Blowback
A Warning to Save Democracy from Trump's Revenge
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- USD 14.99
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- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
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.
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Taylor, the former Homeland Security official who anonymously denounced the Trump administration in 2019's A Warning, returns with a mixed-bag thought experiment on what would happen if the "Make America Great Again movement does the unthinkable and retakes the White House." Noting that Trump got pushback from the "adults" in the room, Taylor claims that those guardrails would not be present in a second term. Even if a "savvier successor," rather than Trump himself, wins the presidency, distrust of the federal bureaucracy and the instinct to distort reality will rule the day. Taylor identifies numerous areas of concern, including an October 2020 executive order that would have allowed Trump "to strip large parts of the federal workforce of their employment protections." Though President Biden repealed the order, it could be revived by Trump or a "Trump-like figure," leading to a "mass exodus" of competent, experienced, and law-abiding officials. Throughout, Taylor interweaves snapshots of his life before and after he went public as the author of A Warning, revealing how his relationships and mental health suffered. Unfortunately, the book's rhetorical flourishes, including a scene set in 2019 in which Taylor suggests that Trump was about to push the "nuclear button" in the Oval Office, then reveals he was simply ordering a Diet Coke, undermine its core message. This is a disappointment.
