10 Books About Donald Trump We All Need to Read Before the Election
I’m not sure what is wrong with us all but the last three years when we should have been working to improve ourselves and help those around us, we’ve been obsessed with anything and everything Donald Trump.
Four years ago I wanted to know everything I could about him. Where his money came from, where he came from, what he was like as a boss, what he’s like as a person, hell, I ever read Stormy Daniels book to try and find out what he was like in bed! Of course I read The Art of the Deal and pre-election bios like TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald but quickly moved into the deep analysis with books like, It’s Even Worse Than You Think and gobbled up books like, Collusion the day they came out.
At first it was out of fear. I was scared of what Trump would do to the country. The second half of November 2016 I was sure nuclear war was on the immediate horizon. The obviousness of his incompetency grew and so did my concerns. As I learned more about the man behind the big red button and my early unfounded fears became very much founded.
I don’t think of myself as “pro” or “anti” Trump but I do recognize him to be a threat to democracy around the world and no less than an economic terrorist. He is a self-centered histrionic and pathological liar who can only see the world from his own perspective. That is just about the most dangerous type of person to have in any position of power (or be married to).
All these books later Trump still scares the hell out of me but the fear has transformed into a more mundane cynicism about society and America. In short, we suck. DJT is the lowest of the low and here are ten of the best books that seem to best describe and illustrate the man and his administration.
The TL:DR list.
1. A Warning
2. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America
3. Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever
4. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
5. A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
6. TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald
7. A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America
8. American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump
9. The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump
10. Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House
Full list with reviews:
1. A Warning
by Anonymous
November 19, 2019
4.5 out of 5 stars 2,853 ratings
I have read dozens of Trump books the last few years and by far, A Warning is the most important and influential one I’ve read yet.
Anonymous did what Omarosa and Andrew McCabe should have done with their voices of reason from inside the White House. I had high hopes for Omarosa’s book which unfortunately turned out to be a complete flop. However, Anonymous seems to have actually had the attention of Donald Trump at least for some time and reveals what it was like to work directly under him.
Omarosa on the other hand offered little more than what we’ve seen on the nightly news.
A Warning, the book, is exactly that, a warning from within the “deep state” itself.
If you want to know anything about Donald Trump and the inner workings of his mind and administration, A Warning is the one and only book you need to read. No other Trump book has done as good a job as identifying the problem and potential solutions. Every American should stop what they are doing and read or at least put this book at the very top of your to read list.
2. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America
January 16, 2018
4.7 out of 5 stars 457 ratings
This book is number two because hands down, no journalist knows Donald Trump better than David Cay Johnston. He has been following him since 1988. It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America goes inside the administration to show how the federal agencies that touch the lives of all Americans are being undermined. Here is just some of what you will learn:
The Wall. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told President Trump that Mexico will never pay for the border wall. So, Trump is proposing putting a tariff on Mexican imports. But a tariff will simply raise the price of Mexican goods in the US, meaning American consumers will end up paying for the wall — if it ever gets built.
Climate Change. Welcome to the new EPA, run by Scott Pruitt, a lawyer who has spent much of his career trying to destroy the agency he now heads. Secrecy reigns at the new EPA because Pruitt meets with industry executives to find out which clean air and clean water provisions they most want to roll back, and keeps staffers in the dark to make sure these pro-pollution plans don’t leak prematurely.
The Kleptocracy. Under Donald Trump conflict of interest is passé. When Trump isn’t in Washington, he stays at one of his properties, where the taxpayers pick up the tab for staffers, Secret Service, and so on, all at full price. And back in Washington, everyone now knows that the Trump International Hotel is the only place to stay if you want to do business with the administration. Meanwhile sons Donald Jr. and Eric run an eyes-wide-open blind trust of Trump holdings to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest — but not the reality.
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $12.99
3. Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever
by Rick Wilson
4.7 out of 5 stars 951 ratings
This was not a good book. So why is it at number 3? Because it was written by a longtime Republican strategist, political commentator and Daily Beast contributor, an “insider” so to speak. Rick Wilson delivers a seemingly honest, and almost comprehensive answer to the question we find ourselves asking most mornings: ‘What the hell is going on?’. Everything Trump Touches Dies gives more unvarnished truths about Donald Trump than anyone else in the American political establishment has offered. Wilson never holds back and mercilessly exposes the damage Trump has done to the country, to the Republican Party and to the conservative movement that has abandoned its principles for the worst President in American history.
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $11.99
4. Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
Jan. 5, 2018
4.0 out of 5 stars 11,285 ratings
I love these characters! They are impulsive, exciting, daring and most of all, a bunch of idiots, like watching the first or second season of Survivor when it was still good. If you keep up with the news cycle there is nothing new to surprise you in this insider account by author Michael Wolff. This is a fun and personal look into the workings of the Trump White House and the mind of the man himself where the bottom line seems to be that, really, there is just nothing there. When Kellyanne says that there is nothing going on with “the Russia stuff”, that is probably true, there is nothing going on with anything, everything in the Trump world is minute by minute, second by second, there is no plan, no goal because exactly 0 members of the Trump team ever though there was a chance they would win.
For me, this books is really just about how stupid an otherwise functioning human being can be and how many of them there are. By all accounts it is looking like about 30% of American’s have some mental disability, couple that with the electoral college, an epic amount of Republican gerrymandering and Russian Internet Trolls we are left with a commander in chief who seems to not be fully literate and thinks that global warming is a Chinese hoax. There is nothing good or interesting going on with this administration, they bumble from one crisis to the next with no short term memory and a general aim of just doing the opposite of whatever the last President did. My personal opinion is that Trump is bad but not nearly as bad as Bush II was and for all his faults Trump comes off as a nothing President who is probably just going to fade away (I hope). If his handlers were to lose control of him, Trump may end up being the worst thing to ever happen to this country but for now, this was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone with the extra time to “get to know” our 45 President.
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $9.99
5. A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
by James Comey
April 17, 2018
4.7 out of 5 stars 5,540 ratings
Another book that is on this list not so much because of what is written about but because of who wrote it. By the time Comey was fired we all knew what was going on and this book does nothing than to give another perspective to the same shit show we were all watching.
The book is written in a very clear and lucid style. Comey’s narrative is easy to follow and for the most part humble and believable. He definitely faced more agonizing decisions during the late months of the presidential campaign than most people will face in a lifetime, mostly due to the imbroglio surrounding Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. And life didn’t get any easier once Trump took office. The closing chapters of the book stand out as an important telling of seminal events in US history. His meetings and interactions with the new president were carefully documented. Comey clearly sensed the darkness that had descended on the country, and he struggled with the dishonesty emanating daily from the White House.
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- Kindle Price $5.99
6. TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald
October 20, 2015
3.9 out of 5 stars 196 ratings
This was by far my personal favorite Trump Book. I loved it because more than any other it really captured who Trump IS. Nothing is this book was clouded by the nonsense electioneering for 2015 and 2016. It is the most honest look at Trump that I have read.
Timothy L. O’Brien was granted unprecedented access, traveled across the country with Trump on his private jet and spent hours interviewing him in his home, office and on the golf course. Here are a few key Trumpisms from the Donald himself:
Trump on the public’s enduring fascination with Trump: “There is something crazy, hot, a phenomenon out there about me, but I’m not sure I can define it and I’m not sure I want to.”
Trump on naysayers: “You can go ahead and speak to guys who have four-hundred-pound wives at home who are jealous of me, but the guys who really know me know I’m a great builder.”
Trump on the art of self-promotion: “You might as well tell people how great you are, because no one else is going to.”
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $9.99
7. A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America
by Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig
4.6 out of 5 stars 1,897 ratings
If for some reason you have been living in a cave since 2015 are only going to read one book about the first three years of the Trump Presidency this is the PERFECT book for you. The authors essentially do nothing more that run through the Trump headlines from 2016 to late 2019 chronologically. If you were alive at this time and don’t suffer from any form of extreme memory loss this book is at best a fun stroll down nightmare memory lane. They do a great job as historians but as far as offering any insight you would be just as well off watching CNN once a week for a few hours.
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $15.99
8. American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump
July 21, 2019
4.5 out of 5 stars 263 ratings
A sad thing about the alt-right movement is that so many of the Trump attendees are simply being taken for a proverbial ride. For many they are only looking for what Obama supporters wanted a decade ago, hope. They are guilty only of being desperate for a better tomorrow and it is the number one reason they were so easily duped by this horrible con man.
“American Carnage” is a Steve Bannon phrase taken from Trump’s inaugural address as well as the title of this great book all about how Donald Trump became president. This books is just barely about Trump, the focus is the Republican party 2016–2017 and its complete and utter destruction. The reasons Trump became president turn out to be relatively straightforward and simple, foremost Hillary was without question the worst candidate ever put forward by the Democratic party. With her long history of corruption and abuse of power it is no wonder she was so well hated. Second was the ability of the Republican party and more than anyone Republican strategists like Frank Luntz and Karl Rove who were able to boil down exactly where and when Trump needed to spend his time campaigning. Along with the decades long perverse work of The GOP all over the country in gerrymandering their districts in order to maximize the poll of each Republican voter while minimizing Democrats influence.
Republicans are the party of do anything, say anything to win, in this case all they had to do was pledge loyalty to Donald Trump, one of the most repugnant men in American History. More than anything what put Donald over the top was middle class voters who’s number one issue in this last election was reportedly the nomination of Supreme Court Justices. His first nomination was only possible because of Mitch McConnell’s blocking of Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in a completely insane and unheard of manner. The lesson of American Carnage is that luck favors the prepared and the Republicans had been preparing for well over 8 years. The bad news is, it worked they were exceedingly successful in mobilizing their base on the most important issues for them, Mitch McConnell’s Supreme Court nominee and forcing women to have babies they don’t want.
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- Kindle Price $12.99
9. The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump
February 19, 2019
4.7 out of 5 stars 1,169 ratings
If you want to read a great fluff piece about and by Andrew McCabe this is the book for you. If you were looking to get your hands on McCabe’s resume, this book will do just fine. The Threat was a well written memoir from a white color lawyer turned FBI douche bag. It was well worth the time invested to hear a few stories from the “inner” FBI, but overall, McCabe is a jackass, a clever jackass, so we are better off not completely trusting any of his perspectives. Two good examples, McCabe glancingly addresses the Snowden revaluations and the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal. As far as the Snowden issues go, the author was clearly on the side that wanted Edward not only apprehended but saw him as a terrorist of the worst kind. You can feel the hate McCabe and his kind have for Snowden in the way he talks about the “damage” done by Snowden releasing classified documents. The man shows his true colors and it seems clear that McCabe is a fascist in the sense that he expects the government should have full access to any aspect of all Americans’ lives at all times.
At no point does he attempt any apology for being a part of pre-Snowden law enforcement. Never does he or does he sound capable of questioning the mass illegal spying programs the FBI used and profited from so eagerly and calls Snowden a criminal, of all things. He says there is no reason for private citizens to expect ANY privacy from the US government, and scoffs at the idea of companies like Apple encrypting uses’ data and then refusing to give the FBI the cryptographic key to EVERY single customer. Like I say, the man is a self proclaimed fascist.
It is great to hear McCabe stumble over himself as he tries to explain and justify what happened with Hilary Clinton and her lost e-mails. Until this book I had taken the e-mail “scandal” as nothing more than idiot Fox News Pizza Gate nonsense. But it turns out, Hilary made a massive mess for the FBI. McCabe tells how when Hilary started at the State Department she was issued a government email address and told to use it for all official communication. Instead she choose to pay a private company to run her email for her, not the us government. There was no reason to do this, it cost a lot of money and the only reason to do it would be to keep data private. After she did this for years against all requests and recommendations it turns out that about ½ of her emails had gotten lost my her own employees, a mistake that would never happen had she done what she was told she needed to. Now the FBI didn’t just throw up their hands and say oh well, guess ½ of the Secretary of State’s emails are gone forever, no, its the fucking FBI, they go and get those fucking emails, and thats hard.
McCabe tells about how they had to painstakingly get court ordered access to every email address mailbox that Hilary had potentially sent email to from her officail account, then sort through ALL the emails from ALL the people that she MIGHT have sent an email to. A massive efforts that cost a lot of money explains McCabe, so while not enough to “lock her up”, it was a huge time and money waster and still ended up with thousands of “missing” emails. It did not even end there, the FBI also had to get access to ALL laptops or devices Hiliary might have used, then recovered as much deleted data off the hard drives, another huge effort that should never had to have happen. Comey could have done little else than stating publicly what happened, if anyone else did what Hilary did they would have been disqualified from ever handling secret information ever again, let alone be allowed to hold public office. McCabe makes clear that the email scandal was real and and the FBI did what they did in the best interest of Hilary Clinton, did their best to cover for a massive screw up.
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $9.99
10. Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House
4.6 out of 5 stars 136 ratings
We got him. According to author Luke Harding it is already too late for The Donald, the dossier is real and since the late 1970’s Donald has been courted by and intimately associated with Russian finance by laundering money through his real estate properties. The only reason Donald Trump has had any measurable success is because the Russian government has in the past seen it fit to prop up his shoddy business deals with cheap loans or outright free money. If the reporting here is true, nearly every move Donald Trump has made is designed to please, or at least not disrupt, Russian interests. Taken as a hypothesis, that one of Trump’s main aims is to please the top Russian leadership, the facts of the case make more sense. Nearly every odd staffing choice he has made from Manafort “working for free”, to the creepy bald skeleton guy, to the no-soul skeleton lady, to the weird right wing nationalist creeps… They all have some seemingly exploitable Russian connection that has either been sought after by Trump directly, or in the opinion of the author, these people are being put together, and their connections are all tied to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
There is no conspiracy theorizing needed in the case of the American People vs. Donald J. Trump, his actions demonstrate (1) a clear intention to collude with Russia for gaining ground in the 2016 election and (2) clear cases of money laundering through his multiple international properties, specifically revealed in the Panama Papers recently. The guy is a dirt-bag and my only guess is that Bob Muller right now is just so baffled as to how such a degenerate got to the White House the FBI is taking more time than they obviously should be just catching up.
By the accounts in this excellent book, Trump should be arrested immediately, so is it that either the book is simply not accurate, Trump is somehow above the law, or something else is going on, probably it is the something else thing. No matter what, this is a great book, Luke Harding is an amazing author/journalist/detective. Please read this book and please, VOTE!
- Amazon
- Kindle Price $4.99
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