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 hopeful civic sermon favoring inspiration over concrete prescriptions.
A New Jersey senator’s moral manifesto.
Booker situates his narrative in the wake of his 2025 record-breaking 25-hour stand on the Senate floor, an act of physical endurance and moral insistence that serves as its animating example. Though not framed as memoir, the episode implicitly positions Booker himself as a model of the virtues he argues are essential to democratic life. Organized around 10 qualities, including agency, vulnerability, truth, perseverance, and grace, the book advances a clear thesis. “In this book, I argue that many Americans who came before us, and many among us today, have consistently proven that virtues are practical: They expand our power, deepen our sense of belonging, and equip us to endure and ultimately prevail.” Booker illustrates this claim through figures such as the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, whose willingness to endure sacrifice for principle anchors the book’s moral lineage, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whose composure under public scrutiny is presented as an example of dignity as civic strength. These portraits reinforce Booker’s belief that character, sustained over time, can shape public life, even when political outcomes remain uncertain or incomplete. He supplements these examples with personal stories drawn from family, faith, and community, delivered with emotional conviction and a tone that remains affirming and carefully calibrated. Much of the narrative reads like an expansive commencement address, earnest and reassuring, offering moral affirmation at moments when readers might reasonably expect sharper confrontation. That rhetorical choice ultimately defines the book’s limits. Booker acknowledges political conflict and compromise, but rarely examines them in depth, and while urging leaders to take moral risks, he avoids sustained reflection on how some of his own political decisions have tested the virtues he promotes. The result is a principled but self-conscious work that affirms shared values while offering little guidance for navigating power and accountability.
A hopeful civic sermon favoring inspiration over concrete prescriptions.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250436733
Page Count: 272
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
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
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