First published 2020
Jeremy Scahill examines how Donald Trump's unexpected 2016 election victory over Hillary Clinton revealed hidden fractures in American political power. Trump brought chaos, incompetence, corruption and cruelty to the presidency while showing clear attraction to authoritarianism and international dictators. This threatened vulnerable populations both domestically and globally. Yet Trump also proved skilled at enraging the elite bipartisan establishment, drawing their strongest criticism when he challenged core assumptions of American imperialism. His late 2018 announcement of Syrian troop withdrawal and similar Afghanistan pledge triggered immediate alarm from powerful Democrats and Republicans. His public comparison of the CIA to Nazis after winning office marked an unprecedented moment in US history. Scahill argues that Trump's rise exposed a previously hidden sacred alliance between hawkish Democratic Party leaders and extreme right wing neoconservatives, revealing how these seemingly opposed forces actually share fundamental commitments to American military dominance abroad.
Genres: history, american, political-science, politics, non-fiction, 21st-century, current-affairs, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, expose, political-commentary
Setting: United States
Period: 2016, 2018
300 pages · Paperback · Haymarket Books
Content warnings: abuse