RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewFrum has been writing sharp but sympathetic books on that land since his first, Dead Right, on the weaknesses of Reaganism, in 1994. The central theme in Frum’s excellent new book, Trumpocracy, which draws on his Atlantic articles, is what Trump’s career tells us about the deeper structural problems of America in general, and conservative America in particular ... Frum argues that Trump’s greatest talent — his genius really — is spotting and exploiting weaknesses ... What does Trump want to do with all his power? The answer, Frum argues, certainly does not lie in helping the white working class that put him in the White House ... It lies instead in 'the aggrandizement of one domineering man and his shamelessly grasping extended family.' The essence of Trumponomics is running a country just as you run your family business... But the bigger task is to eliminate the weaknesses that have produced Trumpism. Frum rightly points out that these are broad as well as deep.
E. J. Dionne Jr.
MixedThe New York Times Review of BooksDionne brings some notable qualities to telling this story: E.?J. the Brookings scholar knows the academic literature inside out while E.?J. the journalist is on first-name terms with many leading conservatives. Dionne is notably fair-minded. Though he makes no bones about his own liberal sympathies, he tries hard to understand the frustrations of white working-class voters who have seen their living standards stagnate and their cultural values ridiculed. Unfortunately, the one quality that he does not bring is discipline; his book is much too long and frequently disorganized.
