Landslide
The Final Days of the Trump Presidency
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3.8 • 355 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An instant New York Times bestseller.
Critics agree: Michael Wolff’s Landslide is THE book on Trump.
“Landslide . . . is the one to leap upon. Smart, vivid and intrepid . . .” —The New York Times
“I inhaled Landslide, gobbled it up.” —Slate
“Wow. Just wow . . .” —Evening Standard
“Cruel, unforgiving, muckraking, scandalous. I couldn’t stop reading it.”—The Telegraph
We all witnessed some of the most shocking and confounding political events of our lifetime: the careening last stage of Donald J. Trump’s reelection campaign, the president’s audacious election challenge, the harrowing mayhem of January 6, the buffoonery of the second impeachment trial. But what was really going on in the inner sanctum of the White House during these calamitous events? What did the president and his dwindling cadre of loyalists actually believe? And what were they planning?
Michael Wolff pulled back the curtain on the Trump presidency with his #1 bestselling blockbuster Fire and Fury. Now, in Landslide, he closes the door on the presidency with a final, astonishingly candid account.
Wolff embedded himself in the White House in 2017 and gave us a vivid picture of the chaos that had descended on Washington. Almost four years later, Wolff finds the Oval Office even more chaotic and bizarre, a kind of Star Wars bar scene. At all times of the day, Trump, behind the Resolute desk, is surrounded by schemers and unqualified sycophants who spoon-feed him the “alternative facts” he hungers to hear—about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter protests, and, most of all, his chance of winning reelection. Once again, Wolff has gotten top-level access and takes us front row as Trump’s circle of plotters whittles down to the most enabling and the president reaches beyond the bounds of democracy as he entertains the idea of martial law and balks at calling off the insurrectionist mob that threatens the institution of democracy itself.
As the Trump presidency’s hold over the country spiraled out of control, an untold and human account of desperation, duplicity, and delusion was unfolding within the West Wing. Landslide is that story as only Michael Wolff can tell it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results were more of a chaotic "shit show" than a coordinated "Big Lie," according to this colorful if myopic account of the months leading up to Donald Trump's exit from the White House. In his third book about the Trump presidency (after Fire and Fury and Siege), journalist Wolff paints a scathing portrait of campaign staffers too fearful of Trump's ire to deliver actual poll results, a conspiracy-minded president wavering between overconfidence and deep suspicions that Democrats were rigging the election against him, and a motley collection of congressional "Dead Enders" (Mo Brooks, Jim Jordan) and oft-inebriated supporting players (Rudy Giuliani, Jeanine Pirro) willing to undermine democracy for a turn in the spotlight. Wolff traces the idea that Vice President Mike Pence could reject the election results and certify Trump as the winner to conservative constitutional lawyer John Eastman, who dismissed his own theory as "not likely," and depicts a one-on-one meeting, on the eve of the January 6 Capitol riot, where Trump pushed Pence to take action ("Do you want to be a patriot or a pussy?"). But while Wolff's anecdotes astound, he fails to put these events in a larger context, leaving the question of why Trump's "ham-handed" disinformation campaign convinced so many Americans unanswered. The result is a dismaying yet unenlightening rehash of recent events.
Customer Reviews
Like shooting fish in a barrel
I had great expectations I’d glean new insights into the craven mind of the subject of the book; I walked away, after reading every word, with all of three.
My impression; once you have access to the subject and know of his infinite character flaws, you can make him perform like a dog in a circus. All that was missing was Michael giving him a treat at the end of yet-another outrageous quote.
One thing is made DRAMATICALLY and EMPHATICALLY crystal-clear: under NO CIRCUMSTANCE should the subject be allowed in public again. He represents a clear and present danger to World Peace, to this day.
Scary
Deranged president. No way around it
Interesting, but Ultimately a Big Letdown
As good and better checked than the first 2 books. But the Epilogue was a flop. I felt like I was reading Page Six in the NY Post.