The Madman Theory

New York Times–bestselling author of The Return of Great Powers: A“compelling” study of the damage done to US national security by Donald Trump (Michael Isikoff, New York Times–bestselling author of Find Me the Votes).

From praising dictators to alienating allies, Trump made chaos his calling card. Was it a strategy, like Richard Nixon’s attempt to destabilize communist bloc countries by appearing just crazy enough to nuke them—the “madman theory”?

Trump praised Kim Jong-un and their “love notes,” admired and flattered Vladimir Putin, and gave a green light to Recep Tayyip Erdogan to invade Syria, while attacking US institutions and officials, ignoring the best information and intelligence available to him, and turning his back on allies from Canada and Mexico to NATO to Ukraine to the Kurds at war with ISIS. He continually caught the world off guard, but did it serve a purpose?

Jim Sciutto, a George Polk and Edward R. Murrow Award winner, shows how Trump’s supporters assumed he had a strategy—that he somehow played three-dimensional chess. Four years later, it was clear his unpredictable focus on short-term headlines did in fact lead to predictably mediocre results in both the short and long run. His foreign policy undermined American national security interests while leaving longtime allies isolated and vulnerable—and comforting and emboldening our enemies. The White House’s revolving door of staff demonstrated that Trump had no real plan; all serious policymakers—and those who would be a check on his most destructive impulses—were exiled or jumped ship.

Sciutto interviewed a wide swath of then-current and former administration officials to assemble the first comprehensive portrait of the impact of Trump’s erratic foreign policy. The Madman Theory is the definitive take on Trump’s calamitous legacy around the globe, showing how his proclivity for chaos created a world more unstable, violent, and impoverished than it had been before.

“An ominous warning.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Combines fine reporting with intelligent analysis in a way that is unusual and enlightening—and entertaining.” —William Kristol