Prasetya Nababan

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

Book by Maggie Haberman

DETAILS

Publisher : Penguin Press; First edition. (October 4, 2022) Language : English Hardcover : 608 pages ISBN-10 : 0593297342 ISBN-13 : 978-0593297346 Item Weight : 2.2 pounds Dimensions : 6.46 x 1.89 x 9.53 inches Best Sellers Rank: #1,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2 in United States National Government #8 in United States Executive Government #10 in Political Leader Biographies , The instant #1 New York Times bestseller. “This is the book Trump fears most.” - Axios “Will be a primary source about the most vexing president in American history for years to come.” - Joe Klein, The New York Times "A uniquely illuminating portrait." - Sean Wilentz, The Washington Post “[A] monumental look at Donald Trump and his presidency.” — David Shribman, Los Angeles Times From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist, Confidence Man is a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that chronicles his life and its meaning from his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency. 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. Read more

REVIEW

*Note – As always, I do not let political opinions influence my book reviews. I am only reviewing this book as a biography and discussing the content; not whether I agree with the politics of the author or the subject. This book is divided into 32 chapters and an Epilogue, with a total of about 507 pages. After the Epilogue there is a Photos section, with 73 different pictures of Trump and his family/friends/associates, with captions explaining the photos. Within this section there are also seven pages of questions about the reporting in this book, that Trump HIMSELF responded to by handwriting short responses on the pages (Many of these short responses include “Fake news”, “False”, “Not True”; but some responses are about a sentence long, refuting some of the points, or underlining and addressing specific details.) Haberman starts the book with a Prologue explaining that her goal is not to just focus on Trump’s time as President, but to write a biography that shows his early influences that shaped him into the person he became. She will describe his early years, family relationships, mentors and advisors, social connections and business deals, in order to shed light on some of the factors that shaped his personality and tactics. In the first few chapters Haberman covers Trump’s family, including Trump’s grandfather arriving in the US from Germany in 1885, and eventually dying during the 1918 flu pandemic. She details events in the life of Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father, both before and after Donald was born. She describes Trump’s early years in school, friendships and feuds. She covers Trump’s rivalry with his brother Fred Jr., and his receiving advice from Roy Cohn. Haberman recounts the details of the HUD lawsuit against Trump for discrimination, Trump’s navigation of the political landscape as he attempted to create a real estate empire, and his meeting and eventually marrying his first wife Ivana. She also discusses journalist Wayne Barrett, Roger Stone, the construction of Trump Tower, and relationship with Ed Koch. She mentions connections to Don King, Al Sharpton, and Rudy Giuliani. There are also multiple chapters discussing Trump’s relationship with Marla Maples. Haberman goes on to cover many pivotal events in Trump’s life. She describes his experiences with the casino industry, meeting Melania, early political aspirations, response to 9/11, TV deals including The Apprentice and working with WWE’s Vince McMahon, and criticism of Obama. She goes into detail about his 2016 campaign, battles for the Republican nomination, and political strategies. She covers interactions with Putin and Russia, Trump’s winning the election, and a chaotic transition. Much of the next several chapters are dedicated to Trump’s time in office, and situations that are already fair well publicized and documented; I would imagine that most of the information in these chapters will already be familiar to the general public. The last few chapters deal with the end of Trump’s term; the pandemic response, 2020 election, appointment of Justice Barrett, battling covid, disputing the election results, and the events of January 6th. Overall, this book does provide a good deal of information about Trump’s early life and influences, it just does so with the standard modern political bias that seems to be prevalent in most books nowadays. The author actually doesn’t vilify Trump as much as some other writers though, so maybe this is as close to neutral as you get from someone that clearly disagrees with Trump. Of course, many people won’t read the entire book, and will just give it 1 star or 5 stars depending on what side of the political spectrum they are on; but if you are actually interested in the history, relationships/connections/influences, achievements, mistakes and lessons learned, this book does have some interesting historical information. Just consider the source and come to your own conclusions, you can still learn things from a book whether or not you agree with the author’s opinions. 3.5 / 5

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