Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic

by David Frum

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Bestselling author, former White House speechwriter, and Atlantic columnist and media commentator David Frum explains why President Trump has undermined our most important institutions in ways even the most critical media has missed, in this thoughtful and hard-hitting book that is a warning for democracy and America’s future.

"From Russia to South Africa, from Turkey to the Philippines, from Venezuela to Hungary, authoritarian leaders have smashed restraints on their power. Media freedom and judicial independence have eroded. The right to vote remains, but the right to have one’s vote counted fairly may not. Until the US presidential election of 2016, the global decline of democracy seemed a concern for other peoples in other lands. . . . That complacent optimism has been upended by the political rise of Donald Trump. The crisis is upon Americans, here and now."

Quietly, steadily, Trump and his administration are damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy, perhaps irrevocably. As he and his family enrich themselves, the presidency itself falls into the hands of the generals and financiers who surround him.

While much of the country has been focused on Russia, David Frum has been collecting the lies, obfuscations, and flagrant disregard for the traditional limits placed on the office of the presidency. In Trumpocracy, he documents how Trump and his administration are steadily damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy. During his own White House tenure as George W. Bush’s speechwriter, Frum witnessed the ways the presidency is limited not by law but by tradition, propriety, and public outcry, all now weakened. Whether the Trump presidency lasts two, four, or eight more years, he has changed the nature of the office for the worse, and likely for decades.

In this powerful and eye-opening book, Frum makes clear that the hard work of recovery starts at home. Trumpocracy outlines how Trump could push America toward illiberalism, what the consequences could be for our nation and our everyday lives, and what we can do to prevent it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062796745
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,156,721
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Frum is a senior editor at the Atlantic and the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller Trumpocracy. From 2001 to 2002, he served as a speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. He and his wife, Danielle Crittenden Frum, live in Washington, DC, and Wellington, Ontario. They have three children.

Table of Contents

Preface IX

Introduction XXIII

Chapter 1 Pre-Existing Conditions 1

Chapter 2 Enablers 15

Chapter 3 Appeasers 33

Chapter 4 Plunder 51

Chapter 5 Betrayals 71

Chapter 6 Enemies of the People 103

Chapter 7 Rigged System 125

Chapter 8 America Alone 147

Chapter 9 Autoimmune Disorder 171

Chapter 10 Resentments 189

Chapter 11 Believers 205

Chapter 12 Hope 219

Acknowledgments 237

Notes 239

Index 285

Editorial Reviews

All but the most determined Trump enthusiasts should feel pin pricks of recognition and...a queasy discomfort.” — New York Times

“A far more rewarding book than Fire and Fury.” — Financial Times

“Magnificent.…The wisdom of the final chapter in particular absolutely floored me.” — Laurence Tribe

“No conservative has been a more astute, unsparing or courageous critic of Trumpism than David Frum. Trumpocracy is a powerful summation of the case against Trump based on a close reading of his first year in office. Even those who have followed the Trump administration closely will find much to surprise and enrage them in Frum’s devastating analysis.A must-read to understand what we went through in 2017—and where we are going next.” — Max Boot, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies, Council on Foreign Relations

“With precision and even eloquence, Frum details how the Trump campaign and administration has damaged American institutions and the American psyche. For those who oppose Trumpism, this is a clarion call.” — Booklist

 “The most important new book about the dangers of Donald Trump’s presidency” — San Francisco Chronicle

“In the midst of all the Trump-fueled hysteria and Trump-related gossip, it’s a godsend to have David Frum lay out the case against Trump and his kleptocracy in this measured, insightful, and scrupulously researched book. He builds his argument with the precision of a prosecuting attorney, and writes about it in the riveting style of a thriller writer.  This is an essential guide to the malevolent tragedy that is Trumpocracy.” — Robert De Niro

“Fascism did not rise in the 30’s because it was strong but rather because Democracy was weak. David Frum has written an essential book for a time when the pillars and norms of American Democracy are under threat from the leaders pledged to preserve it.” — Stephen Schmidt, strategist for George W. Bush, John Mccain, and Arnold Schwarzenegger

“An outstanding chronicle of the unending corruption, deceit, and chaos that acts as rocket fuel for the administration, and ego, of President Donald J. Trump. This is a brilliant book of a frightening American present, it is also an honest discussion of the gifts a Trump Presidency has unwittingly revealed.” — Malcolm Nance, author of The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and Wikileaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election

“Frum charts the erosion of democratic principles over the course of Donald Trump’s campaign and first year in office, enumerating both the president’s own improprieties and the misdeeds of his various advisers and hangers-on. Frum’s incisive prose and optimism set this apart.” — Publishers Weekly

“Evenhanded, ideologically consistent, and guaranteed to generate a slew of angry tweets should a copy land at the White House.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

An outstanding chronicle of the unending corruption, deceit, and chaos that acts as rocket fuel for the administration, and ego, of President Donald J. Trump. This is a brilliant book of a frightening American present, it is also an honest discussion of the gifts a Trump Presidency has unwittingly revealed.

Malcolm Nance

Magnificent.…The wisdom of the final chapter in particular absolutely floored me.

Laurence Tribe

Fascism did not rise in the 30’s because it was strong but rather because Democracy was weak. David Frum has written an essential book for a time when the pillars and norms of American Democracy are under threat from the leaders pledged to preserve it.

Stephen Schmidt

All but the most determined Trump enthusiasts should feel pin pricks of recognition and...a queasy discomfort.

New York Times

In the midst of all the Trump-fueled hysteria and Trump-related gossip, it’s a godsend to have David Frum lay out the case against Trump and his kleptocracy in this measured, insightful, and scrupulously researched book. He builds his argument with the precision of a prosecuting attorney, and writes about it in the riveting style of a thriller writer.  This is an essential guide to the malevolent tragedy that is Trumpocracy.

Robert De Niro

No conservative has been a more astute, unsparing or courageous critic of Trumpism than David Frum. Trumpocracy is a powerful summation of the case against Trump based on a close reading of his first year in office. Even those who have followed the Trump administration closely will find much to surprise and enrage them in Frum’s devastating analysis.A must-read to understand what we went through in 2017—and where we are going next.

Max Boot

With precision and even eloquence, Frum details how the Trump campaign and administration has damaged American institutions and the American psyche. For those who oppose Trumpism, this is a clarion call.

Booklist

A far more rewarding book than Fire and Fury.

Financial Times

 “The most important new book about the dangers of Donald Trump’s presidency

San Francisco Chronicle

Trump's election has set off a furious competition among America's pundits to explain what is going on: The most depressing political story of our time is also the most exciting. David Frum has usually been at or near the front of the pundit pack with a succession of articles in The Atlantic, where he is a senior editor. Most commentators are dyed-in-the-wool liberals who exhausted the language of fulmination during George W. Bush's presidency. Frum worked for Bush and even had a hand in writing his "axis of evil" speech. Most commentators regard conservative America as an alien land inhabited by monsters. Frum has been writing sharp but sympathetic books on that land since his first, Dead Right, on the weaknesses of Reaganism, in 1994. The central theme in Frum's excellent new book, Trumpocracy…is what Trump's career tells us about the deeper structural problems of America in general, and conservative America in particular.

The New York Times Book Review - Adrian Wooldridge

Among Frum's fellow Republicans who read this book, all but the most determined Trump enthusiasts should feel pin pricks of recognition and, depending on how much hypocrisy they can live with, a queasy discomfort. Frum relishes going on the attack, and he castigates members of a Republican establishment who have lain any pretensions to moral rectitude on the altar of a tax cut.

The New York Times - Jennifer Szalai

01/01/2018
Frum (The Right Man), an Atlantic senior editor, charts the erosion of democratic principles over the course of Donald Trump’s campaign and first year in office, enumerating both the president’s own improprieties and the misdeeds of his various advisers and hangers-on. Frum eloquently places the blame squarely on “the aggrandizement of one domineering man and his shamelessly grasping extended family,” whom he describes as trading in conspiracy theories and “alternative facts,” using their government positions to shill for real estate deals overseas, and engaging in borderline-treasonous conversations with Russian officials. He also shames those he deems complicit, including various Fox News hosts, short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and “brazen” political strategist Kellyanne Conway. Frum further notes that Trump has turned on the country’s most trusted international allies in favor of “the planet’s thugs, crooks, and dictators.” Frum urges readers to “aspire to a deeper citizenship and wider loyalties,” and conservatives, among whom he includes himself, to embrace a more moderate ideology. Denunciations of the current administration are ubiquitous, but Frum’s incisive prose and optimism—notably, regarding the chances of returning decency and integrity to the Republican Party—set this apart. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

A far more rewarding book than Fire and Fury.

Financial Times

With precision and even eloquence, Frum details how the Trump campaign and administration has damaged American institutions and the American psyche. For those who oppose Trumpism, this is a clarion call.

Booklist

The most important new book about the dangers of Donald Trump’s presidency

San Francisco Chronicle

All but the most determined Trump enthusiasts should feel pin pricks of recognition and...a queasy discomfort.

The New York Times

2017-11-14
The conservative stalwart takes measure of the current administration and finds it sadly wanting—and dangerous, and immoral, and….Atlantic senior editor Frum (Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, 2007, etc.) finds the Trump White House pointed evidence of declining faith in democracy. However, the thing to worry about, he writes, "is not the bold overthrow of the Constitution, but the stealthy paralysis of governance" and complete disregard for the "rules of the game" on which constitutional democracy is founded. Clearly, the author holds Trump in contempt; just as plainly, he gives Trump credit for the political cunning that enabled him to leverage such things as the birther hoax to capture a sizable segment of an embittered, angry populace. What bothers Frum is less the specter of a buffoonish bully than the acquiescence of the Republican Party. He writes, "the most radical attack on American norms of governance in his first year was attempted not by Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Anthony Scaramucci, or any other late-night demon figure, but by the regular Republicans of the House and Senate." The author goes on to reckon with a host of factors that led to the current debacle, from racial tension and economic insecurity to the self-interested demands of baby boomers and the unholy wedding of the institutional GOP to a president who is, by all evidence, creating a third party. Against all this, refreshingly, Frum finds hope that the Trump administration will be remembered "as the end of something bad, and not the beginning of something worse." In support of this qualified optimism, he notes that even as Trump continues to occupy the White House, other bullies and abusers have toppled, while the left has come to have a newfound appreciation of national security and elements of the right are accepting that government can, in fact, be a force for good.Evenhanded, ideologically consistent, and guaranteed to generate a slew of angry tweets should a copy land at the White House.

Kirkus Reviews