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Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America

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From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist: a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that moves beyond simplistic caricature, chronicling his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency and his potential comeback.

Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.

Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes. Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.

The through-line of Trump’s life and his presidency is the enduring question of what is in it for him or what he needs to say to survive short increments of time in the pursuit of his own interests.

Confidence Man is also, inevitably, about the world that produced such a singular character, giving rise to his career and becoming his first stage. It is also about a series of relentlessly transactional relationships. The ones that shaped him most were with girlfriends and wives, with Roy Cohn, with George Steinbrenner, with Mike Tyson and Don King and Roger Stone, with city and state politicians like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani, with business partners, with prosecutors, with the media, and with the employees who toiled inside what they commonly called amongst themselves the “Trump Disorganization.”

That world informed the one that Trump tried to recreate while in the White House. All of Trump’s behavior as President had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and newsmaking book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history.

597 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2022

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Maggie Haberman

2 books123 followers

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,064 reviews
1 review
October 3, 2022
I'm giving this 5 stars. I haven't read the book, but then neither have the MAGA cultists leaving the 1 star reviews.
September 12, 2022
Have not read it, but will. Already rated it 5 stars because of all the insane, traitorous MAGAs aka MAGGOTs giving it a low rating because of their fascination with The Orange Stain. Hopefully the cult will accept the truth someday.
Profile Image for Susan Tunis.
824 reviews258 followers
October 5, 2022
You know, Maggie Haberman is a fine and reputable journalist. Her book is very good. In other circumstances it would have merited five stars, but I had issue with two things...

Maggie Haberman has been promoting this title since last year. I have seen literally dozens of "scoops" from the book on television. Reading it would have been SO much more enjoyable if anything remotely newsworthy hadn't already been revealed.

The other thing is, she's late. There have already been SO many books about Donald Trump published. I know; I've read them all. If, unlike me, you haven't been obsessing about this man, this is an excellent choice. It's much more of a full biography than a specific look at his presidency. Personally, I'm much more interested in his political life.

I continue to be grateful for each of the journalists who have documented this extraordinary moment in history. Ms. Haberman has written an undeniably excellent account. It just would have felt fresher a year ago.
Profile Image for Jenna ❤ ❀  ❤.
853 reviews1,499 followers
June 13, 2023
New Year's Resolution: I will not add any more books about the orange ogre to my tbr.

Why I do this to myself, I don't know. It's like when you pass a terrible car accident and you can't help but slow down and stare at the horror. You're drawn to the tragedy even as you're repelled.

That's what it's like for me with djt. I can't seem to stop myself from reading these books about him. Partly it's because I want to understand how he happened and partly because my brain wants to see all the gritty, gory details.

I don't learn much from books about him/his presidency because there usually isn't anything new and different. Once you've read one, you've read them all.

This one was a little different though, in that it started with Trump's earlier years and his (many failed) real estate ventures and went all the way through his presidency, culminating in a series of interviews with him after he left the White House.

The author worked as a political reporter for the New York Times during his presidency and offers a fair and clear-eyed look at the inner turmoil.

I was surprised a couple of times by her portrayal of an almost-human djt. For instance, 'he seemed rattled by the number of deaths involved; over time, he came to resent every “Killed in Action” letter he was forced to sign after a service member died, not wanting to attach his name to a war he disliked and its needless deaths.'

Also, he could be very kind and caring to those he felt were loyal to him, calling to check up on people who were sick and giving thoughtful gifts to those in his inner circle. He was even, initially, upset about George Floyd's murder.

However, these tiny instances of humanity were quickly overshadowed by his cold and callous nature, his racism, and many, many instance of heartlessness along with his seeming inability to empathize with others.

Ms Haberman shows us a man full of insecurity and yet also full of ego, a man driven by his need for praise and his desire for power.

There is a photograph section at the end, which I wasn't interested in and flipped through to the last - his leaving the White House on Air Force One for the (I hope) final time.

It's a good book and those who "need" to read these books won't want to pass it up. However, I really had to force myself to finish it. It felt like a chore, something I had to do not because I wanted to but because I couldn't avert my eyes from the train wreck of who he is and what his presidency was.
Profile Image for donna backshall.
725 reviews204 followers
June 9, 2023
The first half of Maggie Haberman's Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America treads on entirely new ground for me. I read Mary L. Trump's Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, and it gave me some good background, but this one goes much more in depth with Donald Trump's greedy dealings outside the family, which filled in a lot of gaps.

Overall it's hard to stomach, because Confidence Man reads a lot like a villain origin story.

If you're looking for an inside look at the man and his motivations, this book offers great insight. You may not like what it reveals, but you knew this going in.
Profile Image for Faith.
1,991 reviews584 followers
October 24, 2022
This book ties Trump’s New York years to his presidency. The beginning of the book was the most interesting part to me. It discussed how he operated in New York in both his personal and professional lives. Unfortunately, he took his crude, bullying, amoral and deceitful behavior with him when he was elected. The second part of the book deals with the 2016 and 2020 elections, the pandemic and how he operated generally in Washington. There were a few new details here, but mostly I was already too familiar with this. Still, the book is certainly well researched and worth reading.
Profile Image for Scott Rhee.
1,979 reviews87 followers
July 18, 2023
Someday, the most definitive and comprehensive biography of Donald Trump will be written, but, until that time, Maggie Haberman’s wonderful book “Confidence Man” will suffice.

To be fair, nailing down the truth about Trump is probably akin to trying to catch an electric eel with your bare hands: it’s slippery as hell and you’re prone to get shocked every once in a while.

Trump has inflated and confabulated so much of his own life in numerous interviews and books throughout his life that it’s virtually impossible to get a completely accurate picture of him, but Haberman tries, sifting through the morass of bullshit to the nuggets of truth.

For the most part, she succeeds in giving us a better understanding of Trump, and the result is surprisingly entertaining, if not also disturbing.

Haberman, a journalist who has been covering Trump long before he threw his hat in the ring for president in 2015, is one of the few reporters Trump has repeatedly let interview him, without filing libel lawsuits. (The other one is Bob Woodward.) She has been both lauded and criticized for being “too friendly” with Trump, although she certainly doesn’t paint a flattering picture of Trump in “Confidence Man”. Neither has she written a vitriolic hit-piece.

I think that Haberman is simply one of those dying breeds: a good journalist who believes in being as objective as possible, a journalist that simply lays the facts and information on the table and lets us, the readers, judge for ourselves.

In fact, the portrait she paints of Trump in her book is a fair one, with plenty of straightforward color in narrow brushstrokes and some realistic shade. If he comes across as shallow, it is merely because he is shallow.

There are some eye-opening stories in here. Too many to recount, and Haberman does a better job telling them anyway. But there is one that I found rather humorous and enlightening and says a lot about the kind of man Trump is.

At one point during an interview, Haberman felt (as she often did) that she probably wasn’t getting too much actual valuable information from Trump, so she switched gears and asked him a silly question. Well, silly to you and me, but apparently not to Trump.

She asked Trump why he ate so much fast food. (It is verifiable fact that Trump frequently ate fast food fare, McDonald’s being a favorite.) His response was that he often didn’t like restaurants because one normally has to book reservations. This meant that the chefs had plenty of time to poison his food. Fast food places don’t know that he’s coming ahead of time, so they can’t poison the food.

I’m fairly certain that Trump wasn’t joking. I get the impression that Haberman didn’t think he was joking either, which is why she included it in the book. It may be a small anecdote, but it seems to say a lot about Trump’s character.
Profile Image for Matt.
4,000 reviews12.9k followers
January 11, 2023
Readying myself for what is sure to be another intense presidential election period ahead of the 2024 vote, I have begun looking into things political once more. This biography of sorts by award-winning journalist Maggie Haberman proves not only insightful, but also offers context to how Donald J. Trump rose through the ranks of business and entertainment to achieve fame, whereby he squandered it all during a troubling term in office. With his attempts to regain power in 2024, it seemed apt to revisit some of his story, as well as analyses of his time in office, through the eyes of a journalist who was one of those allowed into his inner sanctum the most.

Haberman offers a look into the early days of the Trump family, where young Donald was groomed by his father, Fred, to become a man of business. Fred was anything but ethical in many of his dealings, but this is perhaps where Donald acquired his ‘cutting corners’ and ‘Trump means business’ mentalities, even if they only served to create resentment. Trump began tossing his name and borrowed money around, only to discover that he could get what he wanted through acts of bullying and name calling. Haberman clearly explains that while he got things he wanted, Trump was scoffed at behind his back, creating airs of resentment that would follow him like a bad odour.

While Trump sought to grow his empire, his eye was never far from looking for his next conquest. This is by no means shocking to anyone who has read recent pieces about the man, though it is enlightening and disconcerting at the same time to see a man who saw women as possessions, much like the real estate Trump bandied around whenever he felt like it. Misogyny drips from many of the anecdotes Haberman offers, which have been substantiated by many of those she interviewed for the book.

Dabbling into the political arena, Trump always sought to support others who wanted to get into the mud, rather than dive in himself. Trump sought to back those he felt could do him favours or owe him for financial backing. This served to be a mixed bag, as Trump never really was able to find a surefire way of picking a winner. Still, he made himself known and offered many critical moments for those who held the reins of power.

When Donald Trump decided to toss his hat into the ring, it was a hot mess that only got worse. Haberman explores the 2016 presidential campaign that gripped the country, with many of the famous Trump asides that had filled columns and books over the past member of years. Trump sought to make his mark and, at times, use bombastic actions over substantive policies to win over an electorate seeking something different. Haberman explores a number of theories leading to Trump’s victory, but keeps things as evidence-based as she can.

With Haberman front and centre covering the Trump Administration, she is able to explore some of the day to day moments that shaped his presidency, including how he would use Cabinet Secretaries as puppets to push some of his outlandish views. Some did so willingly while others held their noses (and tongues) as best they could until it was too much. Piling up gaffes and a refusing to follow diplomatic or policy views cemented in the American political way of life, Trump sought to carve out his own niche, always saying that it is what the people wanted.

Haberman offers a succinct but impactful exploration of the 2020 presidential campaign, where Trump lost and yet refused to believe it. The conspiracies mounted and Trump did all he could not to let the defeat sink in, choosing instead to scream ‘foul’ and surround himself with sycophants who would do the same. Haberman illustrates the desperation that followed, including how Trump grasped at straws to have his own vice-president try to defy constitutional and congressional rules to supplant a defeated president into office for another term. Readers can baffle at the gumption of the man.

Maggie Haberman chose not to make this about another smear campaign against the 45th president of the United States, but rather offer some context that all readers ought to heed. Trump was not born out of the swamp and became this aggressive man in 2015 when he chose to run for office. Rather, it was instilled in him for years and he grew into expecting the entitlement to follow him, so far that he wanted everyone to bow down and kiss the ring. Through well-document chapters, Haberman spins wonderful tale of success and failure, substantiated with many interviews from others who have their own opinions. While the book is longer, its detail helps to push it to the top, so that readers can feel a sense of education throughout the experience. Some will love it, others will not. Either way, its educational and entertainment value cannot be dismissed. Maggie Haberman shows why she is award-winning, and one can hope she has more to write soon.

Kudos, Madam Haberman, for pulling no punches and keeping the reader informed throughout the journey. I could not have asked for more.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
Profile Image for Joe.
337 reviews94 followers
November 17, 2022
Unfortunately nothing new here and the well plowed “Trump” ground that is covered is done superficially, bouncing from one anecdote/tale to another; all of which we’ve read many times before in newspapers, magazines and previous books - and seen covered on network/cable news.

It’s a wonder to me that something more in depth could not have been written on these turbulent times and Trump himself given the author’s perspective/sources. But even as a primer or a review I’d recommend going elsewhere - including simply using the Google machine - for more detail, context and analysis of the former president and his one term in office. For this reader there is a “Me Too” feel to “Confidence Man”, an addition to the numerous books written by the author’s peers and former members of the Trump tribe staff, most indistinguishable from the others, with nothing new to add, that have flooded the market.

(This “repetition” - does not bode well nor is it a confidence boosting assessment of current day journalism, reminiscent of the oft used example of six year olds playing soccer, chasing the proverbial ball where ever it goes. Another head scratcher is the need of the author - and her peers in previous books - to include herself/themselves into the narrative for no apparent reason. But alas that’s a discussion for another time. )

Bottom line - if you’ve followed the news at all over the last 5-7 years - pass on this one. You’ll have missed nothing by doing so.
Profile Image for Erin .
1,352 reviews1,357 followers
November 5, 2022
4.5 Stars

Maggie Haberman is Donald Trump's nemesis/ favorite reporter. I had never heard of her before Trump became obsessed with her and name dropped her constantly. She's a reporter at "The failing New York Times" that despite claiming to hate, Trump talks about all the time. She followed his career even before he became president. She worked for New York tabloid The New York Post, so she's well versed in the cult of Trump.

Confidence Man is an exploration of how Trump's years of being a New York celebrity prepared him for his political career. I don't think I'm alone in being confused by why people are so obsessed with Trump. He seems to have a weird power over people. I mentioned the cult of Trump earlier I meant that literally, Trump is a cult leader. I live in Kentucky so I'm smack dab in the middle of Trump Country and people's entire personality has become Trump.

I've read books about Trump in the past and I plan to read more in the future but I'm actually less interested in Trump the man. My interests lies with how he took over the Republican party and recreated it in his image. I feel like Maggie Haberman also wants to understand that.

Did she get to the bottom of it?

No. And I don't know if anyone can. Trumpsters are under a spell so they can't help. And the rest of us are just left with confusion.

My main takeaway from this book is that despite being told by the media how unpredictable Trump is. He has been oddly consistent. The Trump of today is the same exact person as he was 30 - 40 years ago. He's thin-skinned, insecure and mean....and he always has been. He hasn't changed and I don't think he's broken America either. He's simply allowed America to stop lying and start being more vocal about just how awful it is.

Like him or not, Trump will go down in history as one The most important Presidents ever. He could very well be the person who ends America as a democracy...if America ever was a democracy to begin with( but that a discussion for another day).

My only problem with this book is that it's too long. I know she's covered him for 20 years but there's no need for this book to be this long. A good editor can save lives.

I highly recommend this book!
Profile Image for Susan.
30 reviews10 followers
October 18, 2022
There isn't anything in the Confidence Man that I didn't already know from watching the news. The first third of the book is devoted to Trump's early years and was somewhat informative. 4 stars for a good rehash of events.
Profile Image for Malia.
Author 8 books616 followers
November 30, 2022
Well researched and written thought his undeniably is, it also offers nothing new to those of us who remain stunned by the events of the past six or so years. Though it is one of the better "Trump books", I would give it a pass. I have not come away from it feeling any better for having read it.
Profile Image for Jill Meyer.
1,173 reviews116 followers
October 4, 2022
I’ve read many books about Donald Trump since he rode that escalator down Trump Tower in 2015. The books seem to be divided in to two types. The first are the memoirs of Trump officials and personal advisers, as well as by Trump family members. The writing quality and honesty factor of these books can be questionable. Much better are those books written by professionals; historians, newspaper reporters and other members of the media. One of those books is “Confidence Man”, by New York Times reporter, Maggie Haberman. The subtitle of her book is “The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”.

Haberman’s book is not only a look at the Trump presidency, but starts with his family and early life. Haberman makes some interesting connections that I hadn’t known. She’s clearly talked to hundreds of people in the Trump orbit, and notes that many people were less reticent to talk to her after Trump left office than before.

Maggie Haberman has been called the “The Trump Whisperer” because she has covered Trump for years and she seems to have a love/hate relationship with him. Haberman and her paper have been the target of slurs from Trump, yet he has kept favoring her with interviews. He doesn’t seem to like her, but he doesn’t seem able to “quit her”. Haberman is a very good writer and she has made the most of what she has to work with in her newspaper reporting, and now, in this book.

But, should Haberman have published some of her scoops years ago when Trump was perpetrating them? Was she - and other authors - saving them for books like this? Frankly, I don’t know. I have read most of her daily reporting through the years and thought she was as expansive as she should/could be.

She’s a good writer and her book actually has some vaguely humorous parts as well as “you’re-kidding-Trump-did-WHAT? parts. It’s also a scary book, as Haberman lays a lot out there for the reader.
321 reviews1 follower
November 16, 2022
I give it 3.5 stars but will round up to 4. It is just another book about the the big orange blob and although it is very comprehensive, aren't we getting sick of all these people making millions off the person they hate so much - kind of ironic. I am not sure how many thousands of books are out about Trump now and i did fall into the trap of reading quite a few of them, Confidence Man is probably the most comprehensive story of the whole Trump. Although I think Trump is one of the most putrid people to ever walk on this planet, I also think it is very important to know what you are facing. Haberman does a good job of exposing the character or lack thereof of Donald Trump. He just announced that he is running again and I am really hoping he will choke out on a 1/4 pounder with cheese so I don't have to listen to his nonsense for the next two years.
Profile Image for Richard Marney.
579 reviews31 followers
October 7, 2022
A splendid reporter. Unsettling book (yet another) on a very bad man.

My principal take-away: Democracies only work if the electorate employs a rigorous moral filter for its chosen leaders.

Profile Image for Linda Galella.
623 reviews62 followers
October 4, 2022
Two distinct styles of writing are fighting for purchase in Maggie Haberman’s new treatise on DJT, “Confidence Man” - we’ll save the subtitle for later…

Haberman has been a reporter for many years and has become an industry proclaimed expert on Trump, assigned to report on the White House and his presidency. She has written about politics prior to DJT becoming the 45th and did so for NYT, (where she won a Pulitzer), NY Post, New Yorker, Politico, CNN and other places.

Early in the book, Haberman writes almost like a traditional biographer - almost. She is unable to refrain from constantly painting every situation as negatively as possible; nothing is permitted to be innocuous. While her writing flows and would pass any advanced literary test, it’s not easy to read if you’re one who prefers to make your own judgements and draw conclusions about evidence, as it’s presented. I found the constant author opinion intervention to be distracting.

In fact, it was more than distracting. As the book progressed to events closer to Trump’s run for office and presidency, the writing became more opinions and less facts. The details by which Haberman and her team received a Pulitzer have now been proved to be false, yet still appear here. Many other assertions, that I’m sure will be broadcast as gospel because of this book, are absurd claims that are impossible to prove, such as flushing ripped paper, poisoned handshake, things DJT thought.

There’s a small section of photos at the end where Haberman includes pictures of her pre-publication text that was sent to Trump for input and comments. She had three meetings with him regarding this book but needed some additional information or was giving him a last look before publication. He used a bold marker and was quite clear with his edits, all of which were ignored and none of which are substantiated, other than by opinion.

I tried to verify many of the claims in this book but the notes are not interactive from the text to the notes, making it very difficult. Those that I could locate are assigned to sources that practice journalism in a style similar to what the author has done here and has had much of their reporting overturned when truth came to the forefront over opinion.

So, now for the subtitle: “The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”. Yes, Haberman does a decent job laying out the business life of DJT, as seen thru her decidedly inhospitable glasses. As for the breaking part, Haberman is more guilty than Trump, IMO. She and her contemporaries have all but destroyed the 4th estate and broken American’s ability to access unbiased news and reporting without spending absurd amounts of time doing so. Their purposeful and inflammatory reporting fanned and continues to fan the the divisions in government and our country. Nothing positive is being accomplished and we the people are paying the price. It needs to end and writers like Haberman can be an huge part of the solution📚
782 reviews7 followers
September 11, 2022
So "Jenny" has no friends and no books and only accepts comments from friends. Who else thinks she's just a bot created to shill for Trump? 😂😂😂
8 reviews1 follower
September 28, 2022
Will not read a book written by someone who withheld important information about the former president in order to profit from writing a book.
Profile Image for Brett Milam.
273 reviews20 followers
October 10, 2022
Far from being an autopsy, Maggie Haberman’s 2022 book about Donald Trump, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, is more an origin story of not just how Donald Trump came to hold the most powerful job in the world, but of those along the way who toiled the American cultural and political soil to make it manifest.

I’ve avoided the myriad Trump books coming out, both amid his presidency and in the aftermath — primarily because I don’t have much interest in what I was already closely following in real time — but when I saw Maggie had a book about Trump coming out, I knew I was going to read it. She was the indispensable New York Times White House reporter during the Trump years, partly owing to her time covering Trump prior to his candidacy announcement in 2015 (she followed him to New Hampshire, for example, when he was considering a presidential run in 2011), meaning she understood Trump and the New York City milieu he came out of better than most other reporters, and partly owing to her dogged fearlessness as a reporter. Through the Trump years, Maggie faced harsh criticism from both sides: Trump and Republicans who thought she was a Clinton ally and emblematic of the “fake news” mainstream media, and Democratic pundits and activists who viewed Maggie as soft-peddling Trump’s views (and concealing others) in order to continue gaining “access” to him. The former isn’t even worth addressing in any serious way; as for the latter, Maggie had access to Trump, I think, because Trump was familiar with her prior to 2015 and so, he’s a moron who thought he could flatter his way through an interview, even with someone like Maggie. But also, Maggie’s so-called “access journalism” broke newsworthy stories again and again concerning the Trump White House.

But this isn’t a book about Maggie — although I sensed a level of self-reflection, self-deprecation and an almost you’d-miss-it-if-you-weren’t-paying attention dry humor peppered through the book I appreciated — it is about Donald Trump, who for more than four decades managed to project his way to success, or in one of understanding Trump’s thinking, “positive think” his way to success. From his burgeoning days as a scion of one of New York City’s real estate families under the tyrannical and demanding shadow of his father, Fred Trump, Trump preoccupied himself more with the appearance of success, branding and marketing rather than anything of actual substantive success. Importantly, though, to achieve that, he a.) needed his father’s help in money and connections to the inner workings of New York City government and politics, but crucially with people thinking he didn’t need his father’s help, i.e., that he was self-made; and b.) needed the help of the aforementioned government relationships his father or he cajoled or bullied into reality, but again, with people thinking he was self-made all the way rather than another crony capitalist businessman.

His management style reflected his penchant for branding over substance: He blustered (bullying is another word one could use) his way through things he didn’t know and his Trump Organization operated more like Trump Disorganization, as one individual referred to it back then. And when he would fall into financial troubles only a few years before his father would succumb to Alzheimer’s in the early 1990s, Fred was back again to bail him out, as were some choice banks.

The throughline in all of Trump’s dealings, with government regulators and lawmakers, with competitors and consumers, with bankers and his own family members, was to be the “Confidence Man,” even if he had no idea how to actually run a profitable casino, or Cold War politics, or how to exist within a successful marriage that didn’t end with him having an affair and turning the affair into more publicity.

Maggie’s book is brilliant in laying out the above case and showing how everything Trump was and tried to be in the 1970s and 1980s continued into the 1990s, the early 2000s and despite a few start-and-stop flirtations with running for office, finally culminated with his bid for the presidency in 2016 and his shocking win. And then, once he was in office, how he continued to operate as if he was still in 1970s New York City running his namesake organization. He’s not a man who has changed, or was cowed or humbled by the office of the presidency, in terms of his comportment or management style — at his most basic level, Trump is still that ego-driven, insecure boy seeking approval from his domineering father, it’s just now, the wider public are surrogates for his father; and I’m not trying to be an armchair psychologist, only that it is clear throughout his life, Trump has sought external validation in everything he does and only cares about himself in order to achieve it — the only thing one can say that changed with Trump are some of his more Democratic-leaning perspectives he voiced in prior years (and donated money toward candidates who espoused similarly) because he understood the direction the Republican Party was moving in the 2010s and he capitalized on it as yet another branding opportunity. That is, he attached his name to the rising anti-elite, nativist and populist attitudes overtaking the base of the Republican Party, primarily, but not only, as a reactionary movement against the first black president, Barack Obama.

Trump never cared about policy, even one of his most identifiable policy positions of building a wall on the Southern border only made sense to him because he connected with it on the fundamental level of being a “builder,” but he didn’t care about any of the nuances and complexities around immigration. He never cared about functionally being president, only that he was president as another vehicle for fame and fortune. From New York City and New Jersey to Washington D.C. over the last four decades, that has always been the motivating factor for Trump: what pushes the brand forward.

When Trump doesn’t get his way, such as unfavorable press coverage in the 1980s about his business endeavors or his Forbes financial listing and 2017 when [insert myriad Trump administration scandals], or when he loses a parcel of land he sought as a real estate developer and loses the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden (or the Republican Iowa Caucus to Ted Cruz), Trump’s responses have always been the same: 1.) Lash out and portray himself as the victim, even if the result was his fault; 2.) Threaten and bully the people he thinks are responsible, up to and including his vice president Mike Pence; and 3.) Seek to sue the person or persons responsible. If there is another major throughline of the book (and there are many), it is that Trump is one of the most litigious Americans in the latter half century. To think of how many cases have been tied up in the courts, the wasted dollars and manhours, especially in the last seven years, because of Trump’s frivolous lawsuits is nothing short of astounding. And especially from the 1980s through to the early 2010s, he knew exactly what he was doing: Wasting the time and money of the person he sued, exhausting them into submission.

But one cannot extricate the story of Donald Trump from the story of America itself and that is the reason Maggie’s subtitle’s second half reads “the breaking of America.” American culture has always been rather fond of celebrities, especially the myth-making around masculine, self-made rich men. Donald Trump is not masculine, not self-made and he greatly exaggerates his riches, but that didn’t detract from the myth-making. That myth-making reached its zenith with the advent and popularization of his NBC show The Apprentice. What is particularly funny about the myth-making around the show, with many to choose from, is that Trump is famously adverse to interpersonal conflict (he’s an appeaser when faced with conflict just to survive the confrontation) and yet, he was known for “firing” people due to the show. Again, it was a faux-projection of toughness and masculinity. That boardroom toughness also extended to the so-called “locker room” talk with the Access Hollywood tape, Trump’s exploits with Marla Maples, and of course, the Stormy Daniels affair. Which, I must admit, so much happened during the Trump campaign for president and his actual time in office that I had actually forgotten about the Daniels scandal until Maggie talked about it in the book. In fact, when considering a run for office, Trump was most worried about the women in his life being uncovered. Alas, none of it mattered. Because as one cannot extricate an American culture that venerated celebrity from the making of Donald Trump, and one likewise cannot extricate an American culture that looked the other way when powerful men used their positions of power to sexually assault and harass women from the making of Donald Trump. Not only was Donald Trump a Frankenstein creature of such a culture, but it also, obviously, said something about the state of the political culture specifically in the United States that something like the Access Hollywood tape, which would have been disqualifying for a politician of any kind, much less the presidency, not even one election cycle prior, was not an impediment at all. He won the presidency, myriad warts and all. If anything, the “warts” were celebrated among the most hardcore of Trump’s base; they were part of the appeal!

Politically, I feel it is perhaps almost forgotten about that Trump began his rise in Republican politics based on birtherism, i.e., alleging that the first black president of the United States wasn’t actually born in the United States. Again, in a vacuum, that is abhorrent on its own and a reflection of Trump’s lack of character, but within the context of the American right, it also reflects something rotten that such a fringe belief was able to herald its purveyor into the mainstream. I also believe that Trump purposefully avoided running in 2012 because he didn’t want to run directly opposite Barack Obama. He knew he would be outmatched by him, whereas he felt he could take on Hillary Clinton in 2016 because she was a woman and a Clinton at that.

Perhaps the biggest paradox about Trump is that he seems by all accounts the most transparent human being who has ever been in the human eye. He seems easy to figure out, and allies and dictators the world over alike figured him out, too, to flatter him and cajole him to get what they wanted, as one example. But as Maggie ends her book noting, Trump is actually an opaque person, in that nobody really knows who he is. She alluded throughout the book that Trump is a deeply lonely person and I think that tracks alongside the idea of him perpetually seeking external validation. His opaqueness stems from the fact that Trump can say something like “there are very fine people on both sides” in regards to what happened in Charlottesville, and both sides, as well as those ostensibly in the middle, can hear it differently. Transparency isn’t tantamount to Trump being the “leaker-in-chief,” as Maggie calls it at one point; or to put it a different way, Trump isn’t the “most transparent president ever” because he regularly took questions from the media or was a leaker for his own purposes. Transparency isn’t treating the world stage both in grandiose measure and intimate measure as a therapist’s couch; transparency is letting people behind the work, behind the persona. Trump doesn’t do that. There is a thought in professional wrestling, of which Maggie rightly uses that analogy with Trump a few times in the book, that some wrestlers are always working the marks and as such, are unreliable narrators. Trump is that. He’s never not working the marks. Sometimes you have to wonder if Trump is a mark to himself (another thought in professional wrestling is the wrestler working themselves into a shoot, as in, believing their own hype).

I devoured Maggie’s book over the last three days because it is exceedingly readable and punchy in a way that doesn’t make her long trek through Trump’s life coming up in Queens to the Oval Office laborious because she is connecting the dots of what “made” him. I also think her book will rightly go down as an important record of one of the most consequential men in modern American history. To understand how we reached the brink of American democracy and a failed peaceful transition of power on Jan. 6, 2021, one must read Maggie’s book, not only to see how Trump was made, but to understand the American cauldron he came out of.
Profile Image for Joe.
1,045 reviews29 followers
August 21, 2023
A couple of years ago, I read every single Trump book that was released. I did this for a couple of reasons:
1. My brain kept thinking I just needed more information on this strange man to understand him.
2. It was therapeutic. It made it feel like this was an experience we were all going through together.

I'll start off by saying I think this is the best Trump bio I've ever read. It covers his early life all the way through the months after he left office. I know some folks on here are mad that Haberman didn't disclose everything she knew about him at the time until she wrote this book, and I get that, but I don't believe there is ANY information that could come out about Trump that would make his supporters leave him so, you know, let's go easy on her.

The book is detailed and thorough. She's been the Trump beat reporter for years so she is the exact perfect person to write this book. I'll be interested to see if she does a second book, depending on what happens with this next election.

Trump is shown here as a truly broken person. A petulant child who has the thinnest skin in DC. A narcissist who was never loved by his father so he needs to take it out on all of us. None of this is new information. But Haberman really knows what parts of the story to tell and when to tell it to give the reader a full picture of the worst man in America.
Profile Image for Linda.
2,072 reviews2 followers
November 15, 2022
This one was so heavy I could only handle this in small doses. I found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs that I couldn't grasp the first time.
I've long known (yes, even before he became president) that he was a despicable, inconsiderate, self-centered sleaze bag. This book goes in depth to confirm it.
Profile Image for Judi.
597 reviews43 followers
December 5, 2022
This book certainly describes in detail the failing of The Untied States in recent times. Our president, a man raised in the Gilded Era ambiance, privilege, lack of knowledge, a reality show host. Four years and more of major influence by a Barnum & Bailey circus performer. Sigh. Well written. Informative.
Profile Image for D.B. John.
Author 4 books188 followers
October 20, 2022
3.5 stars. The author has spent decades observing Trump closely, long enough to offer some informed and original insights into this most obtuse of personas. She is especially good on showing how Trump's worldview, shaped by the transactional, pork-barrel politics of NYC in the 1970s and 80s, framed his expectations of people's venality once in power. The book is at its most interesting when she paints a nuanced picture of him, showing him as a man capable of solicitude and kindness, character traits that were generally crowded out by much by baser instincts when he became president, and how he perpetuated his psycho-drama on a national scale, reacting to people reacting to him, and so on endlessly into the next news cycle. Generally, though, for its length, the book can read like an extended news article, and at times a rather plodding chronology of his term. It doesn't entirely live up to its title and we don't truly get a sense of how the carnage caused by his ignorance, indifference and lies affected the world beyond the Oval Office. It was also rather clunkily edited in places (an introduction to a book is a foreword, not a 'forward'). Despite Haberman being the target of Trump's Twitter rage on many occasions, he was happy to be interviewed by her for the book – his effort to influence the narrative. But interviews are revealing and can provide unintentional candor. On being asked to reflect on his presidency, he mentions nothing about public service, or his modest legislative achievements, but talks of the office as a vehicle for fame, giving the impression that nothing is worth having if it isn't envied or coveted by others. Ultimately, she concludes that the man is a cipher, an opaque, unknowable person even to those closest to him, perhaps even to himself. An empty vessel in which people can discern and interpret what they will. Beneath the narcissism and the boasting and the bluster there lurks, I suspect, a void.
Profile Image for Xavier Patiño.
179 reviews63 followers
June 23, 2023
With the 2024 presidential campaign under way, I decided I needed a refresher course on the most contentious man America has ever elected as president, Donald Trump. Maggie Haberman is a New York Times White House correspondent, who has reported on Trump since his first campaign. I thought it would be a great place to start.

Because the Trump presidency is still fresh in the nation’s mind, I’m sure many have no trouble remembering a lot of the craziness that unfolded between 2016 – 2021. A good amount of us are probably still numb, reeling from the chaos, the lies, the sheer madness of it all. Listening to Haberman recount those four years sent me down memory lane. Except this trip was not a Sunday drive. No no. It was a path strewn with potholes and speedbumps, cliffs and sharp turns, dizzying at every turn. It made me nauseous. That he can possibly be reelected is absurd.

I wonder how posterity will judge the United States during these dark times. I don’t remember where I read it, but someone said that perhaps an author in the future (near or distant?) will be writing an Edward Gibbon-esque book titled The Decline and Fall of the American Empire.

Scary stuff indeed.
Profile Image for Bryan Craig.
177 reviews57 followers
January 2, 2023
First of all, I was expecting a book that covers just Trump's life in NYC. It's not. Haberman also covers his presidency. So, there are chapters that are very familiar to many of us. She conducted three interviews with Trump for this book, and Trump seems to like her.

However, Haberman has reported on Trump for many years, and she has good insights and writes great statements about him.

This should give you a flavor of Haberman's style. It's good, and if you read very few books on Trump, I would point you to this one.
Profile Image for alex.
92 reviews44 followers
November 21, 2022
this certainly makes the case that trump is a liar, if you needed that.

Not sure what I expected less than two years after his presidency (so far) but this is broad and incredibly shallow. i was hoping to get a better idea of the long, pre-politics career of Trump. I got a few interesting tidbits but there is no sense of the world trump came out of, the people around trump, or even who trump is (again, other than a liar). If the news is the first draft of history, Confidence Man is like an abridgment of that first draft.

On the plus side, Confidence Man is in the very readable nyt house-style, making it's 500+ pages breezier than most. But it's hard to take anything from this narrative other than "a list of things that happened, involving donald trump".

Trump's pathologies are buried deep in the american soil, and are going to require deep excavation by several books. This isn't one of them
October 5, 2022
I have seen Ms. Haberman interviewed three times now. I find her to be better informed on what makes Donald Trump Donald Trump better than anyone else I have seen.
Profile Image for Amber.
16 reviews4 followers
Read
December 20, 2022
DNF. I don't know why I thought I'd want to read an entire book about this guy. I'm so tired of him.
Profile Image for Sharon.
Author 38 books388 followers
November 6, 2022
So, here's the thing: I spent a lot of time being mad at Maggie Haberman during the Trump administration. She shared a lot of his bullshit as though it was fact, and I couldn't figure out why she was doing it.

Well, this book is indeed an insider's look at the lunacy that was Trump's life before, during, and in the immediate aftermath of his disastrous presidency. Haberman shows us how unhinged Trump was, and how he felt it was more important to surround himself with sycophants than competent administrators.

While I admit that none of this was especially surprising, the book provided some additional details that were not reported in mainstream news. For that alone it was valuable.
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