My Review of Josh Dawsey's, Tyler Pager's. and Isaac Arnsdorf's "2024: How Trump......."

Slow Motion Train Wreck

Washington journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf have written a personality-driven account of the 2024 presidential election. Starting in 2022 they take us behind the scenes of the Trump, Biden, and later Harris campaigns for the presidency. There is an inevitability to it all, but after all the book is an after the fact accounting of the election.

What the book lacks is a review of the structural backdrop to the election. There should have been tables of polling data on the relative popularity of the candidates along with the electorate’s view on whether the country was on the “right track” or the “wrong track.”

Much of the ground here was discussed in “Original Sin,” but that book ended with Biden dropping out of the race. (See: https://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2025/06/my-review-of-jake-tappers-and-alex.html) Both books are consistent in the view that Hunter Biden’s legal problems weighed greatly on Biden. The authors are sympathetic to Harris, but they do note her many unforced errors, specifically her failure to fully rebut her 2020 positions on hot button social issues, her failure to separate herself from Biden and picking the lackluster Tim Walz as her VP selection.

 

I learned much about the Trump campaign and how Suzie Wiles brought a modicum of discipline. She was instrumental in neutering Ron DeSantis, her former boss and the real rival to Trump. I also didn’t realize how important Steve Witkoff and Laura Loomer were to Trump. Witkoff was his consistent consigliere and is now a special ambassador to the Russia/Ukraine and the middle east. Loomer, despite being somewhat of an unguided missile, rallied support for Trump before and during the campaign.

 

The book also reinforced my view of Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff and campaign honcho. Klain instinct was always to seek support on the Left. This was true post-debate and well before, when he was in charge of policy. In my opinion it is was his predilections that kept Biden tacking Left while in office which, in my view, doomed his presidency.

 

This authors give us a real fly on the wall perspective to both campaigns, but I said at the outset, a full review of the structural parameters of the race would have been helpful.