The many faces of Trump: nine books to help you understand the new US president
Few figures have generated as much heat and controversy as the 45th president of the United States. These nine books – scathing, satirical, sympathetic – will shed some light on him
It’s safe to say that in the past year no figure on the American scene has generated more ink than US President Donald Trump. The publishing industry has repackaged old volumes about the real estate developer and reality TV star and generated new ones on his rise to the White House.
Here are nine books – sympathetic, scathing or satirical – to better understand the new President and his victory.
Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America
by Donald J. Trump
Threshold Editions
What a difference a year makes. When this campaign jeremiad was published in 2015 it was titled Crippled America and featured a scowling Trump on the cover. Reissued in paperback, it got a more upbeat title and a kinder, gentler photo of the author.
Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth - the Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention
by Wayne Barrett
Regan Arts
First published in 1992, this exposé by a long-time investigative reporter at the Village Voice grew out of 13 years of covering the real estate developer in the late 1970s and 1980s. It has been reissued with a new introduction by the author.
The Truth about Trump
by Michael D’Antonio
St. Martin’s
This bio by a former Newsday reporter had its own title/cover makeover since it was first published as Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Successin 2015. D’Antonio interviewed his subject, along with many others, to fashion a portrait of a man “unrivalled … in his ability to capture and hold the attention of the American public”.
The Making of Donald Trump
by David Cay Johnston
Melville House
A former reporter for The New York Times and other publications, Johnston penned this portrait after about 30 years of covering Trump. The author’s objective? “To make sure Americans know a fuller story about Trump than the one he has polished and promoted with such exceptional skill and determination.”
Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President
by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher
Scribner
Written by two Washington Post staffers – and researched and reported by more than 20 during the 2016 campaign – this biographical study aims to be “definitive”, as the subtitle has it. The book’s subject wasn’t buying it: “Don’t buy, boring” he tweeted on the eve of its publication.
Trump: A Graphic Biography
by Ted Rall
Seven Stories
This syndicated political cartoonist, who has written and illustrated Snowden and Bernie, turned his attention to Trump after he clinched the Republican nomination last year. Rall begins his book not with his subject’s birth in Queens in 1946 but with a story about the erosion of the middle class in America.
The Day of the Donald: Trump Trumps America
by Andrew Shaffer
Crooked Lane
Billed as “a completely untrue, utterly unauthorised, but not thoroughly impossible thriller”, this satirical novel is set in 2018, when the Trump name has been emblazoned on the White House facade and the Even Greater Wall along the Mexican border is under construction.
Yuge! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump
by G.B. Trudeau
Andrews McMeel
The US president has been popping up in Trudeau’s comic strip since the 1980s. The cartoonist told The New York Times that his Trump was “a fully formed toon who interacted with the other characters as a peer. It didn’t matter if people knew he was commuting in from real life.”
The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution
by Roger Stone
Skyhorse
The former Trump campaign adviser and author of several provocative books such as The Man Who Killed Kennedy (apparently LBJ did it), takes a page from Theodore H. White and revisits the 2016 campaign to analyse how Trump pulled off an electoral victory that most political pundits thought was impossible. The book is scheduled for publication later this month.
