Press four years of chaos under Trump in the White House between two book covers? Practically impossible. And yet some authors tried again – with the help of the ex-president himself. What does it say?
What is Carlos Lozada thinking right now?
So many books have appeared on Donald Trump and his presidency that there is already a book on Trump books. Lozada wrote it, so it says: “What were we thinking”.
The literary critic of the Washington Post had to find an explanation for this bizarre episode in US politics. Four years and almost 150 books later, he presented his “Trump Study”, as Lozada dryly describes his work. That was in October 2020.
A lot has happened since then. And should the Trump scholar still claim to be complete, he should still have a few book meters to cope with.
This is how the new impetus for Trump browsing came about
In the past few weeks, numerous tomes of knowledge have been published that highlight Trump’s last days in the West Wing throw. And of course they are riddled with countless embarrassments, antics and political explosives. She recently asked herself: “Is there anything to read about Trump at this point that could shock you?”
Indeed: a politician who has been exposed and illuminated on such a large scale is unlikely to have existed before. In this respect, the real hit of the new reading lies beyond its content.
Because Trump spoke to dozens of authors personally for the new momentum in browsing, in some cases even invited them to dinner in his luxury property Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Since he handed over the keys of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the new home owner Joe Biden, he is said to have had at least 22 conversations for 17 different books, reported the US portal.
What does Trump want to achieve?
But why? Michael Wolff can only explain it this way: “For Trump, almost only media attention counts, regardless of whether it is positive or negative.”
The notorious gossip reporter should know what he is talking about: After his debut about Trump (“Fire and Anger”) produced several headlines,. For his third Trump book, the protagonist invited him to dinner – with himself and his wife Melania. “He sees it this way: There’s a guy who sells a lot of books, so why not?” Wolff said to him. Judging by the many, the strategy seems to have worked.
In any case, there is no question that Trump is more interested in remaining in the conversation instead of statesmanlike looking back on his time as US President. He held many discussions with the authors officially, i.e. not in the background, as journalists call it: This allows the authors to quote Trump by name. A rogue who thinks Trump might have aimed to read his name continuously in the course of the reporting.
But also anonymous sources and former employees are used in the new books to press a distillate from Trump’s last days between two book covers. Perhaps reading them may no longer necessarily shock you (in view of the serenity that readers may have developed malice, hatred and agitation after four years). But “taken together, these Trump books show how close the United States was to a catastrophe,” he writes.
That’s in the new Trump books
Keyword: corona pandemic. In “Nightmare Scenario” the “Washington Post” journalists Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta describe. Accordingly, at the beginning of the pandemic, the then president is said to have considered sending infected compatriots to quarantine in the Guantánamo prison camp after returning from vacation. “Do we not have an island that we own?” Trump is said to have asked in the White House in February 2020 before the virus spread dramatically in the United States. And then: “What about Guantánamo?” Trump advisors were stunned, wrote the Washington Post, which published a preprint. Ultimately, the idea was rejected because the advisors were concerned about the public reaction.
Stichwort: Black Lives Matter. In “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” the Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender writes that Trump supported the demonstrators – who protested across the country after the death of Black George Floyd by a white police officer. Accordingly, he is said to have asked the emergency services to break the protesters’ skulls (“crack skulls”), beat them up (“beat the fuck out”) and shoot them (“just shoot them”). According to Bender, Trump’s then Justice Minister William Barr is said to have entered into fundamental opposition, whereupon the angry president weakened his demands: “Then shoot them in the leg – or maybe in the foot. But be tough on them!” Trump is quoted as saying.
Keyword: Assault on the Capitol. In “I Alone Can Fix This” the Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report on the concerns of the then US Chief of Staff Mark Milley to keep Trump in office. A few days before the deadly assault on the Capitol on January 6, Milley is said to have said in front of confidants: “This is a moment in the Reichstag”, “the Fuhrer’s message of faith”. Trump had repeatedly made allegations of alleged electoral fraud following his loss in the presidential election.
With his remarks, Milley drew parallels with the Reichstag fire. The National Socialists used a fire caused by arson in the German parliament in 1933 to consolidate their dictatorship. Trump reacted promptly after the relevant passages were published in advance: he had never threatened a coup or talked to anyone about a coup.
There is no doubt that Trump is still downplaying the events outside the Capitol. The statements were taped for the book “I Alone Can Fix This.” And it was also a loving crowd, by the way. There was a lot of love. I’ve heard that from everyone, “said Trump, according to a reporter Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker. Trump believed it was the largest crowd he’d ever spoken to, Trump said.
His supporters stormed the seat of the US Congress in Washington on January 6th. Five people were killed, including a Capitol policeman. Trump had to face impeachment proceedings because of the attack because he had previously incited his supporters in a speech. At the end of the trial, he was acquitted.
Keyword: Trump’s weakness for dictators and despots. It is not news that Trump has a fascination for autocrats – he was cherished with North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-un. But one remark left Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly “stunned”, writes “Wall Street Journal” reporter Michael Bender in “Frankly, We Did Win This Election”. On a trip to Europe in 2018, the US President is said to have said to him: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good.” The occasion of the visit was the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Bender goes on to write that Trump made the remark during an impromptu history lesson in which Kelly “reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict” and “linked the dots from World War I to World War II and all of Hitler’s atrocities “.
Trump denied making the benevolent remark about Hitler. However, author Bender cites several anonymous sources who report that the chief of staff “warned the president that he was wrong, but Trump did not let himself be swayed”, particularly highlighting Germany’s economic recovery under Hitler in the 1930s. “Kelly shot back again,” writes Bender, “and argued that the German people would have been better poor than having been exposed to the Nazi genocide.” According to Bender, Trump was warned by Kelly that even if his claim about the German economy were true, “You must never say anything that Adolf Hitler supports. You just can’t.”
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