| THE APPRENTICE Trump, Russia, and the Subversion of American Democracy Greg Miller New York: Custom House, October 2018 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-06-280370-2 | ||||
| ISBN 0-06-280370-0 | 431pp. | HC/BWI | $29.99 | |
This book by Greg Miller covers Trump from his 2015 campaign through August 2018 following his astounding performance with Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Greg Miller was then the Washington Post reporter on the national security beat; he is now the Post's foreign correspondent for Europe, based in London. He is among the Post reporters who received a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for coverage of the Russia probe and Trump's responses to it.
The book follows Trump's ascent to and conduct of power in great detail. Filled with quotes of what Trump said in public and reports of his private deliberations, it reveals a character devoted only to his own aggrandizement — a man who treats every criticism as a personal attack and who rejects any rules or standards that constrain his behavior. He demands loyalty from underlings but refuses to be loyal to them in turn. He is, in short, a narcissist with the mentality of a mob boss.
There are many books that make that clear. (I have a list of them here.) But The Apprentice is among the clearest of them. Proceeding in chronological order, it lays out Trump's consistent perception that everything is about him: that none of the investigations of his conduct have any basis, but all are merely politically motivated attempts to damage his presidency; in short, "witch hunts." Engagingly written, it conveys an indelible image of Trump as his own worst enemy, incapable of restraining himself in public statements even when those statements paint him into a corner.
McGahn pulled Sessions out of the meeting with Trump and forced Rosenstein to tell the attorney general himself. Sessions' recusal meant he was no longer making decisions related to the Russia probe, but he didn't expect to be blindsided. Sessions, staggered by the news, went back in to inform the president. Trump, so certain that he had turned a corner on the the Russia probe by getting rid of Comey, went ballistic, screaming obscenities that rattled the walls of the White House. – page 288 |
The book does have some shortfalls in coverage. It says nothing about Christopher Wray's appointment as FBI director, and and omits the damage Tillerson did to the State Department. Yet it's hard to fault these omissions in the face of the torrents of misconduct issuing from the Trump administration, especially since the book is about Trump himself. And I don't fault it.
The book is remarkably free of factual and grammatical errors. Indeed, I found only one of the former and only a few of the latter. Twenty-six black and white pictures complement the text. The chapter-by-chapter end notes are extensive, and there is a good index. I rate it a must-read and a keeper.
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