administration: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Housing Secretary Ben Carson, to name a few. Extensive 'executive time' marks Trump's calendar so he can golf, watch TV, and eat fast food. Trump has done it all…badly."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (29 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250306470 ?
Integrity Counts
Brad Raffensperger
Forefront Books (November 2, 2021)
No Review
"Brad Raffensperger is Georgia Secretary of State.

"In Integrity Counts, lifelong Republican and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks out against the former president’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and hopes to restore confidence and trust in our country’s elections.

"Integrity stands as the cornerstone of American democracy.

"Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, defended American democracy by refusing to bend to demands that he change the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election in his state.

"Raffensperger’s defense of democracy made him a target of President Donald Trump for months following the election, culminating in an hour-long phone call in which the president told him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” the exact number he needed to win Georgia’s sixteen Electoral College votes. Once again, Raffensperger refused. Georgia voters had spoken.

"A lifelong conservative Republican who had financially supported President Trump’s reelection campaign and voted for Trump, Raffensperger called for a hand recount of every vote to confirm the results and affirm the integrity of Georgia’s election. Still President Trump persisted in his personal attacks.

"One of the most troubling questions in the wake of the 2020 election, Raffensperger says, is whether America will see every candidate who loses a major election refuse to accept the results and, instead, set out to raise money and build support on unfounded claims of fraud and corruption. To avoid that prospect, Americans must come to terms with the scope of the problem, but doing so won’t be comfortable for either party.

"Either party because the 2020 crisis was not unprecedented in Georgia. By November 2020, Raffensperger had been challenging the claims of a “stolen election” for nearly two years. In the fall of 2018, after Democrat Stacey Abrams lost the race for governor of Georgia, she told a crowd of supporters, “So, to be clear, this is not a speech of concession. Concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede.”

"The similarities don’t end there, and when considered with some care, they paint a troubling picture of an all-too-bipartisan willingness to undermine the integrity of our democracy, and the public’s confidence in it, for the sake of personal and partisan gain."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (200 ratings)
ISBN 978-1637630334 ?
Unthinkable:
Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy
Jamie Raskin
Harper (January 4, 2022)
No Review
"Jamie Raskin has proudly represented Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. Prior to his time in Congress, Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland and the Senate Majority Whip. He was also a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years. He has authored several books, including the Washington Post bestseller Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court versus the American People and the highly acclaimed We the Students: Supreme Court Cases For and About America’s Students/i>. Congressman Raskin is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and a former Editor of the Harvard Law Review/i>. He and his wife Sarah live in Takoma Park."

"In this searing memoir, Congressman Jamie Raskin tells the story of the forty-five days at the start of 2021 that permanently changed his life—and his family’s—as he confronted the painful loss of his son to suicide, lived through the violent insurrection in our nation’s Capitol, and led the impeachment effort to hold President Trump accountable for inciting the political violence./

"On December 31, 2020, Tommy Raskin, the only son of Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, tragically took his own life after a long struggle with depression. Seven days later on January 6, Congressman Raskin returned to Congress to help certify the 2020 Presidential election results, when violent insurrectionists led by right wing extremist groups stormed the U.S. Capitol hoping to hand four more years of power to President Donald Trump. As our reeling nation mourned the deaths of numerous people and lamented the injuries of more than 140 police officers hurt in the attack, Congressman Raskin, a Constitutional law professor, was called upon to put aside his overwhelming grief—both personal and professional—and lead the impeachment effort against President Trump for inciting the violence. Together this nine-member team of House impeachment managers riveted a nation still in anguish, putting on an unprecedented Senate trial that produced the most bipartisan Presidential impeachment vote in American history.

"Now for the first time, Congressman Raskin discusses this unimaginable convergence of personal and public trauma, detailing how the painful loss of his son and the power of Tommy’s convictions fueled the Congressman’s work in the aftermath of modern democracy’s darkest day. Going inside Congress on January 6, he recounts the horror of that day, a day that he and other Democrats had spent months preparing for under the correct assumption that they would encounter an attempted electoral coup—not against a President but for one. And yet, on January 6, he faced the one thing he had failed to anticipate: mass political violence designed to block Biden’s election. With an inside account of leading the team prosecuting President Trump in the Senate, Congressman Raskin shares never before told stories of just how close we came to losing our democracy that fateful day and lays out the methodical prosecution that convinced Democrats and Republicans alike of Trump’s responsibility for inciting insurrectionary violence against our government.

"Through it all, he reckons with the loss of his brilliant, remarkable son, a Harvard Law student whose values and memory continually inspired the Congressman to confront the dark impulses unleashed by Donald Trump. At turns, a moving story of a father coping with his pain and a revealing examination of holding President Trump accountable for the violence he fomented, this book is a vital reminder of the ongoing struggle for the soul of American democracy and the perseverance that our Constitution demands from us all."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (4,300 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063209787 ?
The Man Who Sold America:
Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story
Joy-Ann Reid
William Morrow (June 25, 2019)
No Review
"Joy-Ann Reid is the host of 'AM Joy' — a twice-weekly political talk show that airs weekend mornings on MSNBC. In addition to her hosting duties, Joy serves as a political analyst, appearing on NBC News and MSNBC programs including 'Meet the Press,' 'Hardball with Chris Matthews,' 'The Rachel Maddow Show,' 'The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell,' 'All In with Chris Hayes' and 'Andrea Mitchell Reports.' Joy writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast and is the author or editor of two books: Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide (William Morrow, 2015) and We Are the Change We Seek: the Speeches of Barack Obama (Bloomsbury, 2017)." – Amazon biography

"Three years ago, Donald Trump pitched millions of voters on the idea that their country was broken, and that the rest of the world was playing us 'for suckers.' All we needed to fix this was Donald Trump, who rebranded prejudice as patriotism, presented diversity as our weakness, and promised that money really could make the world go 'round.

"Trump made the sale to enough Americans in three key swing states to win the Electoral College. As president, Trump's raft of self-dealing, scandal, and corruption has overwhelmed the national conversation. And with prosecutors bearing down on Trump and his family business, the web of criminality is circling closer to the Oval Office. All this while Trump seemingly makes his administration a pawn for the ultimate villain: an autocratic former KGB officer in Russia who found in the untutored and eager forty-fifth president the perfect 'apprentice'."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,169 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062880109 ?
Commander in Cheat:
How Golf Explains Trump
Rick Reilly
Hachette Books; Reprint edition (April 7, 2020)
No Review
"Currently a screenwriter and author, Rick Reilly for years wrote for Sports Illustrated and appeared on and wrote for ESPN. In addition to being voted the NSMA National Sportswriter of the Year eleven times, he has also been recognized with the Damon Runyon Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. USA Today called him, 'the closest thing sportswriting ever had to a rock star'."

"Donald Trump loves golf. He loves to play it, buy it, build it, and operate it. He owns 14 courses around the world and runs another five, all of which he insists are the best on the planet. He also claims he's a 3 handicap, almost never loses, and has won an astonishing 18 club championships.

"How much of all that is true? Almost none of it, acclaimed sportswriter Rick Reilly reveals in this unsparing look at Trump in the world of golf.

"Based on Reilly's own experiences with Trump as well as interviews with over 100 golf pros, amateurs, developers, and caddies, Commander in Cheat is a startling and at times hilarious indictment of Trump and his golf game. You'll learn how Trump cheats (sometimes with the help of his caddies and Secret Service agents), lies about his scores (the 'Trump Bump'), tells whoppers about the rank of his courses and their worth (declaring that every one of them is worth $50 million), and tramples the etiquette of the game (driving on greens doesn't help). Trump doesn't brag so much, though, about the golf contractors he stiffs, the course neighbors he intimidates, or the way his golf decisions wind up infecting his political ones.

"For Trump, it's always about winning. To do it, he uses the tricks he picked up from the hustlers at the public course where he learned the game as a college kid, and then polished as one of the most bombastic businessmen of our time. As Reilly writes, 'Golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a man.' Commander in Cheat 'paints a side-splitting portrait of a congenital cheater' (Esquire), revealing all kinds of unsightly truths Trump has been hiding."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (4,598 ratings)
ISBN 978-0316528030 ?
Dawn's Early Light:
Taking Back Washington to Save America
Kevin Roberts
J. D. Vance (Foreword)
Broadside Books (November 12, 2024)
No Review
"Kevin Roberts is the president of The Heritage Foundation—America’s most influential policy organization—and Heritage Action for America. He earned his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Texas. A lifelong educator, Roberts taught history at the collegiate level before becoming President of Wyoming Catholic College. Under his leadership, the college adopted a policy of refusing to accept federal student loans and grants, lest it be forced to violate Catholic tenets. He also previously served as CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the largest state-based think tank in the nation. At The Heritage Foundation, Roberts leads policy research efforts on many key national issues, including education, big-tech, border security, election integrity, and more. He is the host of The Kevin Roberts Show. J. D. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he was elected to the United States Senate representing Ohio in 2022. In 2024, he became the Republican nominee for Vice President. Vance lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his family."

"Heritage Foundation president and Project 2025 head Kevin Roberts outlines a peaceful "Second American Revolution" for voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people.

"America is on the brink of destruction. A corrupt and incompetent elite has uprooted our way of life and is brainwashing the next generation. Many so-called conservatives are as culpable as their progressive counterparts.

"In this ambitious and provocative book, Heritage Foundation President Dr. Kevin Roberts announces the arrival of a New Conservative Movement. His message is simple: Global elites — your time is up.

"Dawn’s Early Light blazes a promising path for the American people to take back their country. Chapter by chapter, it identifies institutions that conservatives need to build, others that we need to take back, and more still that are too corrupt to save: Ivy League colleges, the FBI, the New York Times, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Department of Education, BlackRock, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, to name a few.

"All these need to be dissolved if the American way of life is to be passed down to future generations.

"The good news is, we’re going to win.

"The Swamp is so drunk on power that the elites don't realize the ground is moving beneath their feet. In Washington, they wear foreign flags on their lapels, but they don’t protect our border. They wave around the Constitution, but they don’t respect its wisdom. They appeal to Reagan, but Reagan would never put up with this non-sense.

"Their decadence will be their downfall. A new day is here."

Rating by Amazon customers: ? (0 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063353503 ?
Trump:
Anatomy of a Monstrosity
Nathan J. Robinson
Demilune Press (January, 2017)
No Review
Nathan J. Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs.

"This is the ultimate book for understanding what Donald Trump's election means for the United States and the world. Much more than just a book about Trump himself, it is about the forces that led to his existence, and it is a guide for how to create a Trumpless world. Anatomy of a Monstrosity looks closely at why progressives failed to stop his election, and develops a series of proposals for how ordinary people can fight back against Trumpism and win. Carefully sourced, comprehensive, witty, and biting, Trump: Anatomy of a Monstrosity is the single book everyone opposed to Trump should read."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (182 ratings)
ISBN 978-0997844771 ?
Why Cities Lose:
The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide
Jonathan A. Rodden
Basic Books (June 4, 2019)
No Review
Jonathan A. Rodden is professor of political science and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and founder and director of the Stanford Spatial Social Science Lab. The author of the prizewinning Hamilton's Paradox, he lives in Stanford, California."

"A prizewinning political scientist traces the origins of urban-rural political conflict and shows how geography shapes elections in America and beyond.

"Why is it so much easier for the Democratic Party to win the national popular vote than to build and maintain a majority in Congress? Why can Democrats sweep statewide offices in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan yet fail to take control of the same states' legislatures? Many place exclusive blame on partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression. But as political scientist Jonathan A. Rodden demonstrates in Why Cities Lose, the left's electoral challenges have deeper roots in economic and political geography.

"In the late nineteenth century, support for the left began to cluster in cities among the industrial working class. Today, left-wing parties have become coalitions of diverse urban interest groups, from racial minorities to the creative class. These parties win big in urban districts but struggle to capture the suburban and rural seats necessary for legislative majorities. A bold new interpretation of today's urban-rural political conflict, Why Cities Lose also points to electoral reforms that could address the left's under-representation while reducing urban-rural polarization."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (69 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541644274 ?
Where Tyranny Begins:
The Justice Department, the FBI, and the War on Democracy
David Rohde
W. W. Norton & Company (August 27, 2024)
No Review
David Rohde is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of In Deep and three other books. He is the national security editor at NBC News and a former executive editor of The New Yorker website, where he wrote about the Justice Department, democracy, and disinformation. He is also a former New York Times, Reuters, and Christian Science Monitor reporter. He lives in New York with his family."

"How Donald Trump used threats, co-option, and conspiracy theories to bend DOJ and FBI officials to his will to a greater extent than publicly known―and how Merrick Garland, other prosecutors, and judges failed to hold him accountable before the 2024 election.

"Over the course of his presidency, Donald Trump intimidated, silenced, and bent to his will Justice Department and FBI officials, from Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr to career public servants. He sowed public doubt in both agencies so successfully that when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he paid little political cost and, despite an unprecedented array of criminal indictments, easily won the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

"In Where Tyranny Begins, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David Rohde investigates the strategies Trump systematically used to turn the country’s two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into his personal political weapons. Rohde also reveals how, during the Biden years, Justice Department non-partisan 1970s norms that Attorney General Merrick Garland reinforced inadvertently helped Trump, and could fail to deliver a trial and legal accountability by Election Day 2024.

"Where Tyranny Begins exposes how ill-suited both the DOJ and FBI are to serve as checks on abuses of presidential power. The rise of hyper-partisanship and the Trump and Biden presidencies have uncovered core flaws in American constitutional democracy that Trump would exploit in a second term. A round of historic reforms equivalent to the post-Watergate reforms that stabilized American democracy in the 1970s are immediately needed. A five-word warning coined by the English philosopher John Locke in 1689 captures the stakes in 2024: 'Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins.' ”

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (101 ratings)
ISBN 978-0393881967 ?
Angry White Male:
How the Donald Trump Phenomenon is Changing America—and What We Can All Do to Save the Middle Class
Wayne Allyn Root
Roger Stone (Foreword)
Skyhorse (August 23, 2016)
No Review
"Wayne Allyn Root is a capitalist evangelist, entrepreneur, TV producer, syndicated columnist, media dynamo, speaker, and outspoken politician. Wayne is the author of several bestselling books including The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide, The Power of Relentless, and The Murder of the Middle Class. He was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2008 and has been opening speaker at many Donald Trump events. He hosts 'WAR Now: The Wayne Allyn Root Radio Show.' He lives in Henderson, Nevada. Roger Stone is a seasoned political operative and pundit. A veteran of eight national presidential campaigns, he served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents before leaving the GOP for the Libertarian Party. He is author of The Clintons' War on Women, Jeb and the Bush Crime Family, and the New York Times bestseller The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ and has written for Fox Opinion, Breitbart News, StoneZone.com, and the Op-Ed page of the New York Times. He lives in South Florida." – Amazon biography

"The mainstream media and ultra-liberal Democrats can’t understand why white voters, especially white men, are so angry. Wayne Allyn Root is an angry white male, and he knows why. This is his story, his testimony, and a look at what’s happening to an entire group of good people: law-abiding, tax-paying, hard-working, middle-class people. They’re being targeted, silenced, intimidated, persecuted — virtually wiped off the planet — in order to make guilty, politically correct white liberals feel better about themselves. It’s open season on white males.

"And yes, you’re damn right they’re angry. In Angry White Male, Root makes his case why he and his brethren have every right to be angry. Millions of angry white males are not on the attack but rather responding in self-defense. Root urges the middle class to take charge before they are protested and legislated out of existence, penniless, powerless, jobless, afraid to speak for fear of being shouted down and immediately labeled 'racist.'

"Not afraid of being politically incorrect, Angry White Male exposes the unfair and unregulated policies, politically correct attitudes, and reverse racism that have recently oppressed and depressed the shrinking middle class — in voting, housing, guns, taxes, regulation, and jobs — and provides the playbook to empower readers to protect their rights. They can do this by verbalizing, mobilizing, and protesting, getting out to vote in record numbers, pushing for term limits, fighting the 'not so free' trade battle, fighting for a 'Middle-Class Contract with America' and 'Middle-Class Income Tax Vacation,' and arming themselves with the 'Middle-Class Weapon of Self-Defense.' Let the revolution begin!"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (93 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510718425 ?
American Resistance:
The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation
David Rothkopf
PublicAffairs (November 1, 2022)
No Review
"David Rothkopf is a professor of international relations, political scientist and journalist. He is the founder and CEO of The Rothkopf Group, a visiting professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Great Questions of Tomorrow, National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear​, and most recently Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump. He is also the podcast host of Deep State Radio."

"It could have been so much worse: a deeply reported, insider story of how a handful of Washington officials staged a daring resistance to an unprecedented presidency and prevented chaos overwhelming the government and the nation.

"Each federal employee takes an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic,' but none had imagined that enemy might be the Commander-in-Chief. With the presidency of Donald Trump, a fault line between the president and vital forces within his government was established. Those who honored their oath of office, their obligation to the Constitution, were wary of the president and they in turn were not trusted and occasionally fired and replaced with loyalists.

"American Resistance is the first book to chronicle the unprecedented role so many in the government were forced to play and the consequences of their actions during the Trump administration. From Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother Yevgeny, to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, to Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, and the official who first called himself 'Anonymous'—Miles Taylor, among others, Rothkopf examines the resistance movement that slowly built in Washington. Drawing from first hand testimonies, deep background and research, American Resistance shows how when the President threatened to run amok, a few key figures rose in defiance. It reveals the conflict within the Department of Justice over actively seeking instances of election fraud and abuse to help the president illegally retain power, and multiple battles within the White House over the influence of Jared and Ivanka, and in particular the extraordinary efforts to get them security clearances even after they were denied to them.

"David Rothkopf chronicles how each person came to realize that they were working for an administration that threatened to wreak havoc–one Defense Secretary was told by his mother to resign before it was too late–in an intense drama in which a few good men and women stood up to the tyrant in their midst."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (188 ratings)
ISBN 978-1541700635 ?
Resistance:
How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump
Jennifer Rubin
William Morrow (September 21, 2021)
No Review
Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for the Washington Post. She covers politics and policy, foreign and domestic, and provides insight into the conservative movement, the Republican and Democratic parties, and threats to Western democracies. Rubin, who is also an MSNBC contributor, came to the Post after three years with Commentary magazine. Prior to her career in journalism, Rubin practiced labor law for two decades, an experience that informs and enriches her work. She is a mother of two sons and lives with her husband in D.C." – Amazon biography

"In a compelling narrative, bookended by Donald Trump’s 2016 victory and his 2020 defeat, Rubin delivers an absorbing analysis of the women’s counter-Trump revolution. Resistance tracks a set of dynamic women voters, activists and politicians who rose up when Donald Trump took the White House and fundamentally changed the political landscape. From the first Women’s March the day after Trump’s inauguration to the Blue Wave in the 2018 midterms to the flood of female presidential candidates in 2020 to the inauguration of Kamala Harris, women from across the ideological spectrum entered the political arena and became energized in a way America had not witnessed in decades. They marched, they organized, they donated vast sums of cash, they ran for office, they made new alliances. And they defeated Donald Trump.

"Democratic women candidates learned that they could win in large numbers, even in red districts. Black women voters in 2020 surged in Georgia and in suburbs in key swing states. Women across the country voted in greater numbers than in any previous election, flipped the Senate, and ensured victory for the first female Vice President in the nation’s history. While Democrats recorded impressive victories, Republican women delivered critical victories of their own.

"From the White House to Congress, from activists to protestors, from liberals to conservatives, Resistance delivers the first comprehensive portrait of women’s historic political surge provoked by the horror of President Trump. This is the indelible story of how American women transformed their own lives, vanquished Trump, secured unprecedented positions of power and redefined US politics decades to come. Resistance is essential reading for understanding the most important election in American history and the role women played in redesigning modern politics."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (65 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062982131 ?
A Very Stable Genius:
Donald J. Trump's Testing of America
Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig
Penguin Press (January 21, 2020)
My Review
Carol Leonnig is a national investigative reporter at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2000 and covers Donald Trump's presidency and other subjects. She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on security failures and misconduct inside the Secret Service. She also was part of the Post teams awarded Pulitzers in 2017, for reporting on Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, and in 2014, for revealing the U.S. government's secret, broad surveillance of Americans. Leonnig is also an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. Philip Rucker is the White House Bureau Chief at The Washington Post, leading its coverage of President Trump and his administration. He and a team of Post reporters won the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award for their reporting on Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. Rucker joined the Post in 2005 and previously has covered Congress, the Obama White House and the 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns. He serves as an on-air political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in history." – Amazon biography

"Rucker and Leonnig have deep and unmatched sources throughout Washington, D.C., and for the past three years have chronicled in depth the ways President Donald Trump has reinvented the presidency in his own image, shaken foreign alliances and tested American institutions. It would be all too easy to mistake Trump's first term for pure chaos. But Leonnig and Rucker show that in fact there is a pattern and meaning to the daily disorder. Relying on scores of exclusive new interviews with first-hand witnesses and rigorous original reporting, the authors reveal the 45th President up close as he stares down impeachment. They take readers inside Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and the Trump legal team's scramble for survival, behind the curtains as the West Wing scurries to clean up the President's mistakes and into the room to witness Trump's interactions with foreign leaders and members of his Cabinet, and assess the consequences."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (9,034 ratings)
ISBN 978-1984877499 ?
Party of the People:
Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP
Patrick Ruffini
Simon & Schuster (November 7, 2023)
No Review
"Patrick Ruffini is a Republican pollster and one of the country’s leading experts on political targeting, technology, and demography. He is a cofounder of Echelon Insights, a polling and analytics firm, and has advanced the digital and data-driven transformation of American politics in numerous roles over nearly twenty years. Ruffini began his career working for President George W. Bush, including roles at the Republican National Committee, his reelection campaign, and in his Administration. From 2005 to 2006, he was the lead digital strategist for the RNC. Ruffini’s expertise is widely sought after in the media, with pieces published in The Washington Post, FiveThirtyEight, Politico, and National Review, and appearances in outlets ranging from NPR to Fox News."

"An eye-opening, 'must-read' (Ben Shapiro, founder of The Daily Wire) about the future of the Republican party as they unite working-class voters in a multi-racial, cross-generational populist coalition.

"Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election shocked the world. Yet his defeat in 2020 may have been even more surprising: he received 12 million more votes in 2020 than in 2016 and his unexpectedly diverse coalition included millions of nonwhite voters, a rarity for the modern Republican party.

"In 2020, Trump defied expectations and few journalists, strategists, or politicians could explain why Trump had nearly won reelection. Patrick Ruffini, a Republican pollster and one of the country’s leading experts on political targeting, technology, and demography, has the answers—and the explanation may surprise you. For all his apparent divisiveness, Trump assembled the most diverse Republican presidential coalition in history and rode political trends that will prove significant for decades to come.

"The shift is profound: seven in ten American voters belong to groups that have shifted right in the last two presidential elections, while under three in ten whites with a college degree belong to votes groups that are trending left. Together, this super-majority of right-trending voters forms a colorblind, populist coalition, largely united by its working-class roots, moderate to conservative views on policy, strong religious beliefs, and indifference to or outright rejection of the identity politics practice by the left. Not all these voters are Republican, and in certain corners of the coalition, only a small minority are. But recent elections are pointing us towards a future where party allegiances have been utterly upended.

"Party of the People demonstrates this data. Ruffini was as wrong as every pollster in 2016 and spent the intervening years figuring out why and developing better methods of analyzing voters in the digital age. Using robust data, he shifts you away from the complacent, widespread narrative that the Republican party is a party of white, rural voters. It is, but more importantly for its longevity, it’s a party of non-college-educated voters. And as fewer voters attend college, the Republican party shows no signs of stagnation. With rich data and clear analysis, Party of the People is a 'deeply researched book' (Amy Walter, editor-in-chief of The Cook Political Report) that explains the present and future of the Republican party and American elections."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (25 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982198626 ?
America's Cultural Revolution:
How the Radical Left Conquered Everything
Christopher F. Rufo
Broadside Books (July 18, 2023)
No Review
"Christopher F. Rufo is a writer, filmmaker, and activist. He has directed four documentaries for PBS, including America Lost, which tells the story of three forgotten American cities. He is a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of the public policy magazine City Journal. His reporting and activism have inspired a presidential order, a national grassroots movement, and legislation in twenty-two states. Christopher holds a BSFS from Georgetown University and an ALM from Harvard University. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three sons." – Amazon biography

"America’s most effective conservative intellectual proves once and for all that Marxist radicals have taken over our nation's institutions.

"In the 1960s, Mao launched China’s Cultural Revolution. Cities grew overcrowded. Technocrats demanded progress from above. Anyone opposed was sent to be “re-educated.” China’s revolution was bloody, fast, and a failure, but what if America started a revolution at the same time, based on the same bad ideas, and it’s just been slower, calmer, and more effective?

"In his powerful new book, Christopher F. Rufo uncovers the hidden history of left-wing intellectuals and activists who systematically took control of America’s institutions to undermine them from within. America’s Cultural Revolution finally answers so many of the questions normal Americans have, such as:

  • Why is nearly every major corporation bending the knee to a far-left agenda?
  • How did DEI suddenly become the department no institution can continue without?
  • Why is race the main thing America’s rich, white elite wants to talk about?
  • When did the left adopt all this doublespeak, saying progress is a lack of progress, equality is not equality, speech is violence, and violence is speech?
  • Has the goal of the left, for a century, actually been the destruction of every Western institution?

"Readers may not know the names of Herbert Marcuse, Angela Davis, Paulo Freire, and Derrick Bell, but they will recognize the ideas they spread. How their radical, destructive ideology slowly worked its way from prisons to academia to classrooms to your human resources department will come as a shock.

"Failing to act soon, Rufo warns, could allow the radical left to achieve their ultimate objective: replacing constitutional equality with a race-based redistribution system overseen by bureaucratic ‘diversity and inclusion’ officials. Most Americans don’t want this, but most Americans are no longer in control of our institutions. If the mainstream media’s depiction of a failing dystopia in need of a fresh start never sounded right to you, this expose and call to arms is the book you’ve been looking for."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (69 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063227538 ?
The Parasitic Mind:
How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
Gad Saad
Regnery Publishing (October 6, 2020)
No Review

Dr. Gad Saad is Professor of Marketing at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada), and former holder of the Concordia University Research Chair in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences and Darwinian Consumption (2008-2018). He has held Visiting Associate Professorships at Cornell University, Dartmouth College, and the University of California–Irvine. Dr. Saad received the Faculty of Commerce’s Distinguished Teaching Award in June 2000, and was listed as one of the ‘hot’ professors of Concordia University in both the 2001 and 2002 Maclean’s reports on Canadian universities. Saad was appointed Newsmaker of the Week of Concordia University in five consecutive years (2011-2015), and is the co-recipient of the 2015 President’s Media Outreach Award-Research Communicator of the Year (International), which goes to the professor at Concordia University whose research receives the greatest amount of global media coverage.

Professor Saad has pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. His works include The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature (translated into Korean and Turkish); The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption; Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences, along with 75+ scientific papers, many at the intersection of evolutionary psychology and a broad range of disciplines including consumer behavior, marketing, advertising, psychology, medicine, and economics. His Psychology Today blog (Homo Consumericus) and YouTube channel (THE SAAD TRUTH) have garnered 6.4+ million and 20.8+ million total views respectively. He recently started a podcast titled The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad, which is available on all leading podcast platforms. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Saad is a leading public intellectual who often writes and speaks about idea pathogens that are destroying logic, science, reason, and common sense. His fourth book The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense will be released on October 6, 2020. He received a B.Sc. (1988) and an M.B.A. (1990) both from McGill University, and his M.S. (1993) and Ph.D. (1994) from Cornell University." – Amazon biography

"There's a war against truth... and if we don't win it, intellectual freedom will be a casualty. The West’s commitment to freedom, reason, and true liberalism has never been more seriously threatened than it is today by the stifling forces of political correctness.

"Dr. Gad Saad, the host of the enormously popular YouTube show THE SAAD TRUTH, exposes the bad ideas—what he calls “idea pathogens”—that are killing common sense and rational debate. Incubated in our universities and spread through the tyranny of political correctness, these ideas are endangering our most basic freedoms—including freedom of thought and speech. The danger is grave, but as Dr. Saad shows, politically correct dogma is riddled with logical fallacies. We have powerful weapons to fight back with—if we have the courage to use them.

"A provocative guide to defending reason and intellectual freedom and a battle cry for the preservation of our fundamental rights, The Parasitic Mind will be the most controversial and talked-about book of the year."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (323 ratings)
ISBN 978-1621579595 ?
Never Trump:
The Revolt of the Conservative Elites
Robert P. Saldin & Steven M. Teles
Oxford University Press (May 14, 2020)
No Review
Robert P. Saldin is Professor of Political Science and a Mansfield Center Fellow at the University of Montana. He is the author of When Bad Policy Makes Good Politics (Oxford, 2017) and War, the American State, and Politics since 1898 (2011). He is also a frequent contributor to the popular press, having written for, among others, The Washington Post, National Affairs, The American Interest, and The Washington Monthly. Steven M. Teles is Professor of Political Science at the Johns Hopkins University and a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center. He is the author or co-author of The Captured Economy (Oxford, 2017); Prison Break (Oxford, 2016); The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement (2008);and Whose Welfare: AFDC and Elite Politics (1996). In addition, he is the co-editor of Conservatism and American Political Development (Oxford, 2009) and Ethnicity, Social Mobility and Public Policy (2005). He has also written widely in a number of general interest publications, from The Nation, Democracy, The Washington Monthly, and The American Prospect, to The Public Interest, National Review, and National Affairs." – Amazon biography

"As it became increasingly apparent that Donald Trump might actually become the Republican party's 2016 presidential nominee, alarmed conservatives coalesced behind a simple, uncompromising slogan: Never Trump. Although the movement initially included a large number of Republican office-holders, its white-hot core was always comprised of the policy experts, public intellectuals, and campaign professionals who play a critical role in the modern political party system. They saw in Trump a repudiation of longstanding conservative doctrine and, in his unprincipled appeals to voters, the kind of demagogue the founders famously warned about. Never Trumpers took their shot at denying Trump the presidency-everything from flailing attempts to coalesce around other Republican candidates and collective letters of opposition, to a desperate third party challenge and even supporting their longtime nemesis Hillary Clinton. But in their attempt to kill the king, they missed. Now on the margins of a party that has enthusiastically united around the president, Never Trumpers have been reduced to the status of a remnant, shut out from government and hoping for a day when their party awakens from its Trumpist spell.

"Based on extensive interviews with conservative opponents of the president, Robert P. Saldin and Steven M. Teles reveal why such a wide range of committed partisans chose to break with their longtime comrades in arms. Never Trump provides a window into the motivations of these conservative professionals and a guide to the long-term consequences that their unprecedented revolt holds for the Republican and Democratic parties, conservatism, and American democracy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (24 ratings)
ISBN 978-0190880446 ?
Militant Normals
How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy
by Kurt Schlichter
Center Street (October 2, 2018)
No Review

"Kurt Schlichter is a trial lawyer, and a retired Army infantry colonel with a degree from the Army War College who writes twice a week as a Senior Columnist for Townhall.com and does a weekly show on The Rebel. His novel "Indian Country," the prequel to his novel "People's Republic," Came out in 2017! Look for his non-fiction book "Militant Normals" to come out from Hachette in October 2018!

"Kurt was personally recruited by Andrew Breitbart in 2009 to write for Big Hollywood. Kurt is a senior columnist at Townhall where he writes twice weekly. His brutal and hilarious Twitter feed has over 150,000 followers.

"Kurt is often on the air as an on-screen commentator and as a guest on nationally syndicated radio programs discussing political, military and legal issues, including Fox News, Fox Business, HLN, CNN (Well, maybe not anymore), the Hugh Hewitt Show, the Dennis Miller Show, Geraldo, the Greg Garrison Show, the John Phillips Show, the Tony Katz Radio Spectacular, the Snark Factor, and the Larry O'Connor Show, among others. He appears weekly on the Cam and Company Show with his own brand of caring conservative cultural commentary.

"As a stand-up comic for several years, he has gathered a large and devoted following in the world of social media for his amusing and often biting conservative commentary. He is an active user of Twitter (@KurtSchlichter) with over 71,000 followers, which led to his #1 selling Amazon "Political Humor" ebooks I Am a Conservative: Uncensored, Undiluted and Absolutely Un-PC, I Am a Liberal: A Conservative's Guide to Dealing With Nature's Most Irritating Mistake, Fetch My Latte: Sharing Feelings With Stupid People, and 50 Shades of Liberal. His previous book Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2009-2041 was released in 2014 from Post Tree Press.

"Kurt is also a successful trial lawyer based in the Los Angeles area representing companies and individuals in matters ranging from routine business cases to confidential Hollywood and entertainment industry disputes and transactions. A member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which recognizes attorneys who have won verdicts in excess of $1 million, his litigation strategy and legal analysis articles regularly run in such legal publications such as the Los Angeles Daily Journal and California Lawyer.

"Kurt is a 1994 graduate of Loyola Law School, where he was a law review editor. He majored in Communications and Political Science as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, where he also edited the conservative student paper California Review while writing a regular column in the student humor paper the Koala. He also drank a lot of Coors.

"Kurt rose to the rank of Army infantry colonel on active duty and in the California Army National Guard. He wears the silver "jump wings" of a qualified paratrooper and commanded the 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry Regiment. A veteran of both the Persian Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom (Kosovo), as well as the Los Angeles riots, the Northridge earthquake and the 2007 San Diego fires mobilizations, he is a graduate of the Army's Combined Arms Staff Service School, the Command and General Staff College, and the United States Army War College, where he received a master of Strategic Studies degree.

"He loves military history, red meat and the Second Amendment. His favorite caliber is .45." – Amazon biography

"Militant Normals, written by one of the conservative movement's wittiest commentators, is a no-holds-barred takedown of the preening elites who have all but made normalcy a crime in America. Donald Trump is only the beginning of a mighty disruption in American politics and culture, thanks to the rise of the militant Normals in America. They built this country, they make it run, and when called on, they fight for it. They are the heart and soul of the United States of America, They are the Normals, the regular Americans of all races, creeds, preferences, and both sexes who just want to raise their families and live their lives in peace. And they are getting angry...

"For decades they have seen their cherished beliefs and beloved traditions under attack. They have been told they are racist, sexist, and hateful, but it was all a lie. Their ability to provide for their families has been undermined by globalization with no consideration of the effects on Americans who did not go to Harvard, and who live in that vast forgotten space between New York and Santa Monica. A smug, condescending elite spanning both established parties has gripped the throat of the nation. Convinced of their own exquisite merit while refusing to be held accountable for their myriad failures, these elitists managed to suppress the first rumblings of discontent when they arose in the form of the Tea Party. But they were stunned when the Normals did not simply scurry back to their flyover homes. Instead, the Normals came out in force and elected Donald Trump.

"Now, as the ruling caste throws everything it can into the fight to depose Donald Trump and reestablish unchallenged control, the Normals face a choice. They can either surrender their country and their sovereignty, or they can become even more militant..."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (128 ratings)
ISBN 978-1546081951 ?
We'll Be Back:
The Fall and Rise of America
by Kurt Schlichter
Regnery Publishing (July 12, 2022)
No Review

"Kurt Schlichter is a senior columnist for Townhall.com, a Los Angeles trial lawyer, and a retired army infantry colonel.

"A Twitter activist (@KurtSchlichter) with more than 350,000 followers, Kurt was personally recruited to write conservative commentary by Andrew Breitbart. He is a news source, an on-screen commentator on networks like Fox and Newsmax, and a guest on, and guest host of, nationally syndicated radio programs talking about political, military, and legal topics.

"He is the author of The 21 Biggest Lies About Donald Trump and You (2020), the USA Today best-seller Militant Normals: How Regular Americans Are Rebelling Against the Elite to Reclaim Our Democracy (2018) as well as Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2013–2041 (2014). He is also the author of the Amazon best-selling novels People’s Republic (2016), Indian Country (2017), Wildfire (2018), Collapse (2019), Crisis (3030) [sic] and The Split (2021).

"He loves military history, red meat and the Second Amendment. His favorite caliber is .45." – Amazon biography

"In 1991, the smoldering ruins of Saddam Hussein’s regime testified to America’s unchallenged might. Having defeated one of the world’s largest armies in a matter of days, the United States looked forward to a new century of peace and prosperity.

"Thirty years later, a ragtag Taliban chased us out of Afghanistan in a humiliating rout. At home, our cities are cesspools of homelessness and crime. The former land of opportunity seems to be in irreversible decline.

"How did we suffer such an unimaginable fall? And is our current impotence permanent? With his trademark wit, Kurt Schlichter—warrior, lawyer, and commentator—makes a compelling case that America’s decline is not irreversible."

"No Pollyanna, he offers a sobering catalogue of the dangers ahead, from subjugation to China to the poverty of socialism. Even civil war. But Schlichter was among the U.S. forces that took down the tyrant of Iraq in 1991. Having seen American greatness in action and appreciating the virtues that produced it, he knows that decline is a choice—a choice that we need not make."

"Sometimes mordant, often humorous, always incisive, Schlichter shows that our resilience is far from spent. American society is uniquely blessed with the ingredients of greatness. A pushback is coming. Schlichter offers no guarantees but something more important—hope."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (128 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684513307 ?
Donald Trump v. The United States:
Inside the Struggle to Stop a President
Michael S. Schmidt
Random House (September 1, 2020)
No Review
"Michael S. Schmidt is a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington correspondent for The New York Times. Over his fifteen years at the Times, he has covered the investigations of the Trump presidency, the Pentagon, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the war in Iraq. He started his career at The New York Times as a clerk answering the phones on the foreign desk before becoming a sports reporter covering performance-enhancing drugs and legal issues. He is a graduate of Lafayette College." – Amazon biography

"In the early days of the Trump presidency, the people who work in the institutions that make America America saw Trump up close in the Oval Office and became convinced that they had to stand up to an unbound president. These officials faced a situation without parallel in American history: What do you do, and who do you call, if you are the only one standing between the president, his extraordinary powers, and the abyss?

"Michael S. Schmidt’s Donald Trump v. The United States tells the dramatic, high-stakes story of those who felt compelled to confront and try to contain the most powerful man in the world as he shredded norms and sought to expand his power.

"Schmidt has broken many of the major stories of the Trump era, from the news of Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account to the report on former FBI director James Comey’s contemporaneous memos of conversations with Trump that led directly to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Now he takes us inside the defining events of the presidency, chronicles them up close, and records the clash between an increasingly emboldened president and those around him, who find themselves trying to thwart the president they had pledged to serve, unsure whether he is acting in the interest of the country, his ego, his family business, or Russia. Through their eyes and ears, we observe an epic struggle.

"Drawing on secret FBI and White House documents and confidential sources inside federal law enforcement and the West Wing, Donald Trump v. The United States is vital journalism, recording the shocking reality of a presidency like no other, a riveting contemporary history, and a lasting account of just how fragile and vulnerable the institutions of American democracy really are."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (2,551 ratings)
ISBN 978-1984854667 ?
Apprentice in Wonderland:
How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass
Ramin Setoodeh
Harper (June 18, 2024)
No Review
"Ramin Setoodeh is Variety's co-editor in chief and the author of the New York Times bestselling book Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View." In 2018, Setoodeh was named entertainment journalist of the year by the Los Angeles Press Club. He previously worked as a senior writer for Newsweek and the Daily Beast. He lives in New York."

"From the editor in chief of Variety and author of the New York Times bestseller Ladies Who Punch, the never-fully-told, behind-the-scenes story of Donald Trump and The Apprentice, the long-running reality series that catapulted him to the White House.

"Here for the first time is the definitive untold story of Donald Trump’s years as a reality TV star. Trump himself admits he might not have been president without The Apprentice. Now, just as he uncovered the chaos inside the daytime favorite The View in his bestselling Ladies Who Punch, Ramin Setoodeh chronicles Trump’s dramatic tenure as New York’s ultimate boss in the boardroom, a mirage created by Survivor producer Mark Burnett and NBC boss Jeff Zucker. With unprecedented access, including hours of interviews with Trump, his boardroom advisers George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher, Eric Trump, and some of the most memorable contestants, and writing with flair and authority, Setoodeh shares all the untold tales from this legendary show that has left its mark on popular culture, shaped the legend of its star, and ultimately changed American history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (287 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063139909 ?
Look Away:
Documenting the Crude and Sexist Items from the Trump Campaign Trail
Paul Sherman
X Park Press (October, 2017)
No Review
"Paul Sherman is a writer, newsletter publisher, and conference producer with Tech Wire Media in Washington, D.C. He grew up in Austin, Texas, where he began political item collecting as a young boy. After graduating from Brown University in 1992 with degrees in Political Science and Latin American Studies, he worked as the news assistant at the Mexico City bureau of The New York Times for three years. He then worked as a freelance journalist for two years. In 1999, he earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School. He lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. with his wife Kelly and two daughters. On weekends, he is often on the pool decks of swim meets or the sidelines of soccer games, cheering on his two daughters." – Amazon biography

"Crude, sexist, and racist political items helped galvanize Trump supporters during the 2016 election. Look Away documents and categorizes the vulgar and sexist signs, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and buttons that were part of the fabric of many Trump rallies. Many of the images in Look Away's 176 pages are offensive and tough to stomach, yet they are a vital record of the past election. The book serves as an important reminder to future generations about the break in political discourse that occurred in 2016. In a poignant introduction, author Paul Sherman reveals how his passion for political memorabilia over the last 35 years led him to write this book."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (26 ratings)
ISBN 978-0999247266 ?
Identity Crisis:
The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America
John Sides, Michael Tesler & Lynn Vavreck
Princeton University Press; Illustrated edition (October 30, 2018)
No Review
"John Sides is professor of political science at George Washington University. Michael Tesler is associate professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Post-Racial or Most-Racial?: Race and Politics in the Obama Era. Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author, with John Sides, of The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election (Princeton)."

"A gripping, in-depth account of the 2016 presidential election that explains Donald Trump’s historic victory.

"Donald Trump’s election victory stunned the world. How did he pull it off? Was it his appeal to alienated voters in the battleground states? Was it Hillary Clinton and the scandals associated with her long career in politics? Were key factors already in place before the nominees were even chosen? Identity Crisis provides a gripping account of the campaign that appeared to break all the political rules―but in fact didn’t.

"Identity Crisis takes readers from the bruising primaries to an election night whose outcome defied the predictions of the pollsters and pundits. The book shows how fundamental characteristics of the nation and its politics―the state of the economy, the Obama presidency, and the demographics of the political parties―combined with the candidates’ personalities and rhetoric to produce one of the most unexpected presidencies in history. Early on, the fundamental characteristics predicted an extremely close election. And even though Trump’s many controversies helped Clinton maintain a comfortable lead for most of the campaign, the prediction of a close election became reality when Americans cast their votes.

"Identity Crisis reveals how Trump’s victory was foreshadowed by changes in the Democratic and Republican coalitions that were driven by people’s racial and ethnic identities. The campaign then reinforced and exacerbated those cleavages as it focused on issues related to race, immigration, and religion. The result was an epic battle not just for the White House but about what America is and should be."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (160 ratings)
ISBN 978-0691174198 ?
Taking Down Trump:
12 Rules for Prosecuting Donald Trump by Someone Who Did It Successfully
Tristan Snell
Melville House (January 30, 2024)
My Review

"Tristan Snell is a lawyer and legal commentator featured on MSNBC and NPR, and in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. He served as Assistant Attorney General for New York State, where he led the investigation and prosecution of Trump University.

"Today, he’s the founder and managing partner of Main Street Law, and a content creator with over 650,000 followers across Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Twitter, and more. He lives in New York City.

"For a half century Donald Trump has evaded justice. Now he finally faces trials for his lies, cons, and misdeeds—but many fear Trump will never face any real consequences.

"Is our system so broken that some people are now above the law?

"In Taking Down Trump, Tristan Snell—a former assistant attorney general for New York State who took on and beat Trump in a court of law—argues that Donald Trump can indeed be defeated, and shares his secrets for how to beat him. Snell led New York State’s prosecution of Donald Trump for defrauding hundreds of Trump University students, resulting in Trump having to shell out $25 million to his victims—Trump’s first and only major legal loss to date.

"Snell lays out 12 key rules for how to beat Trump—including:

  • How voters and activists hold prosecutors accountable
  • How to stand up to Trump’s public bullying
  • How to persevere against all the stonewalling and counterattacks
  • How to get key figures to cooperate and cough up critical evidence

"Along the way, Snell discusses his own experience prosecuting Trump, and observes how prosecutors in the various cases against Trump are exploiting such rules—or not—as well as how Trump’s revolving team of lawyers can be expected to behave, or, more accurately, perform.

"Whether you’re a concerned citizen, a lawyer or prosecutor, or an activist or advocate, Snell shows how America’s systems can still work to bring even the richest and most powerful to justice, and why those systems are worth preserving and improving. Ultimately, this is a road map for how America can begin to escape the Trump wilderness of fraud and fascism."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (35 ratings)
ISBN 978-1685891251 ?
Holding the Line:
Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis
Guy M. Snodgrass
Sentinel (October 29, 2019)
No Review
"Guy M. Snodgrass recently served as director of communications and chief speechwriter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. A former naval aviator and F/A-18 pilot, he served as a commanding officer of a fighter squadron based in Japan, a TOPGUN instructor, and a combat pilot over the skies of Iraq as part of his twenty-year navy career. Today he is the founder and CEO of Defense Analytics, a strategic consulting and advisory firm." – Amazon biography

"For nearly two years as Trump's Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis maintained a complicated relationship with the President. A lifelong Marine widely considered to be one of America's greatest generals, Mattis was committed to keeping America safe. Yet he served a President whose actions were frequently unpredictable and impulsive with far-reaching consequences.

"Often described as the administration's 'adult in the room,' Mattis has said very little about his difficult role, and since his resignation has kept his views of the President and his policies private. Now, Mattis's former chief speechwriter and communications director, Guy M. Snodgrass, brings readers behind that curtain. Drawing on his seventeen months working with Mattis, Snodgrass reveals how one of the nation's greatest generals walked a political tightrope while leading the world's most powerful military."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (362 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593084373 ?
Separated:
Inside an American Tragedy
Jacob Soboroff
Custom House (July 7, 2020)
No Review
"Jacob Soboroff is a correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. For his reporting on the child-separation policy, he received the 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement by a National Journalist and the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. He has appeared on Today, Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and numerous other programs. He co-presented (with Katy Tur) the four-part event docuseries American Swamp on MSNBC. He lives in Los Angeles." – Amazon biography

"In June 2018, Donald Trump's most notorious decision as president had secretly been in effect for months before most Americans became aware of the astonishing inhumanity being perpetrated by their own government. Jacob Soboroff was among the first journalists to expose this reality after seeing firsthand the living conditions of the children in custody. His influential series of reports ignited public scrutiny that contributed to the president reversing his own policy and earned Soboroff the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Broadcast Journalism and, with his colleagues, the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism.

"But beyond the headlines, the complete, multilayered story lay untold. How, exactly, had such a humanitarian tragedy—now deemed 'torture' by physicians—happened on American soil? Most important, what has been the human experience of those separated children and parents?

"Soboroff has spent the past two years reporting the many strands of this complex narrative, developing sources from within the Trump administration who share critical details for the first time. He also traces the dramatic odyssey of one separated family from Guatemala, where their lives were threatened by narcos, to seek asylum at the U.S. border, where they were separated—the son ending up in Texas, and the father thousands of miles away, in the Mojave desert of central California. And he joins the heroes who emerged to challenge the policy, and who worked on the ground to reunite parents with children.

"In this essential reckoning, Soboroff weaves together these key voices with his own experience covering this national issue—at the border in Texas, California, and Arizona; with administration officials in Washington, D.C., and inside the disturbing detention facilities. Separated lays out compassionately, yet in the starkest of terms, its human toll, and makes clear what is at stake in the 2020 presidential election."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (2,589 ratings)
ISBN 978-0062992192 ?
Unredacted:
Russia, Trump, and the Fight for Democracy
Christopher Steele
Mariner Books (October 8, 2024)
No Review
"Christopher Steele began his twenty-two-year career working as a diplomat, intelligence professional, and Russia expert within the British government in 1987, soon after graduating from Cambridge University. He was posted to Moscow, where he served through the fall of the Soviet Union, and Paris, before returning to London to become one of the government’s senior intelligence experts and advisers on Russia and the former Soviet Union. In 2009, he founded the private intelligence company Orbis Business Intelligence. This is his first book."

"The intelligence officer behind the explosive 'Steele Dossier' steps out of the shadows, revealing a searing new report on the threat Putin and Trump pose to democracy, based on alarming intelligence exposed in these pages for the first time.

" 'Putin is now desperate to have Donald Trump back in the White House. If he succeeds in helping Trump get reelected, I am convinced that the global political order will be utterly changed. We shall have entered a new historical era of strategic chaos, a 'new world disorder.' The consequences of Trump winning the 2024 election are catastrophic.' –from Unredacted

"To a unique degree, Christopher Steele has been an eyewitness observer of modern Russian history. He was a British diplomat and intelligence professional in Moscow when the Soviet Union was collapsing. Steele was there when the putsch against Mikhail Gorbachev took place and when Boris Yeltsin took over the newly independent Russia. After Vladimir Putin came to power, Steele rose to become one of British government’s leading Russia experts and played a central role in the investigation into the Kremlin-ordered murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Then, in 2016, he wrote a series of explosive reports about the then presidential candidate Donald Trump and his links to Russia. Now known to the world as the 'Steele Dossier,' these intelligence documents drew the world’s attention to Russia’s relationship with Trump—and reluctantly thrust Steele into the center of a global maelstrom.

"Since Trump’s election, he has quietly continued his work. Indeed, Steele has had even better access to sources of information and intelligence on Russia—ones that have given him a privileged view of what’s going on inside the Kremlin, and how much we in the West should worry about it.

"In Unredacted, Steele shares for the first time what that inside view looks like, how he came to the point of gaining such a level of insight, and what Western governments—and all of us—can and should do to counter this generational threat."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (3 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063373433 ?
Deep State:
Trump, the FBI, and the Rule of Law
James B. Stewart
Penguin Press (October 8, 2019)
No Review
"James B. Stewart is the author of Heart of a Soldier, the bestselling Blind Eye and Blood Sport, and the blockbuster Den of Thieves. A former Page-One editor at The Wall Street Journal, Stewart won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading. He is a regular contributor to SmartMoney and The New Yorker. He lives in New York." – Amazon biography

"When Trump fired James Comey, he triggered the appointment of Robert Mueller as an independent special counsel and caused the FBI to open a formal investigation into the President himself. This set in motion a chain of events, which would join in unprecedented and potentially mortal combat two vital institutions of American democracy: the Presidency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the investigative arm of the Department of Justice.

"The stakes could not be higher: the rule of law itself, the foundation of the American constitution and Anglo-American democracy for centuries. In this epic battle, there is no room for compromise. There can only be winners and losers, to invoke a distinctly Trumpian view of the world. But there is plenty of room for collateral damage. The reputations of both sides have already been harmed, perhaps irrevocably, and at great cost to American democracy and its institutions.

"Drawing on scores of interviews with key FBI, Justice Department, and White House officials, and voluminous transcripts, notes, and internal reports, Stewart tells the dramatic saga of the FBI and its simultaneous investigations of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — the first time in American history the FBI has been thrust into the middle of both parties' campaigns for the Presidency. Packed with drama and a cast of fascinating characters, Deep State goes where others cannot, revealing the truth of the grand and world-changing struggle that has defined the Trump presidency."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (301 ratings)
ISBN 978-0525559108 ?
God, Trump, and the 2020 Election:
Why He Must Win and What's at Stake for Christians if He Loses
by Stephen E. Strang
Frontline (January 14, 2020)
No Review
"Stephen E. Strang is the best-selling author of God and Donald Trump, which was brandished by the president at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2018. The founder and CEO of Charisma Media, Strang was voted by Time magazine as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America. He has interviewed four US presidents and has been featured on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBN, Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, The Daily Caller.com, and many Christian outlets. – Amazon biography

"In 2016 God raised up Donald Trump to lead America at a pivotal time. Evangelicals who recognized this backed him more than any other presidential candidate in history. Heading into 2020, the stakes in his reelection are even higher. This election, nine months after this book releases, is a new fight for the soul of America. Stephen E. Strang makes the case that God wants America to be great because God has raised up America—beginning with our Founding Fathers—to be a beacon of light and hope for the world. We've been the nation with religious liberty that has supported those who have spread the gospel around the world.

"In this book Strang looks at the election, Trump, and America from a spiritual perspective and helps Christians (and others) see God's hand at work. This book is as much about God and His purposes as about Donald Trump. But it is also an articulate, impassioned apologetic about why all Christians must support this imperfect president, because he has God's blessing and because the destiny of America is riding on his reelection. This book also explores why he might lose, if his base is overconfident and doesn't vote or if his opponents are dishonest enough to steal the election.

"God, Trump, and the 2020 Election is an inside look at how the political climate is affected by spiritual warfare—an important subject for Bible-believing Christians. The satanic schemes are so brazen on key issues that the book was written to explain what's at stake. Strang believes that the intersection of faith and politics needs to be part of the national discussion about the division in our country."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (71 ratings)
ISBN 978-1629996653 ?
Compromised:
Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump
Peter Strzok
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 8, 2020)
No Review
"Peter Strzok is the former FBI Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence and a 22-year veteran of the Bureau. He served as one of the original case agents for the Russian couple who inspired the TV series The Americans, and he has investigated a range of other high-profile cases, from WikiLeaks to the 9/11 hijackings to Hillary Clinton’s private email server. He was selected to head the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and worked with Robert Mueller as a leader of the FBI’s efforts in creating the Special Counsel’s Office. Also a veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, he is the recipient of the FBI’s highest investigative honor, the Director’s Award for Excellence. He lives in Virginia with his family." – Amazon biography

"When he opened the FBI investigation into Russia's election interference, Peter Strzok had already spent more than two decades defending the United States against foreign threats. His career in counterintelligence ended shortly thereafter, when the Trump administration used his private expression of political opinions to force him out of the Bureau in August 2018. But by that time, Strzok had seen more than enough to convince him that the commander in chief had fallen under the sway of America's adversary in the Kremlin.

"In Compromised, Strzok draws on lessons from a long career—from his role in the Russian illegals case that inspired The Americans to his service as lead FBI agent on the Mueller investigation—to construct a devastating account of foreign influence at the highest levels of our government. And he grapples with a question that should concern every U.S. citizen: When a president appears to favor personal and Russian interests over those of our nation, has he become a national security threat?"

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (5,148 ratings)
ISBN 978-0358237068 ?
Trump on Trial:
The Investigation, Impeachment, Acquittal and Aftermath
Kevin Sullivan & Mary Jordan
Scribner; Illustrated Edition (August 25, 2020)
No Review
"Kevin Sullivan is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The Washington Post and a bestselling author. His book, Trump on Trial, coauthored with his wife and Washington Post colleague Mary Jordan, features reporting from dozens of Washington Post journalists, and traces the investigation, acquittal, and aftermath of the impeachment of Donald Trump. The last book Sullivan and Jordan wrote was the #1 New York Times bestseller, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland, the story of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who were kidnapped in Cleveland and held for a decade. They previously wrote The Prison Angel: Mother Antonia’s Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail. They were the Washington Post’s co-bureau chiefs in Tokyo, Mexico City, and London for fourteen years.
Mary Jordan is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for The Washington Post and a bestselling author. Her book, Trump on Trial, coauthored with her husband and Washington Post colleague Kevin Sullivan, features reporting from dozens of Washington Post journalists, and traces the investigation, acquittal, and aftermath of the impeachment of Donald Trump. Jordan’s New York Times bestselling book, The Art of Her Deal, an unauthorized biography of Melania Trump, was published in June 2020. Jordan and Sullivan are also authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland, the story of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who were kidnapped in Cleveland and held for a decade. They previously wrote The Prison Angel: Mother Antonia’s Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail. They were the Washington Post’s co-bureau chiefs in Tokyo, Mexico City, and London for fourteen years." – Amazon biography

"In the spring of 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi did not favor pursuing Trump’s impeachment. Her view was: “He’s just not worth it.” But by September, after a whistleblower complaint suggesting that Trump had used his office for his political benefit, Pelosi decided to risk it. The impeachment inquiry led to charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, a gamble that ultimately meant Trump would be the first impeached president on the ballot in US history.

"Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporters Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan have crafted a powerful, intimate narrative that concentrates on the characters as well as the dramatic events, braiding them together to provide a remarkable understanding of what happened and why. Drawing on the deep reporting of Post journalists as well as new interviews, Sullivan and Jordan deliver a crisp page-turner with exquisite detail and scenes. They put readers in the room for both sides of the now-famous phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, 2019, revealing the in-the-moment reactions of those listening to the call in Washington, as well as the tension in Kyiv, as aides passed notes to Zelensky while he was talking to Trump.

"Sullivan and Jordan deftly illuminate the aims and calculations of key figures. Pelosi’s evolution from no to yes. Trump’s mounting fury as “the I-word” became inevitable. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell firmly telling Trump on the phone about the Senate trial: You need to trust me.

"Trump on Trial teems with unexpected moments. House member Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, alone at the National Archives, walking amid the nation’s founding documents, weighing her vote on impeachment. Fiery Republican congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, a favorite Trump warrior, deciding to lead the storming of the secure room in the US Capitol basement, where witnesses were testifying. The authors paint vivid portraits of the men and women branded by the president’s supporters as foes from the “deep state”: Ukraine experts Fiona Hill and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman; ambassadors Marie Yovanovitch and William Taylor. The narrative spools out amid Trump’s nonstop tweeting and the infinite echo chamber of social media, which amplified both parties’ messages in ways unknown during past impeachments. Sullivan and Jordan, aided by editor Steve Luxenberg, follow the story into the aftermath of Trump’s acquittal and the president’s payback for those whom he believed had betrayed him. The retributions took place as the nation reeled from a devastating pandemic and widespread protests about racial injustice, with another trial looming: the 2020 election."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (87 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982152994 ?
Courage Under Fire:
Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6
Steven A. Sund
Blackstone Publishing (January 3, 2023)
No Review

"Steven A. Sund was the tenth Chief of Police for the United States Capitol Police from June 13, 2019, until January 8, 2021. Before joining the United States Capitol Police in 2017, Sund had a twenty-five-year law enforcement career working for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, where he rose in the ranks from patrol officer to commander of the elite Special Operations Division (SOD). As commander, he led planning for numerous high-level security events, including four presidential inaugurations, and oversaw a number of specialized units, including the Emergency Response Team (SWAT), Special Events/Dignitary Protection Branch, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit (Bomb Squad), and many others.

"Chief Sund is a recognized expert in critical incident management and active shooter preparedness and response. His experience includes being the on-scene incident commander on the 2009 shooting at the National Holocaust Museum, the 2012 shooting at the Family Research Council, and the 2013 active shooter incident at the Washington Navy Yard. In addition, he has handled dozens of criminal barricade and hostage situations. Due to his knowledge and experience, Sund served as an instructor with the United States Secret Service in the area of major events planning and has taught the Incident Command System (ICS) at George Washington University. He received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Johns Hopkins University and a master of arts in Homeland Security from the Naval Postgraduate School. He also completed the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police and the FBI’s National Executive Institute. Courage Under Fire is his first book." – Amazon biography

"Courage Under Fire is United States Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund's gripping personal account that takes readers inside the events leading up to January 6, and provides a detailed and harrowing minute-by-minute account of the attack on the US Capitol, which was valiantly defended in hand-to-hand combat by the US Capitol Police officers who found themselves outnumbered 58 to 1.

"Courage Under Fire draws upon audio recordings, key documents, and government records as it traces Sund's extraordinary journey from his command post on January 6 to his explosive behind-closed-doors testimony before the January 6 committee.

"Steven A. Sund, one of only ten men in history to hold the title of Chief of the US Capitol Police, has coordinated dozens of National Special Security Events, responded to numerous critical incidents and active shooter events, and has protected every living US president. But nothing could have prepared him for the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

"Three days before the attack, Chief Sund requested the assistance of the National Guard. This request was denied. In preparation for the Joint Session of Congress, Chief Sund directed every available sworn officer to be on duty to protect the Capitol and all of its members and staff. But it wasn't enough.

"The savage attack that followed was a well-planned and carefully coordinated armed assault on the United States Capitol, involving thousands. The shock and horror of this attack exploded on TV screens worldwide as US Capitol Police officers under Chief Sund's command found themselves facing a violent siege, hit with pipes, fire extinguishers, boards, and flag poles. Dedicated men and women were knocked unconscious and sprayed with mace and bear spray as live pipe bombs were discovered at the national headquarters of both major political parties. Finally multiple police lines were breached. Then the building was breached. The National Guard didn't arrive until it was much too late. In the end, 150 officers were seriously injured, and nine Americans were dead.

"Now, for the first time, Chief Steven Sund has written the definitive inside story of the perfect storm of events that led up to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, a day that rocked the nation and threatened our democracy. As the Capitol descended into chaos, insurrectionists infiltrated and stormed its hallowed halls and democracy was pushed to the brink. Few people realize just how close we came to seeing the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, and countless members of Congress beaten, maimed, or killed.

"There have been many false reports and outright lies concerning the conduct of the US Capitol Police on January 6, and there has been no accountability for the individuals who bear most of the responsibility for the failures that left the USCP unprepared that day — from the shocking failures in intelligence to the outright stonewalling Chief Sund received from the Pentagon when he repeatedly called for the National Guard's help, even as the attack on the Capitol was raging.

"Two years later, so many questions still remain unanswered: What did the intelligence community know about the plans of the insurrectionists before the attack? Why was the request for the National Guard continually denied and delayed? Why was the nation's capital so vulnerable? Forced to take the fall and resign, this is Chief Sund's chance to answer those questions and to tell the full truth about what really happened on January 6."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (146 ratings)
ISBN 978-8200983636 ?
Endgame:
Inside the Impeachment of Donald J. Trump
Eric Swalwell
Harry N. Abrams (June 16, 2020)
No Review
"Eric Swalwell grew up in California’s East Bay. After earning undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Maryland, he served as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Elected to Congress in 2012 to represent the East Bay, he is now in his fourth term and serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee." – Amazon biography

"How do you stop a rogue president? How do you protect our country from a man who lies, who obstructs justice, and who seeks to cheat with foreign powers to get reelected? Our Constitution offers one remedy: impeachment. Thanks to the courageous actions of public servants who came forward to report his abuses of power, on December 18, 2019, President Donald J. Trump became just the third president in US history to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

"In Endgame, Congressman Eric Swalwell offers his personal account of his path to office and how he and his colleagues resisted, investigated, and impeached a corrupt president. After the shock of the 2016 election and Trump’s inauguration (including the luncheon afterward), Swalwell, as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee, quickly became involved in pushing back against Trump’s outrageous actions as he sought to get to the bottom of foreign interference in our elections. But Republicans were in control of the investigation, and it became clear that taking back the House was essential.

"Swalwell takes readers inside Congress and through the impeachment process, from Trump’s disgraceful phone call with the Ukrainian president, just one day after Robert Mueller testified to Congress, to caucus meetings and conversations with the Speaker to the bombshell public hearings and the historic vote, and then what followed next—the holding of the articles, the news of more possible witnesses, and the sham trial in the Senate. Endgame is fascinating, a gripping read by a unique witness to extraordinary events."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (369 ratings)
ISBN 978-1419745409 ?
The People's Justice:
Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him
by Amul Thapar
Regnery Gateway (June 20, 2023)
No Review
"Amul Thapar, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, grew up in Toledo, Ohio, the son of immigrants from India. A graduate of Boston College and the University of California at Berkeley Law School, he served as a U.S. attorney and district court judge before his appointment to the appellate court in 2017. He and his wife have three children and live in Covington, Kentucky." – Amazon biography

"For thirty years, Clarence Thomas has been denounced as the 'cruelest justice,' a betrayer of his race, an ideologue, and the enemy of the little guy. In this compelling study of the man and the jurist, Amul Thapar demolishes that caricature.

"Every day, Americans go to court. Invoking the Constitution, they fight for their homes, for a better education for their children, and to save their cities from violence. Recounting the stories of a handful of these ordinary Americans whose struggles for justice reached the Supreme Court, Thapar shines new light on the heart and mind of Clarence Thomas.

"A woman in debilitating pain whose only effective medication has been taken away by the government, the motherless children of a slain police officer, victims of sexual assault— read their eye-opening stories, stripped of legalese, and decide for yourself whether Thomas’s originalist jurisprudence delivers equal justice under law.

"'Finding the right answer,' Justice Thomas has observed, 'is often the least difficult problem.' What is needed is 'the courage to assert that answer and stand firm in the face of the constant winds of protest and criticism.'

"That courage—along with wisdom and compassion—shines out from every page of The People’s Justice. At the heart of this book is the question: Would you want to live in Justice Thomas’s America? After reading these stories, even his critics might be surprised by their answer."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (55 ratings)
ISBN 978-1684514526 ?
True Crimes and Misdemeanors:
The Investigation of Donald Trump
Jeffrey Toobin
Doubleday (August 4, 2020)
No Review
"Jeffrey Toobin is the bestselling author of The Oath, The Nine, Too Close to Call, A Vast Conspiracy, and The Run of His Life, which was made into the critically acclaimed FX series American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. He is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the senior legal analyst at CNN.." – Amazon biography

"Donald Trump's campaign chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and his national security advisor pled guilty to others. Several Russian spies were indicted in absentia. Career intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by the president's actions that they alerted senior government officials and ignited the impeachment process.

"Yet despite all this, a years-long inquiry led by special counsel Robert Mueller, and the third impeachment of a president in American history, Donald Trump survived to run for re-election. Why?

"Jeffrey Toobin's highly entertaining definitive account of the Mueller investigation and the impeachment of the president takes readers behind the scenes of the epic legal and political struggle to call Trump to account for his misdeeds. With his superb storytelling and analytic skills Toobin recounts all the mind-boggling twists and turns in the case—Trump's son met with a Russian operative promising Kremlin support! Trump paid a porn star $130,000 to hush up an affair! Rudy Giuliani and a pair of shady Ukrainian-American businessmen got the Justice Department to look at Russian-created conspiracy theories! Toobin shows how Trump's canny lawyers used Mueller's famous integrity against him, and how Trump's bullying and bluster cowed Republican legislators into ignoring the clear evidence of the impeachment hearings.

"Based on dozens of interviews with prosecutors in Mueller's office, Trump's legal team, Congressional investigators, White House staffers, and several of the key players, including some who are now in prison, True Crimes and Misdemeanors is a revelatory narrative that makes sense of the seemingly endless chaos of the Trump years. Filled with never-before-reported details of the high-stakes legal battles and political machinations, the book weaves a tale of a rogue president guilty of historic misconduct, and how he got away with it."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,364 ratings)
ISBN 978-0385536738 ?
All in the Family:
The Trumps and How We Got This Way
Fred C. Trump III
Gallery Books (July 30, 2024)
No Review
"Fred C. Trump III is the grandson of Fred Trump, the patriarch of the Trump family real-estate empire. He is also the nephew of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States. Fred and his wife, Lisa, are passionate supporters for the community of the intellectually and developmentally disabled. Their family lives in Connecticut and New York."

"With revealing, never-before-told stories, Fred C. Trump III, nephew of President Donald Trump, breaks his decades-long silence in this honest memoir and sheds a whole new light on the family name.

"For the record…Fred Trump never asked for any of this. The divisive politics. The endless headlines. A hijacked last name. The heat-seeking uncle, rising from real estate scion to gossip column fixture to The Apprentice host to President of the United States. Fred just wanted a happy life and a satisfying career. But a fight for his son’s health and safety forced him onto a center stage that he had never wanted. And now, at a crucial point for our nation, he is stepping forward again.

"In All in the Family, Fred delves into his journey to become a 'different kind of Trump,' detailing his passionate battle to protect his wife and children from forces inside and outside the family. From the Trump house to the White House, Fred comes to terms with his own complex legacy and faces some demons head-on. It’s a story of power, love, money, cruelty, and the unshakable bonds of family, played out underneath a glaring media spotlight.

"All in the Family is the inside story, as it’s never been told before."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (583 ratings)
ISBN 978-1668072172 ?
Too Much and Never Enough:
How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Mary L. Trump Ph.D.
Simon & Schuster (July 28, 2020)
My Review
"Mary L. Trump holds a PhD from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies and taught graduate courses in trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology. She lives with her daughter in New York." – Amazon biography

"Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents' large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.

"A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald's place in the family spotlight and Ivana's penchant for regifting to her grandmother's frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump's favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer's.

"Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump's lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider's perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world's most powerful and dysfunctional families."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (103,732 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982141462 ?
Who Could Ever Love You:
A Family Memoir
Mary L. Trump PhD
St. Martin's Press (September 10, 2024)
No Review
"Mary L. Trump is the author of the international #1 bestseller Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. She holds a Ph.D from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University, and has taught graduate courses in trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology."

"Who Could Ever Love You is an intimate, heartbreaking memoir of a father, a mother, and a family’s exile.

"Mary Trump grew up in a family divided by its patriarch’s relentless drive for money and power. The daughter of Freddy Trump, the highly accomplished, dashing eldest son of wealthy real estate developer Fred Trump, and Linda Clapp, a flight attendant from a working-class family, Mary lived in the shadow of Freddy’s humiliation at the hands of his father.

"Fred Trump embodied the ethos of the zero-sum game and among his five children, there could only be one winner. That was supposed to be Freddy, his namesake, but Fred found him wanting―too sensitive, too kind, too interested in pursuits beyond the realm of the real estate empire he was meant to inherit. In Donald, Fred found a kindred spirit, a “killer,” who would stop at nothing to get his own way.

"Even after Freddy’s short-lived career as a professional pilot for TWA came to an end, he never stopped trying to gain his father’s approval. Finally, at the age of forty-two, he succumbed to Fred’s lethal contempt and died alone in an emergency room, with no family by his side.

"In Who Could Ever Love You, Mary Trump brings us inside the twisted family whose patriarch ignored, froze out, and eventually destroyed his own. Freddy Trump’s decline into alcoholism and illness, along with Linda’s suffering after their divorce, left Mary dangerously vulnerable as a very young girl.

"Inadequately and only conditionally loved, there were no adults in her life except for the father she loved, but lost before she could know him; and a mother abandoned by her ex-husband’s rich and powerful family who demanded her loyalty but left her with nothing.

"With searching insight, poignant detail, and unsparing prose, Mary Trump reveals the cold, selfish cruelty that has come to define the Trump family thanks in large part to her uncle, whose malignant ambition has riven our nation and threatens the world."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (961 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250278470 ?
American Kompromat:
How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery
Craig Unger
Dutton (January 26, 2021)
No Review
"Craig Unger is the New York Times bestselling author of House of Trump, House of Putin; House of Bush, House of Saud; and other books. The former editor in chief of Boston Magazine, he has written for New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and Esquire, among many other publications, and has been a longtime contributing editor of Vanity Fair magazine. A graduate of Harvard University, he has appeared as an analyst on dozens of broadcast outlets as well as Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, and Jack Bryan's Active Measures. He lives in New York City. American Kompromat is his fifth book on the Republican Party's war against democracy." – based on Amazon biography

"Craig Unger’s new book American Kompromat tells of the spies and salacious events underpinning men’s reputations and riches. It tells how a relatively insignificant targeting operation by the KGB’s New York rezidentura (New York Station) more than forty years ago—an attempt to recruit an influential businessman as a new asset—triggered a sequence of intelligence protocols that morphed into the greatest intelligence bonanza in history. And it tells of a coterie of associates, reaching all the way into the office of the Attorney General, who stood to advance power, and themselves.

"Based on extensive, exclusive interviews with dozens of high-level sources—Soviets who resigned from the KGB and moved to the United States, former officers in the CIA, FBI counterintelligence agents, lawyers at white-shoe Washington firms—and analysis of thousands of pages of FBI investigations, police investigations, and news articles in English, Russian, and Ukrainian, American Kompromat shows that something much more sinister and important has been taking place than the public could ever imagine: namely, that from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, kompromat operations documented the darkest secrets of the most powerful people in the world and transformed them into potent weapons.

"Was Donald Trump a Russian asset? Just how compromised was he? And how could such an audacious feat have been accomplished? American Kompromat is situated in the ongoing context of the Trump-Russia scandal and the new era of hybrid warfare, kleptocrats, and authoritarian right-wing populism it helped accelerate. To answer these questions and more, Craig Unger reports, is to understand kompromat—operations that amassed compromising information on the richest and most powerful men on earth, and that leveraged power by appealing to what is for some the most prized possession of all: their vanity."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (1,028 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593182536 ?
House of Trump, House of Putin:
The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia
Craig Unger
Dutton (August 14, 2018)
My Review
"Craig Unger is the author of the New York Times bestselling House of Bush, House of Saud. The former deputy editor of The New York Observer and editor-in-chief of Boston Magazine, he has contributed to Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Esquire, The New Yorker and many other publications, and has appeared as an analyst on MSNBC, CNN, the ABC Radio Network, and other broadcast outlets. Unger has written about the Trump Russia scandal for The New Republic and Vanity Fair. He is a graduate of Harvard University and lives in New York City." – Amazon biography

"House of Trump, House of Putin offers the first comprehensive investigation into the decades-long relationship among Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian Mafia that ultimately helped win Trump the White House. It is a chilling story that begins in the 1970s, when Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in, starting more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of a string of sensational Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. This book confirms the most incredible American paranoias about Russian malevolence."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,187 ratings)
ISBN 978-1524743505 SJBr 973.933 Unger
Perils of Extremism:
How I Left the Oath Keepers and Why We Should be Concerned about a Future Civil War
Jason Van Tatenhove
Skyhorse Publishing (February 21, 2023)
No Review

"Raised by artists and computer programmers, Jason Van Tatenhove gravitated toward the punk and grunge scenes in Colorado. His literary hero was Hunter S. Thompson and, when he had a chance to embed with the most infamous militia of our day, he jumped at the chance: wanting to write his own Hell’s Angels."

"An explosive behind the scenes look at the Oath Keepers: what makes them tick, who they are, and what they REALLY stand for.

"The Oath Keepers first made a name for themselves with the infamous Bundy Ranch standoff in 2014. They have continued through to the US Capitol insurrection in early 2021. The Oath Keepers—including many former military members—have become one of the largest anti-government extremist groups in the United States, labeled one of the most dangerous domestic terror threats by the FBI.

"There have been countless articles and a few books written about the group, but nothing like this. Author Jason Van Tatenhove knows them from the inside. The Perils of Extremism is a first-hand account of the aging punk-rock journalist from Colorado as he was embedded with Stewart Rhodes and that most infamous militia, the Oath Keepers, as well as details from his time testifying to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack both in person live on TV on July 12, 2022 and during three and a half hours of taped deposition in March 2022.

"Jason takes the readers along on a journey that started with the Bundy Ranch Stand-off and continued with two more armed standoffs in Oregon and Montana. Jason was then offered a job as the national media director and associate editor for the Oath Keepers. He moved his family up to the Eureka, Montana area to start his job, where he found himself in a "who’s who" of right-wing extremism. Jason even struck up a friendship with Stewart Rhodes when Stewart lived in Jason’s basement for several months. Stewart confided in him about his actual beliefs and about how much of what he says publicly is to sell more memberships.

"Jason ultimately broke ties with the ever-radicalizing anti-government militia group when they begin to embrace the ideology of American Nazis and began associating with the spokesperson for the Alt-Right, Richard Spencer. From there, Jason began speaking out against the dangers of the extremist militia and tried to make amends in his life for being a part of something that led in part to the January 6 insurrection. Readers will also journey with Jason as he begins to be featured in documentaries, feature articles, and national news coverage as he speaks out against violent extremism. As mentioned, this book will also include his experiences testifying to congressional investigators."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (23 ratings)
ISBN 978-1510774421 ?
Close To Zero:
How Donald Trump fulfilled his apocalyptic vision and paid his debt to Putin
   with a devastating biological warfare attack on America
Jonathan Vankin
Twilight of the Idols Inc. (May 19, 2021)
No Review

"Jonathan Vankin is the author of Close To Zero: How Donald Trump fulfilled his apocalyptic vision and paid his debt to Putin with a devastating biological warfare attack on America, the first comprehensive book that details not only how Donald Trump assaulted America using the COVID-19 pandemic, but WHY.

"An award-winning journalist, Vankin has had his work published by The New York Times Magazine, LA Weekly, Salon, and others. He has also served as a comic book editor for DC/Vertigo Comics, writer of graphic novels, and co-author of the successful off-Broadway show Forever Dusty, a bio-musical of the great British pop star Dusty Springfield." – based on Amazon biography

"The COVID-19 pandemic is already being memory-holed. It’s as if they want you to forget, and just get on with “normal” life. But as journalist Jonathan Vankin argues in Close to Zero, if we let this trauma that killed more than 600,000 Americans just fade away, only one thing is certain. It will happen again.

"One book is keeping the memory alive. Close To Zero is not only intent on making sure the pandemic doesn’t just slip into the mists of history, but the book aims to change the way we talk about this momentous, and horrific calamity — not as some kind of unfortunate accident or unavoidable twist of fate, but as an unspeakable crime committed by one man: Donald J. Trump.

"Close To Zero, for the first time, tells the full story of Donald Trump’s personal, biological warfare attack against the very country, the very people, he was sworn to protect — the COVID-19 pandemic. What did Trump know and when did he know it? And more importantly — why did he do it? Why did the purported leader of the free world have the worst pandemic response?

"Vankin takes a deep dive into those questions, and emerges with some shocking answers. From a mysterious golf course phone call from Vladimir Putin two days before the existence of a deadly new virus was revealed to the world, through his repeated declarations that the pandemic would 'disappear' when he knew exactly what the extreme dangers of the novel coronavirus were, to his final attempt to use the COVID-19 crisis to stage a coup and install himself in power indefinitely, Close To Zero builds the case against Trump, ultimately indicting him for deliberately causing a disaster that took more than a half-million American lives."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (114 ratings)
ISBN 978-1736962114 ?
The Trump Indictments:
The 91 Criminal Counts Against the Former President of the United States
Ali Velshi
Mariner Books (September 25, 2023)
No Review

"Ali Velshi is an award winning journalist, host of 'Velshi' and Chief Correspondent for MSNBC, and a weekly economics contributor to NPR's 'Here And Now.' He has covered multiple U.S. Midterm and Presidential elections and significant news stories around the globe, including extensive reporting from Ukraine and across Central and Eastern Europe during the Russian invasion, the Syrian refugee crisis from Turkey and Jordan, the Iran Nuclear Deal in Tehran, the Greek debt crisis in Athens, and the funeral of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. He hosts the 'Velshi Banned Book Club' on MSNBC, and the 'Velshi Banned Book Club' podcast. Velshi is known for his immersive on-the-ground reporting and his interactive discussions with small groups, which form part of his ongoing series, Velshi Across America. He previously worked as an anchor and correspondent for Al Jazeera America and CNN."

" 'Despite having lost, the defendant was determined to remain in power…'

"So reads the compelling introduction to the Department of Justice’s second indictment against Donald Trump—one of four criminal cases brought against the former president. Purposely crafted as narratives to be read by the public, these documents are among the most consequential in American history, forcing the country to grapple with the critical question: does justice apply to the most powerful?

"Edited and with an introduction by MSNBC host Ali Velshi, The Trump Indictments collects all the charging documents against Trump and his co-defendants, providing critical insight on a decisive moment in our history. It is required reading as the country faces a pivotal reckoning—both in our justice system and at the ballot box."

  • United States of America v. Donald J. Trump: 4 felony counts for conspiring to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election results
  • United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, et al: 40 felony counts for mishandling of classified documents
  • The State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump, et al.: 13 felony counts for leading a “criminal organization” that conspired to overturn Georgia’s election
  • People of the State of New York v. Trump: 34 felony counts concerning hush money payments made before the 2016 U.S. presidential election"
Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (190 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063382589 ?
F*ck Silence:
Calling Trump Out for the Cultish, Moronic, Authoritarian Con Man He Is
Joe Walsh
Broadside Books (February 18, 2020)
No Review
"Joe Walsh is a former Illinois congressman elected to Congress in the Tea Party wave of 2010. Following his service in Congress, Walsh became one of the most popular conservative talk radio hosts in the country, syndicated in major markets throughout the U.S." – Amazon biography

"Joe Walsh is as rock-ribbed a conservative as they come. But he believes that no right-wing policy victory is worth the loss of our very democracy.

"In this clear-eyed and unsparing book, Walsh makes the case that Trump has more in common with the foreign dictators he praises publicly than a predecessor like Ronald Reagan. Trump is an existential threat to conservatism, the presidency, and national unity. He has violated the Constitution in plain sight, assaulted democratic institutions, overwhelmed the country with disinformation, erected around himself a cult of personality, and governed according to his narcissism more than any discernable political philosophy.

"Though Walsh agrees with Trump that the Washington elite has hung working-class America out to dry, traveling down the road to despotism is no response. And now a person who places himself above the rule of law and accountability sits in the Oval Office—all that’s missing is a big, beautiful throne behind the Resolute Desk.

"In F*ck Silence, Walsh challenges his countrymen, especially his fellow conservatives, to acknowledge and oppose this unpatriotic and un-American behavior before we give away what made America great in the first place: our democracy."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (44 ratings)
ISBN 978-0063010024 ?
Where Law Ends:
Inside the Mueller Investigation
Andrew Weissmann
Random House (September 29, 2020)
No Review
"Andrew Weissmann teaches criminal and national security law at New York University School of Law and is a partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block. Previously, he served as a lead prosecutor in Robert Mueller's Special Counsel's Office and as chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice. Weissmann served as the general counsel for the FBI under Director Mueller. He also directed the Enron Task Force, where he supervised prosecutions in connection with the company's collapse. As a federal prosecutor for fifteen years in the Eastern District of New York, Weissmann prosecuted members of the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese crime families, and police officers for misconduct arising from the Abner Louima attack. He holds degrees from Columbia Law School and Princeton University." – Amazon biography

"In May 2017, Robert Mueller was tapped to lead an inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, coordination by foreign agents with Donald Trump's campaign, and obstruction of justice by the president. Mueller assembled a 'dream team' of top prosecutors, and for the next twenty-two months, the investigation was a black box and the subject of endless anticipation and speculation—until April 2019, when the special counsel's report was released.

"In Where Law Ends, legendary prosecutor Andrew Weissmann—a key player in the Special Counsel's Office—finally pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly what went on inside the investigation, including the heated debates, painful deliberations, and mistakes of the team—not to mention the external efforts by the president and Attorney General William Barr to manipulate the investigation to their political ends.

"Weissmann puts the reader in the room as Mueller's team made their most consequential decisions, such as whether to subpoena the president, whether to conduct a full financial investigation of Trump, and whether to explicitly recommend obstruction charges against him. Weissmann also details for the first time the debilitating effects that President Trump himself had on the investigation, through his dangling of pardons and his constant threats to shut down the inquiry and fire Mueller, which left the team racing against the clock and essentially fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

"In Where Law Ends, Weissmann conjures the camaraderie and esprit de corps of the investigative units led by the enigmatic Mueller, a distinguished public servant who is revealed here, in a way we have never seen him before, as a manager, a colleague, and a very human presence. Weissmann is as candid about the team's mistakes as he is about its successes, and is committed to accurately documenting the historic investigation for future generations to assess and learn from. Ultimately, Where Law Ends is a story about a team of public servants, dedicated to the rule of law, tasked with investigating a president who did everything he could to stand in their way."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.8 (1,194 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593138571 ?
Trump and a Post-Truth World
Ken Wilber
Shambhala (August 8, 2017)
No Review
"Ken Wilber is the founder of Integral Institute and the cofounder of Integral Life. He is an internationally acknowledged leader and the preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Integral Meditation, A Theory of Everything, Integral Spirituality, No Boundary, Grace and Grit, and Sex, Ecology, Spirituality."

"A provocative and balanced examination of our social and political situation in the wake of the Trump presidency—by a cutting-edge philosopher of our times.

"The world is in turmoil. As populist waves roil in the UK, Europe, Turkey, Russia, Asia—and most visibly, the U.S., with the election of Donald Trump—nationalist and extremist political forces threaten the progress made over many decades. Democracies are reeling in the face of nihilism and narcissism. How did we get here? And how, with so much antagonism, cynicism, and discord, can we mend the ruptures in our societies?

"In this provocative work, philosopher Ken Wilber applies his Integral approach to explain how we arrived where we are and why there is cause for hope. He lays much of the blame on a failure at the progressive, leading edge of society. This leading edge is characterized by the desire to be as just and inclusive as possible, and to it we owe the thrust toward women’s rights, the civil rights movement, the environmental movement, and the concern for oppression in all its forms. This is all evolutionarily healthy. But what is unhealthy is a creeping postmodernism that is elitist, 'politically correct,' insistent on an egalitarianism that is itself paradoxically hierarchical, and that looks down on 'deplorables.' Combine this with the techno-economic demise of many traditional ways of making a living, and you get an explosive mixture. As Wilber says, for some Trump voters: 'Everywhere you are told that you are fully equal and deserve immediate and complete empowerment, yet everywhere you are denied the means to actually achieve it. You suffocate, you suffer, and you get very, very mad.'

"It is only when members of society’s leading edge can heal themselves that a new, Integral evolutionary force can emerge to move us beyond the social and political turmoil of our current time to offer genuine leadership toward greater wholeness."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (359 ratings)
ISBN 978-1611805611 ?
Everything Trump Touches Dies:
A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever
Rick Wilson
Free Press, August 2018
My Review
"Rick Wilson is a seasoned Republican political strategist and infamous negative ad-maker. His regular column with The Daily Beast is a must-read in the political community. Published in The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, The Federalist, [and] Independent Journal Review, he's also a frequent guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, With Friends Like These, and the national networks. The author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, Rick Wilson lives in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife, four dogs, and a nameless cat. They have two grown children." – Amazon biography

"No left-winger, Wilson is a lifelong conservative who delivers his withering critique of Trump from the right. A leader of the Never Trump movement, he warns his own party of the political catastrophe that leaves everyone involved with Trump with reputations destroyed and lives in tatters."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (2,813 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-9821-0312-5 SJ1 973.933 Wilson
Running Against the Devil:
A Plot to Save America from Trump—and Democrats from Themselves
by Rick Wilson
Crown Forum (January 14, 2020)
My Review
"Rick Wilson is a renowned Republican political strategist, infamous negative ad-maker, writer, speaker, and political commentator. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Everything Trump Touches Dies. His award-winning column with The Daily Beast is a must-read in the political community. Rick also writes for The Washington Post, Politico, Rolling Stone, the New York Daily News, The Hill, The Bulwark, and The Spectator. Rick regularly brings his unique insights to CNN, MSNBC, and NPR. He's a frequent guest on Real Time with Bill Maher. Rick lives in Tallahassee, Florida." – Amazon biography

"Trump can't win in 2020, right?

"Wrong. As 2016 proved, Trump can't win, but the Democrats can sure as hell lose. Only one thing can save Trump, and that's a Democratic candidate who runs the race Trump wants them to run instead of the campaign they must run to win in 2020.

"Wilson combines decades of national political experience and insight in his take-no-prisoners analysis, hammering Trump's destructive and dangerous first term in a case-by-case takedown of the worst president in history and describing the terrifying prospect of four more years of Trump.

"Like no one else can, Wilson blows the lid off Trump's 2020 Republican war machine, showing the exact strategies and tactics they'll use against the Democratic nominee . . . and how the Democrats can avoid the catastrophe waiting for them if they fall into Trump's trap.

"Running Against the Devil is sharply funny, brutally honest, and infused with his biting commentary. It's a vital indictment of Trump, a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred road map to saving America, and the guide to making Donald Trump a one-term president."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.7 (1,117 ratings)
ISBN 978-0593137581 ?
The Case for Christian Nationalism
Stephen Wolfe
Canon Press (November 1, 2022)
No Review
"Stephen Wolfe (PhD, Louisiana State University) is a country scholar at Wolfeshire in central North Carolina where he lives with his wife and four children. He recently finished a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Wolfe is co-host of the Ars Politica podcast and has written for Mere Orthodoxy, First Things, Chronicles Magazine, and History of Political Thought. The Case for Christian Nationalism is his first book." – Amazon biography

"Evangelical elites and the progressive media complex want you to think that Christian nationalism is hopelessly racist, bigoted, and an idol for right-wing Christians. Is Christian nationalism the golden calf of the religious right—or is it the only way forward?

"Few 'experts' answering this question actually know what nationalism is—and even fewer know what could make it Christian. In The Case for Christian Nationalism, Stephen Wolfe offers a tour-de-force argument for the good of Christian nationalism, taken from Scripture and Christian thinkers ancient, medieval, and modern. Christian nationalism is not only the necessary alternative to secularism, it is the form of government we must pursue if we want to love our neighbors and our country.

"Wolfe shows that the world’s post-war consensus has successfully routed the United States towards a gynocratic Global American Empire (GAE). Rather than the religious right’s golden calf, Christian nationalism is the idea that people in the same place and culture should live together and seek one another’s good. The grace of the gospel does not eliminate our geography, our people, and our neighbors. Instead, it restores us to pursue local needs and local leadership freely and without apology.

"If you want to be able to answer the political debate raging today, you must understand the arguments in The Case for Christian Nationalism."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.1 (279 ratings)
ISBN 978-1957905334 ?
Fire and Fury:
Inside the Trump White House
Michael Wolff
Henry Holt and Co. (January 5, 2018)
No Review
"Michael Wolff is the author of Fire and Fury, the top-selling book about the Trump White House, and its sequel, Siege. His six other books include his biography of Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News, and his memoir of the early internet years, Burn Rate. He has been a regular columnist for New York magazine, Vanity Fair, British GQ, the Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, and USA Today, and, as well, written for a wide variety of other magazines and newspapers. He is the winner of two National Magazine Awards. He lives in New York with his wife and has four children." – Amazon biography

"With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Michael Wolff reveals what happened behind-the-scenes in the first nine months of the most controversial presidency of our time in Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

"Since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the country―and the world―has witnessed a stormy, outrageous, and absolutely mesmerizing presidential term that reflects the volatility and fierceness of the man elected Commander-in-Chief.

"This riveting and explosive account of Trump’s administration provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office, including:

  • What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him
  • What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama
  • Why FBI director James Comey was really fired
  • Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room
  • Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing
  • What the secret to communicating with Trump is
  • What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers

"Never before in history has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.0 (48,753 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250158062 ?
Siege:
Trump Under Fire
Michael Wolff
Henry Holt and Co. (June 4, 2019)
No Review
"Michael Wolff is the author of Fire and Fury, the number-one bestseller that for the first time told the inside story of the Trump White House. He has received numerous awards for his work, including two National Magazine Awards. The author of seven previous books, he has been a regular columnist for Vanity Fair, New York, The Hollywood Reporter, British GQ, and other magazines and newspapers. He lives in Manhattan and has four children." – Amazon biography

"Just one year into Donald Trump’s term as president, Michael Wolff told the electrifying story of a White House consumed by controversy, chaos, and intense rivalries. Fire and Fury, an instant sensation, defined the first phase of the Trump administration; now, in Siege, Wolff has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side.

"At the outset of Trump’s second year as president, his situation is profoundly different. No longer tempered by experienced advisers, he is more impulsive and volatile than ever. But the wheels of justice are inexorably turning: Robert Mueller’s “witch hunt” haunts Trump every day, and other federal prosecutors are taking a deep dive into his business affairs. Many in the political establishment―even some members of his own administration―have turned on him and are dedicated to bringing him down. The Democrats see victory at the polls, and perhaps impeachment, in front of them. Trump, meanwhile, is certain he is invincible, making him all the more exposed and vulnerable. Week by week, as Trump becomes increasingly erratic, the question that lies at the heart of his tenure becomes ever more urgent: Will this most abnormal of presidencies at last reach the breaking point and implode?

"Both a riveting narrative and a brilliant front-lines report, Siege provides an alarming and indelible portrait of a president like no other. Surrounded by enemies and blind to his peril, Trump is a raging, self-destructive inferno―and the most divisive leader in American history."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (1,671 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250253828 ?
Landslide:
The Final Days of the Trump Presidency
Michael Wolff
Henry Holt and Co. (July 13, 2021)
No Review
"Michael Wolff is the author of two books about the Trump White House, Fire and Fury and Siege. His six other books include a biography of Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News, and his memoir of the early internet years, Burn Rate. He has been a regular columnist for New York magazine, Vanity Fair, British GQ, the Hollywood Reporter, and The Guardian. The winner of two National Magazine Awards, he lives in New York City with his family." – Amazon biography

"We all witnessed some of the most shocking and confounding political events of our lifetime: the careening last stage of Donald J. Trump’s reelection campaign, the president’s audacious election challenge, the harrowing mayhem of January 6, the buffoonery of the second impeachment trial. But what was really going on in the inner sanctum of the White House during these calamitous events? What did the president and his dwindling cadre of loyalists actually believe? And what were they planning?

"Michael Wolff pulled back the curtain on the Trump presidency with his #1 bestselling blockbuster Fire and Fury. Now, in Landslide, he closes the door on the presidency with a final, astonishingly candid account.

"Wolff embedded himself in the White House in 2017 and gave us a vivid picture of the chaos that had descended on Washington. Almost four years later, Wolff finds the Oval Office even more chaotic and bizarre, a kind of Star Wars bar scene. At all times of the day, Trump, behind the Resolute desk, is surrounded by schemers and unqualified sycophants who spoon-feed him the 'alternative facts' he hungers to hear―about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and, most of all, his chance of winning reelection. Once again, Wolff has gotten top-level access and takes us front row as Trump’s circle of plotters whittles down to the most enabling and the president reaches beyond the bounds of democracy as he entertains the idea of martial law and balks at calling off the insurrectionist mob that threatens the institution of democracy itself.

"As the Trump presidency’s hold over the country spiraled out of control, an untold and human account of desperation, duplicity, and delusion was unfolding within the West Wing. Landslide is that story as only Michael Wolff can tell it."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (6,186 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250830012 ?
Fear: (2nd ed.)
Trump in the White House
Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster (September 11, 2018)
My Review
"Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post, where he has worked for forty-seven years. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first for the Post's coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, and second in 2003 as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has authored or coauthored eighteen books, all of which have been national nonfiction bestsellers. Twelve of those have been #1 national bestsellers." – Amazon biography

"Fear presents vivid details of the negotiations between Trump's attorneys and Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, laying out for the first time the meeting-by-meeting discussions and strategies. It discloses how senior Trump White House officials joined together to steal draft orders from the president's Oval Office desk so he would not issue directives that would jeopardize top secret intelligence operations."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (19,141 ratings)
ISBN 978-1-5011-7551-0 ?
Rage
Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster (September 15, 2020)
My Review
"Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post where he has worked for 49 years and reported on every American president from Nixon to Trump. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first for the Post's coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, and second 20 years later as the lead Post reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks." – Amazon biography

"President Trump has said publicly that Woodward has interviewed him. What is not known is that Trump provided Woodward a window into his mind through a series of exclusive interviews. Woodward, the #1 internationally bestselling author of 13 #1 bestsellers, including Fear: Trump in the White House, shows Trump up close in his entirety before the 2020 presidential election. Rage goes behind the scenes like never before, with stunning new details about early national security decisions and operations and Trump's moves as he faces a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president.

"Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses, as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents. Woodward obtained 25 personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that have not been public before. Kim describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a 'fantasy film,' as the two leaders engage in an extraordinary diplomatic minuet.

"Rage will be the foundational account of the Trump presidency, its turmoil, contradictions and risks. It is an essential document for any voter seeking an accurate inside view of the Trump years—volatile and vivid."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (34,737 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982131739 ?
Peril
Bob Woodward & Robert Costa
Simon & Schuster (September 21, 2021)
No Review
"Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post where he has worked for 50 years. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his Watergate coverage and the other for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has authored 20 national bestselling books, 14 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post, where he has worked since 2014. He previously served as moderator and managing editor of Washington Week on PBS and as a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. He is from Bucks County, Pennsylvania.." – Amazon biography

"The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as one of the most dangerous periods in American history. But as # 1 internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis.

"Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the center of the turmoil, resulting in more than 6,000 pages of transcripts—and a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened.

"Peril is supplemented throughout with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making for an unparalleled history. It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency as he faces the challenges of a lifetime: the continuing deadly pandemic and millions of Americans facing soul-crushing economic pain, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, a world rife with threats, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president.

“ 'We have much to do in this winter of peril,' Biden declared at his inauguration, an event marked by a nerve-wracking security alert and the threat of domestic terrorism.

"Peril is the extraordinary story of the end of one presidency and the beginning of another, and represents the culmination of Bob Woodward’s news-making trilogy on the Trump presidency, along with Fear and Rage. And it is the beginning of a collaboration with fellow Washington Post reporter Robert Costa that will remind readers of Woodward’s coverage, with Carl Bernstein, of President Richard M. Nixon’s final days."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (21,392 ratings)
ISBN 978-1982182915 ?
War
Bob Woodward
Simon & Schuster (October 15, 2024)
No Review
"Bob Woodward is the author of three consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers on President Trump—Fear (2018), Rage (2020), and Peril (2021) with Robert Costa—and an audiobook of 20 interviews with Trump. He has authored 22 bestselling books, 15 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, covering every president from Nixon to Biden."

"Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars—Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American Presidency.

"War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.

"We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power.

"With unrivaled, inside-the-room reporting, Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

"Woodward reveals the extraordinary complexity and consequence of wartime back-channel diplomacy and decision-making to deter the use of nuclear weapons and a rapid slide into World War III.

“The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.

"War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.

"Woodward’s reporting once again sets the standard for journalism at its most authoritative and illuminating."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.6 (1,343 ratings)
ISBN 978-1668052273 ?
The Left Behind:
Decline and Rage in Small-Town America
Robert Wuthnow
Princeton University Press; 2nd edition (April 30, 2019)
No Review
"Robert Wuthnow is the Gerhard R. Andlinger ’52 Professor of Social Sciences at Princeton University. His many books include Small-Town America and Remaking the Heartland (both Princeton)."

"How a fraying social fabric is fueling the outrage of rural Americans.

"What is fueling rural America’s outrage toward the federal government? Why did rural Americans vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump? And is there a more nuanced explanation for the growing rural-urban divide? Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Robert Wuthnow brings us into America’s small towns, farms, and rural communities to paint a rich portrait of the moral order―the interactions, loyalties, obligations, and identities―underpinning this critical segment of the nation. Wuthnow demonstrates that to truly understand rural Americans’ anger, their culture must be explored more fully, and he shows that rural America’s fury stems less from economic concerns than from the perception that Washington is distant from and yet threatening to the social fabric of small towns. Moving beyond simplistic depictions of America’s heartland, The Left Behind offers a clearer picture of how this important population will influence the nation’s political future."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (203 ratings)
ISBN 978-0691191669 ?
School of Woke:
How Critical Race Theory Infiltrated American Schools and Why We Must Reclaim Them
Kenny Xu
Center Street (August 1, 2023)
No Review
"Kenny Xu is a renowned public commentator on education, minority achievement, and Critical Race Theory. He is the author of An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack on Asian American Excellence and the Fight for American Meritocracy, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, National Review, Newsweek, the New York Post, New York Daily News, The Federalist, The Daily Signal, Quillette, and the Washington Examiner, and appeared on the Honestly with Bari Weiss podcast, among others. He is the president of Color Us United and a current recipient of the prestigious Novak Journalism Fellowship and the Government Accountability Institute Fellowship, from which the research for this book originated."

"From one of America’s most relentless critics of Critical Race Theory comes this far-reaching, on-the-ground investigation of how CRT infiltrated our public schools and transformed them into activism factories—with disastrous results.

"Awareness of the rise of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools and how it has shaped our education system took the U.S. by storm over the last few years. Parents truly became aware for the first time how deeply entrenched CRT was in the classrooms, and their eyes were opened to the insidious agenda thoroughly embedded in public schools. As a result, CRT and parental rights in education became some of the most explosive issues facing Americans today.

"Kenny Xu is a perceptive and relentless critic of CRT and our culture’s war on meritocracy. And now, in School of Woke, Xu exposes how CRT is transforming public schools and having a destructive impact on our children’s education—and their future.

"In School of Woke, Xu provides historical context to the rise of Critical Race Theory in education, tracing it back to elite graduate schools in the 1970s and showing how the ideology became institutionalized and credentialed. Xu covers the battles taking place in the most problematic and contested school districts in the nation, including Loudoun and Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia and Santa Barbara High School in California. He also exposes the lucrative business model behind the diversity consulting industrial complex that is instrumental in the curricular wars, revealing how educators and administrators have been gaslighting the public about the prevalence of this radical ideology in the classrooms, where children as young as five are being segregated in the classroom by race and are being taught that whiteness is inherently evil.

"A work of colorful reportage, historical analysis, and cultural commentary, School of Woke reveals what it will take to extricate our next generation from the destructive trends in our once-vaunted public school education system."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.4 (19 ratings)
ISBN 978-1546003656 ?
Interference:
The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation
Aaron Zebley, James Quarles & Andrew Goldstein
Simon & Schuster (September 24, 2024)
No Review
"Aaron Zebley was Robert Mueller’s deputy and was by his side for every major decision. Prior to working in the special counsel’s office, Zebley served in multiple roles at the US Department of Justice and the FBI, including FBI chief of staff, senior counselor in the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and as an FBI team leader and case agent in the 9/11 investigation. Zebley is in private practice in Washington, DC. James Quarles was Mueller’s senior counselor. A seasoned trial lawyer who has practiced for more than fifty years, Quarles primarily focuses on representing high-technology companies. Prior to his long career in private practice, Quarles served as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force from 1973 to 1975. Andrew Goldstein was one of Mueller’s lead prosecutors investigating obstruction of justice and Russian interference. Prior to working in the special counsel’s office, Goldstein served as chief of the public corruption unit at the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted numerous high-profile cases. Goldstein is a former staff writer at Time, and currently chairs the white-collar defense and investigations practice at Cooley LLP."

"The behind-the-scenes story of the investigation that shook America to its core—the Mueller investigation that presented the evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election—as told by Robert Mueller’s closest colleagues, including never-before-revealed details into how the team investigated Putin’s campaign to favor candidate Donald Trump and Trump’s efforts to interfere in the investigation.

"Interference is the true history of the most important and consequential decisions, obstacles, and quandaries Mueller and his team faced when investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. For the first time, Mueller’s only deputy, his most senior counselor who served on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and the lead prosecutor looking into obstruction of justice and Russian interference, have come together to tell a highly relevant and readable account of what it was like to carry out their investigation of election interference, as well as any connections that existed between the Russians and members of the Trump campaign.

"Interference also highlights the many actions Russia took as it favored candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton offering a powerful reminder of how committed Russia was to determine the outcome of the election. Ultimately, the special counsel brought indictments against thirty-four individuals and entities, including Trump’s campaign chairman; his deputy campaign chairman; a campaign advisor; his first national security advisor; and one of Trump’s longtime associates; as well as against Russian participants. Nearly every case that was able to proceed resulted in a guilty verdict or plea.

"Interference explains the motivations and actions of Russia (which has not stopped exploiting America’s weaknesses), the importance and the limitations of a special counsel, and the need for people to make principled decisions even when being pushed from all directions not to. Much can be learned from the experiences faced by the Mueller special counsel office as it broke ground on some of the most complicated challenges facing our country—then and now. The narrative carries special relevance today, as the Supreme Court has sharply limited the conduct by a president that can be prosecuted—or even investigated."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.3 (43 ratings)
ISBN 978-1668063743 ?
The Presidency of Donald J. Trump:
A First Historical Assessment
Julian E. Zelizer (Editor)
Princeton University Press (April 12, 2022)
No Review
"Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. A CNN Political Analystt and a regular guest on NPR, he is the author of many books, including Burning Down the House, The Fierce Urgency of Now, and Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement." – Amazon biography

"The Presidency of Donald J. Trump presents a first draft of history by offering needed perspective on one of the nation’s most divisive presidencies. Acclaimed political historian Julian Zelizer brings together many of today’s top scholars to provide balanced and strikingly original assessments of the major issues that shaped the Trump presidency.

"When Trump took office in 2017, he quickly carved out a loyal base within an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, dominated the news cycle with an endless stream of controversies, and presided over one of the most contentious one-term presidencies in American history. These essays cover the crucial aspects of Trump’s time in office, including his administration’s close relationship with conservative media, his war on feminism, the solidification of a conservative women’s movement, his response to COVID-19, the border wall, growing tensions with China and NATO allies, white nationalism in an era of Black Lives Matter, and how the high-tech sector flourished.

"The Presidency of Donald J. Trump reveals how Trump was not the cause of the political divisions that defined his term in office but rather was a product of long-term trends in Republican politics and American polarization more broadly.

"With contributions by Kathleen Belew, Angus Burgin, Geraldo Cadava, Merlin Chowkwanyun, Bathsheba Demuth, Gregory Downs, Jeffrey Engel, Beverly Gage, Nicole Hemmer, Michael Kazin, Daniel C. Kurtzer, James Mann, Mae Ngai, Margaret O’Mara, Jason Scott Smith, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Leandra Zarnow."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.2 (68 ratings)
ISBN 978-0691228938 ?
Donald J. Trump:
Four Toxic Years at the White House
Ron Ziegler
European Free Press (July 17, 2023)
No Review
"Ron Ziegler was Ambassador at the Foregin Affairs Ministry in Brussels, Belgium.

"Former President Donald Trump leaves nobody indifferent. Although no longer president, He keeps hitting the headlines daily on subjects he fancies. Shortly after the midterm elections in November 2022, he declared his candidacy to succeed President Joe Biden in 2024 without surprise.

"With fifty years of closely observing American politics behind him, Robert Vandemeulebroucke (pen name Ron Ziegler) in this book puts all of Trump's policies at home and abroad, from his inauguration to his inglorious exit, in context. With a trove of material, he offers a compelling narrative of President Trump's presidency. He also writes extensively on his foreign travels, the hosts he met, and the agendas he discussed. This book, the first written by a non-American author on the former president, offers comments on critical political events simultaneously happening in America, Europe, and elsewhere.

"Besides presenting an all-inclusive picture of President Trump's agenda at the White House, the book highlights the action or inaction taken by US political institutions. Finally, it describes the repercussions in Europe and the world on the consequences of Trump's controversial policies. Trump's predecessors often published memoirs after leaving the White House. The present book will fit the gap nicely while Donald Trump works on his manuscript."

Rating by Amazon customers: 5.0 (4 ratings)
ISBN 978-9464772920 ?
Plaintiff in Chief:
A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits
James D. Zirin
All Points Books (September 24, 2019)
No Review
"James D. Zirin is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he served in the Criminal Division under the legendary Robert Morgenthau. His writing has appeared in major periodicals such as Forbes, the LA Times, the London Times, the Washington Times, the Nation, and the New York Law Journal. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Princeton University, Zirin received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

"A comprehensive analysis of Donald Trump's legal history reveals his temperament, methods, character, and morality.

"Unlike all previous presidents who held distinguished positions in government or the military prior to entering office, Donald Trump's political worldview was molded in the courtroom. He sees law not as a system of rules to be obeyed and ethical ideals to be respected, but as a weapon to be used against his adversaries or a hurdle to be sidestepped when it gets in his way. He has weaponized the justice system throughout his career, and he has continued to use these backhanded tactics as Plaintiff in Chief.

"In this book, distinguished New York attorney James D. Zirin presents Trump's lengthy litigation history as an indication of his character and morality, and his findings are chilling: if you partner with Donald Trump, you will probably wind up litigating with him. If you enroll in his university or buy one of his apartments, chances are you will want your money back. If you are a woman and you get too close to him, you may need to watch your back. If you try to sue him, he's likely to defame you. If you make a deal with him, you had better get it in writing. If you are a lawyer, an architect, or even his dentist, you'd better get paid up front. If you venture an opinion that publicly criticizes him, you may be sued for libel.

"A window into the president's dark legal history, Plaintiff in Chief is as informative as it is disturbing."

Rating by Amazon customers: 4.5 (109 ratings)
ISBN 978-1250201621 ?

NOTE: The color code for the authors goes as follows: those critical of Trump are shown in blue; those defending or supporting him are shown in red to indicate lack of coherent argument. Books that make a reasonable defense of Trump, should I find any, will have titles shown in black. There is a host of self-published books touting Trump, and quite a few by "big-name" authors like Newt Gingrich, Victor Davis Hanson, Roger Stone, or Jerome Corsi. I put no credence in these authors.

If I have done a review, I include a link to it.

The score given by customers of Amazon.com is generally a good indicator of a product's quality. In my experience, this is true for the great majority of books. However, there are cases of a controversial book being downrated simply because it is controversial, often by people who haven't read it. (The reverse also occurs, of course; a book may get fulsome praise from uncritical people.) If, in my opinion, either sort of rating distortion occurs, I indicate it by a red background. In following the reviews of climate change books on Amazon, I have encountered a few individuals who seek out mainstream books and give them derogatory reviews. Reviews by such campaigners are often brief and general (e.g. "This book is worthless!"), making it likely that they didn't read the book and are just reacting to its title or description.

The publisher is often a clue to the quality of the book. Mainstream publishers try not to produce nonfiction books which present unfounded information. You will see in this list that the majority of the red titles come from obscure publishers, or from self-publishing operations. (The exception is Regnery, long known to specialize in right-wing, often bogus, tracts.) This is not to say every self-published book is suspect; but the ones on climate change generally are.

In the Library Call Number field (right-most in the box below the Amazon rating), "SJn" denotes the floor on which the book is shelved at San Jose's Martin Luther King Public Library (shared with SJSU) where n varies from 1 to 8. "SJ0" indicates King Library system does not currently have a copy. Sometimes copies are all at one or more branch libraries, with none at main. This is indicated by "SJBr." A call number with a strike-through line means the book is in the library's database but the copy is listed as missing. (Many are simply misplaced; I have recovered 24 such.)

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