Making Trump, Breaking America

OVER THE PAST NINE YEARS, ever since Donald Trump's dramatic entrance into politics at the bottom of a golden escalator, more books have been written about Trump than any other human being in recorded history, more than Lincoln, Jesus, and Napoleon combined. At least, it seems that way. Generally, as more and more books, especially biographies, are written about famous people as the years go by beyond their death, the books get better. Latter day scholars have the advantage of hindsight, historical perspective, and of course, they have access access to all the ressearch and writing others have done before on the same subject. Usually, the more recent the scholarahip and book, the better it is. The most recent book about Donald Trump is a good example of this. "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America" by renowned journalist Maggie Haberman fills the bill. It is arguably the best, most authentic, best researched monograph about Trump to date. Doubtless better ones await us in the future...Haberman has been keeping tabs of and writing about Donald Trump for decades, and knows her subject thoroughly. Over the years Trump has repeatedly slandered Habam as "an unprofessional herhack", and worse, but has given her numerous interviews, probably well aware that her reporting on him would likely not be postivie. This is an example of Donald Trump's insatiable lust for attention, especially in the media, and that for him negative publicity is much better than no publicity. Half of this lenghty book discusses Trump's life prior to his presidency, and digs deep into the roots of his influences, influences which helped make him the complicated, volatile, treacherous character he is. His influences include Rudi Gilliani, George Steinbrenner, and Roy Cohn, among other infamous, highly ambitious success mongers. Trump learned early in life that the world is dog eat dog, always hit back twice as hard,and everything is a transaction, a deal, everything is for sale. Haberman's book makes Donald Trump much more understandable. He begins to seem less some crazy, incomprehensible deranged entity, but rather, the product of very real influences, circumstances, and people. Haberman shares one important characteristic in common with nearly all of the other writers who write about Donald Trump; she doesn't seem to like him very much. I started reading books about Trump as soon as they started coming out; almost immediately after his inauguration. The more journalists, former associates, and his own family members know and find out about Trump, the less they like him. With every book that I read about him, the les I like him, indeed, the more I despise him. True, Trump, like the rest of us, is to a certain extent a product of his environment, forged in the environment in which he was raised. But merely by observing many different people, the way they were raised, and the decisions that they made, by studying history and today's society, one can tell that no matter how a person is raised, no matter what his or her background is, he or she has every opportunity to make choices which largely determine the direction of his or her own life. Ultimately, we are all self made, regardless of environmental factors. What Donald Trump made himself into and how he has influenced the entire country by his choices, Maggie Haberman elucidates with great clarity. It is difficult for anyone to read this brilliant book without being convinced of its authenticity and accuracy, and convinced that Donald Trump, on the whole, is a great tragedy, for himself, and for us all.