The inside story of Donald Trump’s first two years in Washington as viewed from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle jockeyed for advantage as American politics reached a fevered pitch. A New York Times bestseller.
... has two great virtues. The first is that our authors are neither imposing nor entirely absent. That is, they let the facts and (political) figures speak for themselves when those are sufficient. Yet, the idiosyncratic interactions of personalities with each other and their effect on our institutions seldom pass without comment ... The second virtue of the book comes out of the first: the authors don’t lie to you. That is, although they don’t color the book red or blue with their point of view, they also don’t tell you Donald Trump had the largest inauguration and they don’t tell you he is a great deal maker skillfully negotiating behind the scenes ... there are aspects to the book that might leave some readers nonplussed and others relieved ... despite a generally feckless and obsequious Congress, even the cynical reader can take from this book the sense that those with the greatest power in Congress still have a coherent set of values ... another book about the final two years of Donald Trump’s first term will be a welcome follow up to this effective and even-handed text.
If you are one of the many Americans who hates Congress, this book is for you ... It is a testament to the authors’ formidable work ethic that they’ve managed to produce a full-length book 2 1/2 years after Donald Trump won the presidency, even as they’ve continued to crank out a daily tipsheet for political junkies ... in an era when the White House is a never-enSherman and Palmer’s rootedness in Washington, moreover, undercuts their ability to capture how Democrats tapped into the intensity of some Americans’ distaste for Trumpding source of stunning revelations, some incendiary comments made behind closed doors on Capitol Hill don’t carry the same punch ... What I missed most of all in the book was something simple: voters’ voices. Told almost entirely from an inside-the-Beltway perspective, Sherman and Palmer’s book depicts men and women operating in a universe that is completely detached from the rest of America. While that does reflect part of why many Americans resent Congress, it’s also why some Americans mistrust the reporters who cover it.
... painstakingly chronicles the return to divided government and the restoration of an institutional check on a mercurial chief executive ... depicts a foul-mouthed president in love with his own reflection, a House GOP encased in the amber of self-delusion, and Nancy Pelosi’s unblinking focus on twin prizes: recapturing the House and returning to the speaker’s chair ... What lessons are drawn from 2018 remain to be seen.
