Trumpocracy : the corruption of the American republic / David Frum.

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Bestselling author, former White House speechwriter, and Atlantic columnist and media commentator David Frum explains why President Trump has undermined our most important institutions in ways even the most critical media has missed, in this thoughtful and hard-hitting book that is a warning for democracy and America's future.

"From Russia to South Africa, from Turkey to the Philippines, from Venezuela to Hungary, authoritarian leaders have smashed restraints on their power. Media freedom and judicial independence have eroded. The right to vote remains, but the right to have one's vote counted fairly may not. Until the US presidential election of 2016, the global decline of democracy seemed a concern for other peoples in other lands. . . . That complacent optimism has been upended by the political rise of Donald Trump. The crisis is upon Americans, here and now."

Quietly, steadily, Trump and his administration are damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy, perhaps irrevocably. As he and his family enrich themselves, the presidency itself falls into the hands of the generals and financiers who surround him.

While much of the country has been focused on Russia, David Frum has been collecting the lies, obfuscations, and flagrant disregard for the traditional limits placed on the office of the presidency. In Trumpocracy, he documents how Trump and his administration are steadily damaging the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy. During his own White House tenure as George W. Bush's speechwriter, Frum witnessed the ways the presidency is limited not by law but by tradition, propriety, and public outcry, all now weakened. Whether the Trump presidency lasts two, four, or eight more years, he has changed the nature of the office for the worse, and likely for decades.

In this powerful and eye-opening book, Frum makes clear that the hard work of recovery starts at home. Trumpocracy outlines how Trump could push America toward illiberalism, what the consequences could be for our nation and our everyday lives, and what we can do to prevent it.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury has captured the nation's zeitgeist, owing to its chronicling of President Donald Trump's histrionics; unfortunately, it has overshadowed this latest from Frum (senior editor, the Atlantic; Why Romney Lost) and probably shouldn't have. Frum was by no means a fan of Trump during the 2016 election cycle. But that should not take away from his criticism that the Trump administration has damaged the practices of American democracy. The author does not solely blame Trump for this abrogation, but traces it back through the prior two decades. Trump was at the right place at the right time in 2016. Once in power, as Frum carefully dissects, the president has enabled himself and his businesses but weakened the functionality of the U.S. government, which he was sworn to protect. Not all of this was deliberate, as Frum points out. But in totality, by either action or inaction, Trump has damaged American democracy, with frightening consequences in the long run. VERDICT Highly recommended for anyone who cares about the republic and its future.-Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Frum (The Right Man), an Atlantic senior editor, charts the erosion of democratic principles over the course of Donald Trump's campaign and first year in office, enumerating both the president's own improprieties and the misdeeds of his various advisers and hangers-on. Frum eloquently places the blame squarely on "the aggrandizement of one domineering man and his shamelessly grasping extended family," whom he describes as trading in conspiracy theories and "alternative facts," using their government positions to shill for real estate deals overseas, and engaging in borderline-treasonous conversations with Russian officials. He also shames those he deems complicit, including various Fox News hosts, short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and "brazen" political strategist Kellyanne Conway. Frum further notes that Trump has turned on the country's most trusted international allies in favor of "the planet's thugs, crooks, and dictators." Frum urges readers to "aspire to a deeper citizenship and wider loyalties," and conservatives, among whom he includes himself, to embrace a more moderate ideology. Denunciations of the current administration are ubiquitous, but Frum's incisive prose and optimism-notably, regarding the chances of returning decency and integrity to the Republican Party-set this apart. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Frum, a speechwriter for George W. Bush and a Never Trumper, understands the Trump administration will be judged by history, but he finds it necessary to make an assessment of what's happened so far because, as he puts it, the crisis is upon America, here and now. With precision and even eloquence, Frum details how the Trump campaign and administration has damaged American institutions and the American psyche. In such chapters as Prexisting Conditions, Enablers, and Enemies of the People, Frum doesn't just chronicle the abnormalities and deceptions of the president, his policies, and his tweets, he puts these elements into the context of the rising authoritarianism around the world. While he fears that the U.S. may never completely recover from the way Trump has changed the presidency, he does note, in a final chapter, called Hope, that he is encouraged by an engaged citizenry willing to go high when they go low. One of the best things about this book is that Frum uses his well-honed writing skills to make his points in ways that require no wonkiness to understand. For those who oppose Trumpism, this is a clarion call.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2018 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

The conservative stalwart takes measure of the current administration and finds it sadly wantingand dangerous, and immoral, and.Atlantic senior editor Frum (Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, 2007, etc.) finds the Trump White House pointed evidence of declining faith in democracy. However, the thing to worry about, he writes, "is not the bold overthrow of the Constitution, but the stealthy paralysis of governance" and complete disregard for the "rules of the game" on which constitutional democracy is founded. Clearly, the author holds Trump in contempt; just as plainly, he gives Trump credit for the political cunning that enabled him to leverage such things as the birther hoax to capture a sizable segment of an embittered, angry populace. What bothers Frum is less the specter of a buffoonish bully than the acquiescence of the Republican Party. He writes, "the most radical attack on American norms of governance in his first year was attempted not by Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions, Anthony Scaramucci, or any other late-night demon figure, but by the regular Republicans of the House and Senate." The author goes on to reckon with a host of factors that led to the current debacle, from racial tension and economic insecurity to the self-interested demands of baby boomers and the unholy wedding of the institutional GOP to a president who is, by all evidence, creating a third party. Against all this, refreshingly, Frum finds hope that the Trump administration will be remembered "as the end of something bad, and not the beginning of something worse." In support of this qualified optimism, he notes that even as Trump continues to occupy the White House, other bullies and abusers have toppled, while the left has come to have a newfound appreciation of national security and elements of the right are accepting that government can, in fact, be a force for good.Evenhanded, ideologically consistent, and guaranteed to generate a slew of angry tweets should a copy land at the White House. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

David Frum is Canadian-American, born in 1960 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from Yale University in 1982 with B.A. and M.A. degrees. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1987. He is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His writing has appeared on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. Frum writes a twice-weekly column for Canada's National Post and broadcasts regularly on NPR's Morning Edition. He is the author of nine books. His first book was Dead Right, published in 1994. His latest book, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of The American Republic, was published in January 2018. He lives in Washington, D. C.

(Bowker Author Biography)