Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from Trump's Revenge

by Miles Taylor

Overview

The author behind the “eye-popping” (CNN) #1 New York Times bestseller A Warning presents an urgent look at how our deeply divided nation is setting the stage for “The Next Trump.”

After a chaotic and violent first Trump presidency, Miles Taylor knew one thing for sure: Trump would be president again, whether he was on the ballot or not. Taylor knew intimately that Trumpism was overtaking the Republican Party and was bound to mount a vigorous comeback. Now, following the 2024 presidential election, his prophecy has come true.

With Blowback, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Through interviews with dozens of ex-Trump aides and government leaders, Taylor predicted what could happen inside “Trump 2.0.” What sounds like a political thriller—from questionable presidential powers and CIA betrayals to angry henchmen and assassination plots—is instead America’s political reality, as Taylor uses untold stories to shed light on the ex-President’s unfulfilled plans, the dark forces haunting our lives, and how we can thwart the rise of extremism in the United States.

Blowback is also a surprisingly emotional and self-critical portrait of a dissenter, whose own unmasking provides a vivid warning about what happens when we hide the truth from others and, most importantly, ourselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668015995
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Miles Taylor is a national security expert who works in Washington, DC. Taylor previously served as chief of staff at the US Department of Homeland Security, where he published an “Anonymous” essay in The New York Times, blowing the whistle on presidential misconduct. He later published the #1 national bestseller A Warning, revealed himself to be the author, and launched a campaign of ex-officials to oppose Donald Trump’s reelection. He’s worked as an advisor in the George W. Bush administration, on Capitol Hill, as a CNN contributor, and is the cofounder of a DC-based charter school and multiple democracy-reform groups. Taylor received his MPhil in international relations from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar and BA from Indiana University as a Harry S. Truman scholar.

Read an Excerpt

PROLOGUE
October 30, 2020
The sky was cloudy and sullen, as if strewn with ash plumes. I exited the hotel, baseball cap and sunglasses in place, and crossed the street. Aware of everyone, talking to no one. A woman walked her dog. A man in a camouflage hat smoked a cigarette at the corner, while skateboarders weaved in and out of the bike lane. The smell of firewood smoke signaled the arrival of my favorite season, though on this morning, it barely registered. Around the block, I slipped into a bakery 
for coffee and a biscuit, keeping my sunglasses on while waiting at the counter. The food lived up to the description, slow-cooked.

Outside again, I walked back to the hotel. A pair of eyes stopped me. The same camo-hat guy from earlier was leaning on a truck, holding my gaze down the street. Something wasn’t right. I changed directions as if I’d forgotten something, rerouting toward my parked car on the other side of the road. Settling into the driver’s seat, I holstered the coffee in the cupholder and watched the man in the rearview mirror. He dropped his cigarette and flattened it with a twist of his boot.

I pulled out of the parking space, planning to do a lap around the block to shake the suspicion. Headlights lit up behind me, and the truck pulled out, too.
It’s a coincidence. Calm down.

As I wound through the still-sleepy North Carolina town—knowing it no better than the distance covered by my high beams in the dim morning—the man seemed to stay with me. Right turn. Left turn. I was being followed, stalked maybe.

I sped a little faster along Asheville’s streets and recalled advice from an ex-CIA mentor. Time. Distance. Direction. It was a technique called a “surveillance detection route.” You tested whether someone was following you by measuring how long, how far, and how directly they remained on your tail. I tried to cool my nerves by running an ad hoc route, even though I had no idea where I was. I vectored away from downtown and took unusual turns, continually checking my rearview mirror.

On the outskirts of Asheville, the truck was still behind me. My heartbeat throbbed in my ears, racing so fast I worried that when it slowed I’d pass out at the wheel. I veered toward the shoulder and braked abruptly. My car shuddered to a halt over the gravel and kicked up a dishwater dust cloud. The truck drove onward and took the highway on-ramp, seemingly oblivious to my abrupt stop. I drove to a nearby parking garage and sat inside waiting, just to be sure. The street was quiet. The truck, nowhere to be seen.

You’re losing it, man.

The paranoia was metastasizing. Before daybreak, I had received a note from a U.S. Secret Service agent: “You should get a security team, fast. I can connect you.” And another from a Silicon Valley billionaire: “I’ll pay your protection costs.” While these were generous offers, I was five hundred miles from home, so for now, I was on my own.

It had started the prior afternoon. The president of the United States launched an “all-out assault” against me (as one news outlet put it) while in Tampa, Florida, at a campaign rally. Or was it a mob riot?

"Bad things are going to happen to him!” Trump warned ominously about the “horrible,” “treasonous” Miles Taylor.

Are you listening to me back in Washington? He should be prosecuted!” he roared, face contorted with rage, apparently directing his words at the Justice Department. The audience lapped it up.

“Traitor!” they shouted back gleefully. His followers began to search for me, online and in real life.

Why? Because I had just deliberately blown my own cover, revealing myself to be a longtime Trump detractor and—most infuriatingly to the president—one of his former aides. Internal dissent was one of Trump’s worst fears. By his own admission, he had spent two years eyeing everyone who entered the Oval Office warily, wondering who in his midst was the elusive inside critic known only as “Anonymous.”

It was me.

Years earlier, I had written an unsigned essay from within the Trump administration, blowing the whistle on White House misconduct. As the unknown author, I detailed the president’s character defects, an administration in chaos, and the alarming views of Trump’s own cabinet members—some of whom contemplated invoking the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to remove the commander in chief amid the instability. I knew these anonymous revelations would lead to a tidal wave of attacks, but I also hoped they would persuade other rational Republicans to tell the truth about the man in the Oval Office.

I was right, at least about the tidal wave.

As I hunkered down in a North Carolina parking garage, Trump’s words from the rally—“Bad things are going to happen to him!”—replayed in my mind. I caught my breath.

No one is following you. You’ve taken all the precautions.

I had locked down my life before going public. While I will refrain from detailing the security measures or trip wires put in place (others are relying on the confidentiality of similar techniques to protect their families), I will note that I was obsessive. The process took months, and not all of it worked, as I soon found out. My accounts, devices, and phone numbers were all new, and my video backdrops became the peeling wallpaper of hotels, lest I give away my location while traveling the country to campaign against my former boss.

When I drove back into Asheville, the smoke-wood fog had burned off. It was light. An optimistic blue sky allayed my anxiety, until I got back to the hotel.

More vitriol had poured into my cell phone while I was gone, flooding the device. Emails, text messages, Twitter posts. They buzzed menacingly on the desk, each of them a digital grim reaper:

“Hope u die a slow painful death and suffer during the entire process, then burn in hell.”

"Your blood will be in the streets traitor.”

“Snitches get stitches.”

My data was littered across the web—my home address, new cell phone number, new email addresses, personal details about family members, and surprisingly accurate guesses about where I was holed up.

Time to go.

I packed my belongings, reloaded the car, and drove several hours east to Charlotte. In the crucial swing state, I planned to get out and triumphantly persuade voters to “put country over party!” by opposing Trump. Now I was little more than a prisoner reassigned to a new cell, shuttling between rented rooms booked under fake names.

Nighttime brought the first in a series of reckonings.

I placed a pillow over the loaded pistol that was my sidekick on the road trip and settled in, eyes on the door. My new accommodations were cheaper than the last, marked by the permeating smell of mold and mildew and by a rust-stained sink and tub. Mattress wires poked through a threadbare comforter, and an increasingly familiar emotion—doubt—did the same.

You think you’re clever? This was a mistake. You did this wrong. All of this.

Without the mask of anonymity, I felt exposed and, for the first time ever, hunted.

Editorial Reviews

To Taylor’s credit, “Blowback” is full of regret. By book’s end, Taylor has decided that anonymity itself, the mask he wore for years, “symbolizes the greatest threat to democracy. The most moving passages in the book are those in which Taylor wrestles not with political monsters, but with his own demons. The mask of anonymity is entwined with his alcoholism; his recovery only arrived when he spoke truthfully in his own name. Taylor describes how falsity gnaws at the soul. Courage doesn’t always come on time, but as many an addict has ruefully remarked, it’s better late than never.”—The New York Times

“Blowback reads like a thriller and hits you like a tornado siren. Miles Taylor has provided the most vivid and authoritative account yet of what a ‘Trump 2.0’ would look like. This is a warning that must be heeded.”—Lt. Col. Alex Vindman (ret), Former director, White House National Security Council and author of Here, Right Matters

“Another rousing plea to all Americans to stand against authoritarianism.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Miles Taylor's Blowback is a must-read as America faces the threat of a second Trump term...The people behind Trump’s new run are more authoritarian, more determined, and more dangerous than ever. Blowback lays out their plan and the risks it poses to the Republic. Terrifying, readable, and deeply important at this moment.”—Rick Wilson, author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, co-founder of the Lincoln Project

“Miles writes in his latest compelling book, ‘Truth is the final guardrail of our collective democracy.’ He takes us on his complicated, courageous journey to this truth through his poignant personal and professional path...Patriots are found in every corner of our country, and Miles is definitely one of them.”—Matthew Dowd, MSNBC political analyst

“Strap in for this one, folks!...Miles Taylor’s Blowback overwhelms the reader as it warns of complacency in the face political tribalism. Miles reaches into the darker corners of a once proud Republican Party to expose its extremism and embrace of MAGA; and shines the refreshing light of truth on a pathway with no guardrails.”—Michael Steele, Former Republican National Committee chairman

“Blowback is a compelling insider account, a prophecy, a warning, and a vivid illustration of just what is on the line for America in the next several years. Read it if you want to understand just how close to the edge we are as a country – and how we can pull back. Miles Taylor is a powerful, clear-eyed voice about the depth of the challenges we face as a nation.”—Andrew Yang, Former Democratic presidential candidate


“Blowback is quite simply the best and most frightening book written by an insider at the Trump White House. In this masterful tour de force, Miles Taylor not only exposes horrifying, previously unknown truths about our most divisive president, he convincingly shows that the breakdown of reason in the Trump years threatens America’s future. Taylor demonstrates that we cannot count on ‘adults in the room’ to rein in the worst instincts of an autocrat...only the public can save America with a recommitment to democracy. Without that, Blowback makes clear the great American experiment could well collapse in the face of rising autocracy.”—Kurt Eichenwald, New York Times best-selling author of Conspiracy of Fools and The Informant


“One of the few ways to prevent the rise of authoritarianism is to tell the truth about it. Miles Taylor is such a truth-teller and Blowback is a prophetic warning. Sometimes past is prologue. We need to listen and prepare.”—Richard Stengel, Former editor, TIME Magazine


“Taylor's cautionary narrative has a place in library collections for its compelling backstory and for its guidance for dissent against MAGA extremism. Americans will hope that Taylor is relaying obvious anti-democratic actions and not giving MAGA ideas.”—Booklist

From the Publisher

Eye-popping.”

CNN on A Warning

This audiobook is an exceptional listening experience because the author's dramatic narration is so perfectly suited to his captivating storytelling. With flinty vocal clarity and a sparkling delivery of quotes, he describes his experience as a Homeland Security official in Trump's administration who wrote an anonymous book about the president's antics and incompetence. His portraits of the president's cruel vendettas and clueless flirtations with global catastrophe are filled with suspense and told with disarming authenticity. But what will linger is Taylor's warning that, with or without Trump, the next wave of MAGA supporters will continue damaging the country's institutions and norms unless we take a fearless look at the movement and find a way to neutralize its grip on so many officials and voters. T.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

This audiobook is an exceptional listening experience because the author's dramatic narration is so perfectly suited to his captivating storytelling. With flinty vocal clarity and a sparkling delivery of quotes, he describes his experience as a Homeland Security official in Trump's administration who wrote an anonymous book about the president's antics and incompetence. His portraits of the president's cruel vendettas and clueless flirtations with global catastrophe are filled with suspense and told with disarming authenticity. But what will linger is Taylor's warning that, with or without Trump, the next wave of MAGA supporters will continue damaging the country's institutions and norms unless we take a fearless look at the movement and find a way to neutralize its grip on so many officials and voters. T.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2023 - AudioFile

2023-05-02
An urgent alarm about the nation’s future.

In a New York Times op-ed piece in 2018 and again in his book A Warning, both published anonymously, Taylor exposed the lies, corruption, and craziness within the Trump administration—of which he was a member—and argued vehemently against his reelection in 2020. Now facing the 2024 contest, Taylor reiterates his dire predictions. “The MAGA movement—or Trumpism, which I use interchangeably—remains the fastest-growing political coalition in America,” he contends. Even if Trump himself is not the Republican Party’s standard bearer, “the rule of a savvier successor” will promote the same policies, authoritarian postures, vindictiveness, and hatred. Taylor had an inside view of the administration, serving as a national security adviser under John Kelly at the Department of Homeland Security; when Kelly became Trump’s chief of staff, Taylor stayed on at the DHS. He witnessed a president who was impulsive, raging, and out of control, focused on building a wall on the southern border, to the exclusion of most else. Trump demanded protestations of loyalty, and he was quick to fire anyone who dared to cross him. Taylor predicts that “appointees in the next GOP White House will be heavily vetted for obedience,” and career civil servants will be ousted in favor of lackeys. There will be “what might be called the Two Houses of MAGA (the White House and a right-leaning House of Representatives)” that would “do each other’s bidding.” The culture wars—“guns, gays, and girls”—a GOP operative told Taylor, “will be the primary legislative agenda,” and the “Next Trump…will exacerbate political violence and push the nation to the brink of a Second Civil War.” The author urges citizens to speak out against extremism. “Social fear,” he writes, “is creating a mass bystander effect in our politics,” but “the final guardrail of our collective democracy,” he declares, is truth.

Another rousing plea to all Americans to stand against authoritarianism.

Kirkus Reviews