Maggie Haberman

Of all the books I’ve read about Trump this one was the least revelatory.

It goes over most of the incidents of his early business life and notable events of his years in public office, perhaps with a little more detail.

I am reminded just how many people faced litigation or criminal jeopardy as a result of dealing with Trump, and how few got rich by dealing with him.

Aside from the obvious reasons for publishing this book (a curious public, royalties, advances, notoriety, etc.) I can’t imagine the experience was all that pleasurable for the author. Trump is a dour person, pretty darn near awful to family and employees alike. There’s no “Come-to-Jesus” moment in the story, no revelations about a hidden good side.

Once again we have a book that falls short delivering on its subtitle. America’s polity may have bent under Donald Trump but it would be a stretch to say it broke.

Osama bin Laden may have a longer lasting effect on America than Donald Trump, but the story isn’t over. For either of them.

In delaying key weapons deliveriesTrump is certainly having a huge effect on Ukrainian lives. Possibly greater than on American lives, even if you include the 200,000 American lives lost to COVID, many of whom died from the void of leadership at the pandemic’s outset. And to some degree on the lives of migrants from Central America, although here again outside forces were acting as well.

For someone who had as much contact with him as Maggie Haberman, you might have expected more judgement. Even something like “Of all the two-bit con-men I’ve met in this job, Trump is the worst!”

But Haberman, as a journalist, and the daughter of a journalist, uses her professional objectivity to let the facts speak for themselves.

A former colleague at the Times Adam Davidson considers Haberman a part of the “distraction machine” (his words, not mine) that lets Trump off the hook.

I might have called it the “compensation machine.” Trump seems to be compensating for virtually his entire life and that is the source of the bravado. Nobody knows ______ better than me. I’m a star. I will drain the swamp. The generals are idiots.

Compensating for not being as uniquely talented as Fred Trump? Or is it just faulty wiring. Haberman doesn’t pretend to know either.

We all know by now how toxic Trump has been for the democracy, and how we’ll never convince his (fan) base of this basic truth.

Haberman lets herself appear in the story when Trump uses her as a stalking horse, and she even excuses herself for adding a character who crosses into her personal life. But she doesn’t mention, for example, that her mother once worked for Trump.

She talks about the physical jeopardy Trump put some journalists in at election rallies, and to some degree that parallels what Trump later did to Mike Pence and members of Congress.

She never tallies up the value of the self-dealing Trump and his family enjoyed during his Presidency, and she stays pretty far away from analyzing what effect anybody has on him with the exception of his father.

It’s another race to the finish, and a long 500 pages at that.… (meer)

Haberman's book is excellent. It begins with Trump's youth and chronicles his early career, and early dabbling in politics. She writes about his business struggles and successes and his shift from the real estate industry into tabloid and television. The personality flaws that were manifest in the White House were already evident in those years.

Trump's Presidency was unbelievable chaotic, and it's exhausting to relive it. Haberman does a great job covering the major events of the administration with enough context to understand the individual events and the arc of events, from the descent on the escalator to the insurrection. She explains, but doesn't excuse, the Republican Party's, and Republican leadership's, embrace of Trump then, or refusal to disavow him now.

I hope she won't write a sequel.… (meer)