... the latest in what has become a procession of books about the Trump presidency, but there are reasons to think it arrives right on time ... a story that insists on attention like a fresh wound ... the first comprehensive look at the full four years as a one-volume history worthy of being called a chronicle. Weighing in at more than 650 pages, the text and notes are daunting to behold ... As a sumptuous feast of astonishing tales, it may hold wonderments indeed for those first contemplating the enormity of the Trump phenomenon. For them, this could be like a child's first encounter with Harry Potter or an adolescent's first taste of Tolkien ... But even a reader steeped in years of Trump coverage and well-versed in the precedent literature may be surprised at how compelling this narrative proves to be. The more one reads, the more one wishes to read ... a rushing torrent of anecdotes and recollections. A reader may plunge in at any point and pull up a pail of Trump at full tilt.
... detail-rich ... Squeezing the tumultuous events of the long national fever dream that was the Donald Trump presidency between two covers — even two covers placed far apart, as is the case with this 752-page anvil — would tax the skills of the nimblest journalist. Yet the husband-and-wife team of Baker and Glasser pull it off with assurance ... To be sure, asking readers in 2022 to revisit the Sturm und Drang of the Trump years may seem like asking a Six Flags patron, staggering from a ride on the Tsunami, to jump back on for another go. But those with strong stomachs will find a lot they didn’t know, and a lot more that they once learned but maybe, amid the daily barrage of breaking-news banner headlines, managed to forget ... For a book produced so quickly, they draw on an impressively broad array of materials ... Even while cataloging Trump’s most outrageous behaviors, Baker and Glasser strive to maintain a professional, dispassionate tone: analytical but not polemical. Inevitably, however, their low opinion of Trump shines through, occasionally garnished with a soupçon of snark ... as this book is, let’s hope Baker and Glasser won’t be writing a sequel.
... meticulously researched and beautifully written. Those who were in and around the West Wing talk and share documents. Baker and Glasser lay out receipts. They conducted more than 300 interviews. They met Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
... exquisitely timed. A well-paced and engagingly written narrative, The Divider shows off the best of big-resource journalism in the Trump era. Yet it also makes vivid some of the shortcomings of the industry that Trump repeatedly exploited ... A new Trump book is worth reading only if its argument or its revelations break new ground. The thesis of Baker and Glasser’s book is unoriginal, if accurate: Trump posed a unique threat to American democracy ... is, in many ways, a marker of how much journalism has adapted. It displays some of the old instincts: Notwithstanding its more than 650 pages of text, it has little to say about the policies pursued by Trump and his fellow Republicans, or about the political organizations that backed or battled his party or lobbied Washington during his presidency (the National Rifle Association, for example, is not mentioned once). Many anecdotes and backstories seem to be there only because Baker and Glasser know them. Still, the book is the most comprehensive and detailed account of the Trump presidency yet published, and it would not have been possible, as Baker and Glasser write in their acknowledgments, without the diligence and fortitude of their colleagues in the press corps 'who worked to cover the Trump administration while being denigrated as ‘enemies of the people' ... To this rich factual context, Baker and Glasser add fresh and frequently alarming stories, based in part on more than 300 interviews they conducted. If their argument treads familiar Trump-book ground, The Divider delivers new revelations aplenty. The biggest of the scoops provide vivid new details about Trump’s ever more dictatorial behavior ... suggests that journalism needs to have a serious conversation about its role and responsibilities in today’s fraught politics. In this all-hands-on-deck moment, we need journalists focused on the horizon and shouting quickly and clearly about icebergs ahead.
With so many books about Donald Trump on the shelves and still more in the pipeline, how does a new one distinguish itself? In this case, it’s through the journalistic chops of coauthors Baker, the New York Times White House correspondent, and the New Yorker’s Glasser. There’s also the book’s heft: at more than 700 pages, it draws on information from hundreds of interviews (many, unfortunately, off the record) as well as written accounts, personal papers, and texts. For now anyway, The Divider is the definitive account of Trump’s White House years. Much of the story is, of course, known. Those who’ve avidly followed the twists, turns, and intrigues of the Trump administration will find plenty that’s familiar. Still, there are juicy surprises ... The story continues, but Baker and Glasser give readers an indispensable starting point.
... comprehensive and scathing ... Baker and Glasser, enriching their own reporting with the juiciest material from the slew of books about the Trump presidency, fashion a coherent narrative out of the chaos, offering lucid and insightful accounts of the Muslim travel ban, talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the Mueller investigation, Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, both impeachment trials, and more. There’s also plenty of color ... the most encyclopedic account of the Trump presidency yet published.
