Front Row at the Trump Show
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
*The Instant New York Times Bestseller*
“A book historians will relish.”—Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal
"Must read. I've read every book about the Trump presidency. This is the best."—Bill Press
An account like no other, from the White House reporter who has known President Donald Trump for more than 25 years.
We have never seen a president like this...norm-breaking, rule-busting, dangerously reckless to some and an overdue force for change to others. One thing is clear: We are witnessing the reshaping of the presidency.
Jonathan Karl brings us into the White House in a powerful book unlike any other on the Trump administration. He’s known and covered Donald Trump longer than any other White House reporter. With extraordinary access to Trump during the campaign and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Karl delivers essential new reporting and surprising insights.
These are the behind-the-scenes moments that define Trump’s presidency--an extraordinary look at the president, the person, and those closest to him. This is the real story of Trump’s unlikely rise; of the struggles and battles of those who work in the administration and those who report on it; of the plots and schemes of a senior staff enduring stunning and unprecedented unpredictability.
Karl takes us from a TV set turned campaign office to the strange quiet of Trump’s White House on Inauguration Day to a high-powered reelection campaign set to change the country’s course. He shows us an administration rewriting the role of the president on the fly and a press corps that has never been more vital. Above all, this book is only possible because of the surprisingly open relationship Donald Trump has had with Jonathan Karl, a reporter he has praised, fought, and branded an enemy of the people.
This is Front Row at the Trump Show.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
ABC News correspondent Karl (The Right to Bear Arms) offers a blow-by-blow chronicle of Donald Trump's path to the White House in this detailed yet disappointing account that concludes two months before impeachment. Though Karl credits Trump with "pulling off the greatest political upset in American history" and carefully notes that all presidents have "bitterly complained" about their press coverage, he condemns the Trump administration for waging a "war on truth" and "pour rocket fuel" on America's political divisions. His litany of evidence includes a 2013 TV interview in which Trump refused to take the "golden opportunity" to walk back claims that President Obama wasn't born in the U.S.; White House press secretary Sarah Sanders lying to reporters about air strikes against Syria; and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admitting, in response to Karl's question, that Ukrainian military aid had been withheld for political reasons, then denying the admission. Karl delivers a plethora of insider anecdotes, but his analysis of the administration's impact on democratic norms feels shallow, and his tendency toward self-congratulation grates. (Is it really necessary to know that Anthony Scaramucci thought Karl's exchange with Mulvaney over the Ukraine affair was "the question that saved America"?). Readers searching for headline-worthy insights into the Trump White House should look elsewhere.
