My Amazon Review of Maggie Haberman's "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America"

Sleazeball

Perhaps like no other reporter, Maggie Haberman knows Donald Trump. In fact, Trump calls her his psychiatrist. Although Haberman now writes for the “hoity toity" New York Times, she cut her journalistic teeth writing for the two “peoples dailies” of New York, the Post, and the Daily News. It was in the tabloid hothouse of the 1980’s and 90’s that Trump found his way to great fame and Haberman was there to chronicle it. This was the world of Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, Roy Cohn Al Sharpton, heightened racial antagonisms, and the Central Park 5. It was also the world of Trump’s tabloid divorce from Ivanna and his affair and later marriage to Marla “the best sex I ever had” Maples.

 

Into this world came this very narcissistic and resentful kid from Queens. Although born with a silver spoon in his mouth from his very successful outer-borough developer father, Trump felt like an outsider in the very clubby world of New York real estate, a male Eva Peron if you will. Later, as a presidential candidate, he would channel and enlarge his resentment of the Manhattan elites into a broader criticism of the bi-coastal elites to gain the support of a large swath of Americans who felt condescended to by those very same elites.

 

I too am a kid from Queens. Maybe it takes one to know one. I met Trump only once in business meeting in January 1992 when Trump was in the middle of his divorce and effectively bankrupt. His early real estate empire was built on debts that came crashing down on him in the 1990 real estate recession. I came away from the meeting thinking Trump was a sleazeball not worthy of doing business with. That was true of all but one of the major banks. Unfortunately, what was so obvious to me wasn’t so obvious to the millions of Americans who later voted for him.

 

Haberman’s book is much more than Trump in New York. She covers his Apprentice TV show and White House years. Throughout all of that time a consistent pattern of his being a congenital liar rings true and his tenure in the White House was consistent with his life in Manhattan in the 1980’s.  Haberman is correct that there is a straight line from Trump’s life in Queens to the White House. Her book is therefore an important addition to our understanding of the 45^th president of the United States.

For the full Amazon URL see: Sleazeball (amazon.com) It appears that Amazon has taken down this review.(11/3/22) I am looking into it. Review restored under new URL:Sleaze (amazon.com)

My Amazon Review of Jake Tapper's "The Hellfire Club"

The Deep State

At a time when there is real paranoia about “the deep state” CNN anchor Jake Tapper lends credibility to those charges. Why is he doing it? His book is set in early 1950s Washington where Joe McCarthy reigns and a deep state exists in the form of the Hellfire Club where legislators mix with lobbyists and executive branch members. Members of the club include McCarthy, the Kennedy brothers and the Dulles brothers, truly a bipartisan cabal.

Into this mix comes Charlie Marder, an appointed Congressman a professor out of Columbia University and prior to that a war hero. He is there with his zoologist wife Margaret and we watch her dismay as Charlie’s good intentions sink into the muck of Washington D.C.  We find dead bodies, blackmail, influence peddling and McCarthy getting with his buddy Roy Cohn getting more and more out of control. Above it all stands President Eisenhower who is steering a moderate path amidst the craziness. But make no mistake, the Hellfire Club represents the deep state and it is modeled after an 18^th Century British Club of the same name and purpose.

Tapper has a fine sense for detail about the era and he did his research on the wild ponies of the Maryland shore that Margaret is studying. However as much as he tried the book doesn’t quite hold together and at many time it strains credulity. It seems to me there is more fluff than substance.

The full Amazon URL appears at: https://www.amazon.com/review/R24EYYKSCIQR0/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv