Landslide review: Michael Wolff’s third Trump
book is his best – and most alarming
Fire and Fury infuriated a president and fueled a
publishing boom. Its latest sequel is required reading for anyone who fears for
American democracy
Lloyd Green
Tue 13 Jul
2021 00.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/12/landslide-review-michael-wolff-donald-trump-book-
The 45th
president is out of office and Michael Wolff has brought his Trump trilogy to a
close. First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is
Landslide. The third is the best of the three, and that is saying plenty.
Three years
ago, Trump derided Fire and Fury as fake news and threatened Wolff with a lawsuit.
Now, Trump talks to Wolff on the record about what was and might yet be, while
the author takes a long and nuanced view of the post-election debacle. Wolff
describes Trump’s wrath-filled final days in power.
Aides and
family members have stepped away, leaving the president to simmer, rage and
plot with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and other conspiracy theorists, all
eager to stoke the big lie about a stolen election. Giuliani calls Powell
“crazy”. Powell holds Giuliani in similar regard. “I didn’t come here to kiss
your fucking ring,” she tells the former New York mayor.
Jared
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is elsewhere, hammering out the “Abraham Accords”,
seeking to leave his mark on the world with some sort of step towards Middle
East peace. Hope Hicks, a favorite Trump adviser, has gone. Two cabinet
secretaries of independent wealth, Betsy DeVos and Elaine Chao, say adiós. As
with hurricanes and plagues, the rich know when to head for high ground.
Kayleigh
McEnany, Trump’s fourth and final press secretary, is awol. Even Stephanie
Grisham, Melania Trump’s ultra-loyal chief of staff, has resigned rather than
bear witness to the president’s implosion in the aftermath of the deadly
assault on the US Capitol.
Wolff is
open to criticism when he argues that the path between the 6 January
insurrection and Trump is less than linear
Wolff’s
interview with Trump is notable. It is held in the lobby at Mar-a-Lago, the
Florida resort to which Trump retreated. The club’s “throne room”, in the
author’s words, is filled with “blond mothers and blond daughters, infinitely
buxom”. Fecundity and lust on parade. A palace built in its creator’s image.
The
interview is an exercise in Trumpian score-settling. He brands Chris Christie,
the former New Jersey governor brutally fired from the transition in 2016, a
“very disloyal guy” – apparently as payback for a debate preparation session
that stung Trump with its ferocity, laying bare his vulnerabilities as others
watched.
Christie
told Trump what he didn’t want to hear about his handling of Covid-19. He
bandied about expressions such as “blood on your hands” and “failure”. He also
reminded Trump that while Hunter Biden, his opponent’s scandal-magnet son, was
a one-off, there was a whole bunch of Trump kids to target. Their father was
unamused.
Turning to
the supreme court, Trump lashes out at Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, the
chief justice. Trump accuses Kavanaugh of lacking courage and vents his
“disappointment” in his most controversial pick for the bench. Under Roberts,
the justices refused to overturn the election. So Trump had little use for
them. He also takes aim at the Republican leader in the House. Apparently,
Kevin McCarthy’s abject prostration still left something to be desired.
Trump calls
Andrew Cuomo, now New York’s governor but once, in a way, Trump’s own lawyer, a
“thug”. He has kind words for Roy Cohn, another Trump lawyer, before that an
aide to Joe McCarthy in the witch-hunts of the 1950s who wore that four-letter
word far better. But he’s long dead. Bill Barr, the attorney general who made
the Mueller report go away but wouldn’t back the big lie and resigned before the
end, fares badly.
Trump
laments four years of “absolute scum and treachery and fake witch-hunts”.
Introspection was never his strongest suit. “I’ve done a thousand things that
nobody has done,” he claims. Landslide homes in on the bond between Trump and his
supporters. Wolff sees that the relationship is unconventional and organic.
Trump was never just a candidate. He also led a movement: “He knew nothing
about government, they knew nothing about government, so the context of
government itself became beside the point.” The bond was rooted in charisma.
Trump was “the star – never forget that – and the base was his audience”.
Landslide
acknowledges that Trump’s efforts to overturn the election were born of his
disregard for democratic norms and inability to acknowledge defeat. His legal
and political arguments wafted out of the fever swamps of the fringes. As
drowning men lunge for lifebelts, so Trump, Giuliani and Powell clung on.
Wolff is
open to criticism when he argues that the path between the 6 January
insurrection and Trump is less than linear. Those who stormed the Capitol may
well have been Trump’s people, Wolff argues, but what happened was not his
brainchild. Six months ago, Trump also put distance between himself and the
day’s events. Not any more.
Trump has
embraced the supposed martyrdom of Ashli Babbitt, the air force veteran who
endeavored to storm the House chamber, where members were sheltering in place.
“Boom,” he
said on 7 July. “Right through the head. Just, boom. There was no reason for
that. And why isn’t that person being opened up, and why isn’t that being
studied?”
Beyond
that, ProPublica has produced a paper trail that supports the conclusion senior
Trump aides knew the rally they staged near the White House on 6 January could
turn chaotic. What more we learn will depend on a House select committee.
Wolff also
fails to grapple with the trend in red states towards wresting control of
elections from the electorate and putting them into the hands of Republican
legislatures.
Trump’s
false contention that the presidential election was stolen is now an article of
faith among Republicans and QAnon novitiates. Ballot “audits” funded by dark
money are a new fixture of the political landscape. Democracy looks in danger.
Trump tells
Wolff his base “feel cheated – and they are angry”. Populism isn’t about all of
the people, just some of them. As for responsibility, Trump washes his hands.
On closing Wolff’s third Trump book, it seems possible it will not be his last
after all. All the trauma of 2020 may just have been prelude to a Trump-Biden
rematch.
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