A devastating survey outlining Trump’s worst qualities.
An anonymous author roasts former President Donald Trump in this biting nonfiction book.
From its grotesque front cover caricature of Trump to its list of the erstwhile commander-in-chief’s most “despicable” acts on its final page, this work is relentless in its message that Trump “should not be President.” The book begins with an overview of the former president’s propensity to lie, in ways that are both innocuously bizarre (such as his claims that it didn’t rain at his inauguration) and frighteningly dangerous (such as his election result denials and claims of voting fraud after his 2020 loss). In total, the author posits, Trump “made over 30,000 false or misleading statements when he was President.” Beyond his reputation as a liar, Trump, per the book, is an “idiot” who constantly says “dumb things,” including claims that he would build an anti-immigration wall on the border of Colorado and that he is “highly educated” because he knows “the best words.” He is also a con artist, according to the author—the book includes a chapter-long history of Trump’s “scams.” These include Trump University—approximately 1,000 individuals paid $34,999 for a “Gold package” seminar taught by real estate market instructors whom Trump had never even met. Other examples include the Donald J. Trump Foundation, a charity whose expenses included the purchase of a $60,000, 9-foot-tall portrait of Trump, and the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which was charged an inflated amount by the Trump International Hotel to host inaugural ceremonies. The former president’s entourage is not spared from the author’s wrath, from Steve Bannon, who was charged with fraud for his “Build the Wall” campaign, to son-in-law Jared Kushner, whose diplomatic efforts were beholden to his business ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (per the author’s convincing analysis). The book concludes with an appeal to conservatives to vote for Republican candidates “down ballot if they are the better candidate, but do not vote Trump,” emphasizing that Trump is a unique threat. As such, the book avoids partisan critiques of Republicans in general (aside from those most loyal to the Trump camp). The author argues (based on Trump’s own declarations) that a second presidential term for Trump would likely feature blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters, a restructuring of the Department of Justice to target the president’s enemies, and an upending of the current world order by withdrawing America’s support from NATO and Ukraine.
While the book’s polemical tone and ad hominem attacks will likely irk the former president’s supporters, it nevertheless packs a meaningful punch, backed by almost 50 pages of source references, with its exhaustive overview of Trump’s legacy. The most damning evidence, ironically, comes straight from “the horse’s mouth” as Trump is directly quoted throughout the book, displaying his willingness to openly air “racist, petty, hypocritical, and dishonest” statements “for everyone to see and hear.” The book’s dire warnings about a second Trump presidential term are tempered with a satirical panache. Writing under the pseudonym Tom Praddlun (an anagram for Donald Trump), the author includes a humorous, full-color, multipage gallery of unflattering photographs of Trump and a word-search puzzle that highlights his “Terrible Traits.” A well-designed work, the book features a wealth of images, screenshots of tweets, graphs, and other visual elements.
A devastating survey outlining Trump’s worst qualities.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Expono Books
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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