The Ordinary Presidency of Donald J. Trump


Book Description

The presidency of Donald J. Trump is rather ordinary. Trump himself may be the most unusual, unorthodox and unconventional president the US has ever had. Yet, even with his extraordinary personality and approach to the job, his presidency is proving quite ordinary in its accomplishments and outcomes, both at home and abroad. Like most modern US presidents, the number and scope of Trump’s achievements are rather meager. Despite dramatic claims to a revolution in US politics, Trump simply has not achieved very much. Trump’s few policy achievements are also mostly mainstream Republican ones rather than the radical, anti-establishment, swamp-draining changes promised on the campaign trail. The populist insurgent who ran against Washington has followed a policy agenda largely in tune with conservative Republican traditions. The Ordinary Presidency of Donald J. Trump provides a detailed explanation for the discrepancy between Trump’s extraordinary approach and the relative mediocrity of his achievements. Ironically, it is precisely Trump’s extraordinariness as president that has helped render his presidency ordinary.




Let Trump Be Trump


Book Description

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.




A Case for the American People


Book Description

The Democrats’ special impeachment counsel on the House Judiciary Committee lays out President Trump’s shocking pattern of betrayals, lies, and high crimes, arguing articles of impeachment to the ultimate judges: the American people. 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.




Never Enough


Book Description

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.




The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump


Book Description

As this bestseller predicted, Trump has only grown more erratic and dangerous as the pressures on him mount. This new edition includes new essays bringing the book up to date—because this is still not normal. Originally released in fall 2017, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump was a runaway bestseller. Alarmed Americans and international onlookers wanted to know: What is wrong with him? That question still plagues us. The Trump administration has proven as chaotic and destructive as its opponents feared, and the man at the center of it all remains a cipher. Constrained by the APA’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to weigh in on the issue have shied away from discussing it at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both. The prestigious mental health experts who have contributed to the revised and updated version of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump argue that their moral and civic "duty to warn" supersedes professional neutrality. Whatever affects him, affects the nation: From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond. With eight new essays (about one hundred pages of new material), this edition will cover the dangerous ramifications of Trump's unnatural state. It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his.




Trump - The Biography


Book Description

Aside from politics, this biography serves to illuminate the character, mindset, and personality of Trump in a never-before-seen way.




Global Media Perceptions of the United States


Book Description

A 2022 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title As a timely portrait of international perceptions and media coverage of the United States, this comprehensive collection reveals the global effects of the tumultuous environments and controversial views promoted during the Donald J. Trump presidency. More than thirty accomplished and prominent media, communication, and journalism scholars represent twenty countries with methodically researched assessments of their respective country’s major national newspapers, social media, or comprehensive public opinion surveys. Together, these analyses offer a unique cross-cultural approach that helps students and scholars understand the image of the USA and President Trump through the eyes of politicians, media personalities, and ordinary people across the globe.




Defender in Chief


Book Description

In Defender in Chief, celebrated constitutional scholar John Yoo makes a provocative case against Donald Trump's alleged disruption of constitutional rules and norms. Donald Trump isn't shredding the Constitution—he's its greatest defender. Ask any liberal—and many moderate conservatives—and they'll tell you that Donald Trump is a threat to the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution. Mainstream media outlets have reported fresh examples of alleged executive overreach or authoritarian White House decisions nearly every day of his presidency. In the 2020 primaries, the candidates have rushed to accuse Trump of destroying our democracy and jeopardizing our nation's very existence. Yoo argues that this charge has things exactly backwards. Far from considering Trump an inherent threat to our nation's founding principles, Yoo convincingly argues that Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton would have seen Trump as returning to their vision of presidential power, even at his most controversial. It is instead liberal opponents who would overthrow existing constitutional understanding in order to unseat Trump, but in getting their man would inflict permanent damage on the office of the presidency, the most important office in our constitutional system and the world. This provocative and engaging work is a compelling defense of an embattled president's ideas and actions.




Covering Politics in the Age of Trump


Book Description

Like politics, journalism has been turned topsy-turvy by the presidency of Donald Trump. Covering Politics in the Age of Trump takes a wide-ranging view of the relationship between the forty-fifth president and the Fourth Estate. In concise, illuminating, and often personal essays, twenty-four top journalists address topics such as growing concerns about political bias and journalistic objectivity; increasing consternation about the media’s use of anonymous sources; the practices journalists employ to gain access to wary administration officials; and reporters’ efforts to improve journalism in an era of twenty-four-hour cable news. Contributors include: Mark Ballard, Peter Bhatia, Rebecca Buck, Carl Cannon, Jill Colvin, Charlie Cook, McKay Coppins, Mary C. Curtis, Paul Farhi, Quint Forgey, Major Garrett, Ginger Gibson, “Fin” Gomez, Jesse J. Holland, Clark Hoyt, Sarah Isgur, Mark Leibovich, Ashley Parker, Fernando Pizarro, Tom Rosenstiel, Frank Sesno, Alexis Simendinger, Steve Thomma, and Salena Zito. The Trump administration’s contentious relationship with the media has altered the public’s expectations regarding the news and national politics. In Covering Politics in the Age of Trump, top political reporters explore this dynamic, relaying stories from the campaign trail to the briefing room that illustrate the new challenges faced by journalists working in the age of “fake news.”




The Toddler in Chief


Book Description

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. . . . And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”—An anonymous senior administrative official in an op-ed published in a New York Times op-ed, September 5, 2018 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.