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Thank You for Your Servitude
Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
1 of 1 copy available
“He’s one of the best chroniclers of politics today.” –Jake Tapper
“This is a really funny book.” –Kara Swisher
“His writing is so damn good.” –John Berman
“Really fascinating...There are so many revelations.” –Anderson Cooper
“The new must read summer book.” –Stephanie Ruhle
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington’s “swamp” into a gold-plated hot tub—and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
In the early months of Trump’s candidacy, the Republican Party’s most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united—and loud—in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won.
Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich’s unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration’s chief enablers, and the swamp’s lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their “relevance”? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump’s savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were “in on the joke.” As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don’t read The New York Times, and they won’t read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It’s a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison.
Thank You for Your Servitude isn’t another view from the Oval Office: it’s the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 12, 2022 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593296325
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593296325
- File size: 1836 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 1, 2022
Having revealed Harvey Weinstein's violent behavior two decades ago in a New Yorker profile, Auletta asks in Hollywood Ending whether Weinstein's sexual predation can be attributed to himself alone or to the Hollywood power game--and why it took so long to challenge it. Tech theorist and venture capitalist Ball explains The Metaverse as a three-dimensional network of interconnected experiences and devices, tools and infrastructure that transcends virtual reality and has the capacity to reshape society. In Nobody Is Protected, Geopolitics editor in chief Jones (Border Walls) tracks the U.S. Border Patrol from its brutal early days to its current power to conduct warrantless stops and interrogations within 100 miles of the border, arguing that it is trampling on the Fourth Amendment in its bid to become a national police force. From New York Times best-selling, National Magazine Award-winning Leibovich (This Town), Thank You for Your Servitude critiques the cult of submission in the Republican Party that allowed Donald Trump to flourish. A veteran of the U.S. intelligence community's Combating Terrorism program, the Black, Arabic-speaking Nance shifts his focus from al Qaeda and ISIS to the threat posed by the January 6, 2021, insurrectionists and their supporters--privileged, he argues, by their whiteness--in They Want To Kill Americans (200,000-copy first printing).
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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August 15, 2022
Relive the Trump administration from the perspectives of the toadies who enabled it. Veteran New York Times Washington reporter Leibovich focuses the narrative on "the Sean Spicers, Kellyanne Conways, [and] any of the other Washington C-listers who were bumped temporarily up to B-list status by their proximity to Donald J. Trump." Everywhere he looks, he finds White House aides and GOP leaders privately bemoaning the president while publicly defending him. It doesn't take deep political acumen to figure out the root of this hypocrisy: Playing nice with a demonstrably inept, petty, and heartless leader was a path to power. As a result, the author's chronicle of the Trump era, from the early debates through the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, is light on analysis and heavier on portraits of the cowards. For example, a panicky Spicer, Trump's first lie-peddling press secretary, demanded that Leibovich not write that he puts on makeup before going on TV. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions steps into the attorney general role "terrified and shaken, like a beagle in a thunderstorm." Former House Speaker Paul Ryan recalls sobbing over the Capitol insurrection while dodging his complicity in Trump's rise. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham proves the most craven of all, if more honest about his consistent aspiration to "try to be relevant." GOP push back, when it existed, came from those who had little to lose politically (Mitt Romney), were near death (John McCain), or principled enough to jump ship (Liz Cheney). Leibovich ably captures this milieu, and he's cleareyed about Trump's dangers. However, that awareness sometimes clashes with his breezy, Twitter-dunk-style delivery, which emphasizes the sideshow at the expense of the crisis. Now that the GOP is more cult than political party, one former Republican congressman noted that its main approach to Trump is "just waiting for him to die," a strategy more pathetic than funny. A thorough if sometimes glib account of a disastrous presidency.COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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