| Main centres: | 1-3 business days |
| Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
| Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Published by Little, Brown, 2019, hardcover, index, 335 pages, condition: new.
A behind the scenes look at Trump's bizarre and increasingly unhinged second year in the White House. It's easy to dismiss a lot of the tidbits in this book, such as that Trump wishes he hadn't given Don Trump Junior his name, that he didn't want to visit his own recently born grandchild in the hospital, or that he makes fun of anyone with a mustache and his own dad, Fred Trump, who routinely belittled and humiliated him, just happened to have a mustache. But for worse or worser, these items are now a part of the historical record because we the American people made the mistake of giving this man the nuclear codes.
In many cases, the point is not so much whether what was said was true, but the fact that it was said at all. After two years in office, and really a lifetime of surrounding himself with codependent sycophants and fellow grifters that he will turn on at a moment's notice when it suits him, Trump has no real friends or allies. Everyone in his orbit is there to gain money or power, because Trump holds something over them, or simply because no one else will hire them. Staff run office pools about when and how Trump will go down, they avoid meetings because they don't want to be subpoenaed to testify later, and all the while, they plot their exit.
And while I don't personally enjoy reading these kinds details (I find them kind of depressing) I don't think we should bury our heads in the sand either because we are so worn down from this circus-like reality show. That Trump talks to Sean Hannity several times a day, is willing to make policy decisions based on criticism from Hannity and Ann Coulter, and that he is outraged when Fox News says anything negative about him, all have implications for the state of our democracy and the free press. There is also a good chapter here on Kushner and how his attempts to use his position for personal gain have driven our nation's foreign policy. It's been said many times before, but we must never normalize this president.
The book has a happy ending, at least for Trump, in that to his surprise and the surprise of everyone else around him, Mueller's final report played it relatively safe, punting the hardest questions to Congress and allowing Trump to live to fight another day. But I think this victory will be short lived, and that Trump's eventual downfall is inevitable. In my opinion, Trump will be remembered as one of history's great deranged, mad rulers. How much damage he does is up to us, and, borrowing some words from my favorite Democratic primary candidate, Pete Buttigieg, I hope we can "change the channel" in 2020.
