Read this as part of cbr14bingo: time. Maggie Haberman connects Donald Trump’s presidency to his upbringing, rise, fall, and rebirth in New York City. By covering one aspect of time, we learn how the city and the country made the man…and how he would eventually remake the country.
An aside: The cover art is from The Washington Post’s review of Haberman’s book. I loved it, though I’m out of free articles and have no idea who to credit with it.
Ever since his presidency mercifully ended, I’ve had a tough time diving into books about Trump. I read Michael Wolff’s because it was an easy read and I got through the Seth Rich book in spite of myself but other than that, I’ve put down a lot of works. I simply don’t have the interest in reliving those awful four years.
Maggie Haberman does the kind of post-Watergate palace journalism that I loathe, where she trades favorability for access. It’s less an issue with Haberman (hate the game, after all) and more one with what we expect from our politicians and the people who report on them.
I was gonna pass on her book the way I passed on most of the other new ones but when I read that she was going to extensively cover Trump’s New York years, I decided to dive in.
I’ve always been fascinated with Trump’s time in the Big Apple. I’ve never been able to get through Wayne Barrett’s thorough but impenetrable work. Harry Hurt, III’s is probably the best I’ve read. Mary Trump’s isn’t bad either.
Haberman does a good enough job. It doesn’t cover a lot I didn’t already know but it provides some clarity on Trump’s transition from failed real estate mogul to TV star on The Apprentice, which for my money is the biggest reputation laundering scheme in American history. Break up NBC and sell it off to pay us all for enduring those four years but I digress.
Anyway, it finally gets to the presidency and again, there’s not much I didn’t already know. Of course, Haberman had her bombshell in the way that everyone who wrote a book about the Trump White House has a bombshell. But other than that, it trods familiar ground.
This will be a great text for folks who are wondering what the hell happened. Haberman’s a talented writer, the narrative flows well. But she doesn’t do a great job tying the threads of New York and Washington together, so the book still reads like most of the others. If you’re curious, grab it, I guess. There will probably be better ones written.
