Trump in exile

McGraw, a reporter who has covered Donald Trump since the beginning of his political career, provides an in-depth look at his postpresidential life. Exiled to Mar-a-Lago, Trump seemed to be done. But perfecting his take-no-prisoners skills, the former president managed to convince many that the election was stolen, lies that turned into a fund-raising bonanza. Loyal MAGA followers saw each slam against Trump, including indictments, as further proof of a corrupt judiciary. McGraw takes a particularly deep dive into the documents raid at Mar-a-Lago as well as Trump's dismemberment of Ron DeSantis' political career. The book had to end somewhere, even as the saga continues, but without a look at recent events, the ending seems abrupt. Still, this is a thoroughly reported and insightful book that provides a map detailing how Trump's 2024 intended road to the White House is being built.

In Politico correspondent McGraw's tart debut, ex-president Trump claws his way back to mastery of the Republican party thanks to crude bluster and the fanatical loyalty of his base. McGraw begins in 2021 with a disgraced Trump's post--January 6 retreat to Mar-a-Lago. His grip on Republican voters remained strong, she notes--two thirds of them believed his stop-the-steal narrative--and made him a kingmaker who compelled Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms to embrace his election denialism. Banned from Twitter and Facebook, he started his own social media platform, Truth Social (McGraw gives an eye-opening rundown of how Trump snookered the main investors in that venture). Later, he bested his main Republican primary rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, with a mix of schoolyard taunts ("Meatball Ron") and sheer chutzpah (he attacked DeSantis for promoting the same Covid vaccines that Trump did as president). In McGraw's vivid rendering ("at Mar-a-Lago he was like a spinning top losing momentum"), Trump was able to survive self-inflicted disasters that would ruin any other politician (lunching with Kanye West in the midst of furor over West's antisemitic remarks; calling for the Constitution to be suspended so that he could reclaim the presidency; undergoing criminal investigations). McGraw evocatively captures Trump's season of despond and the chaotic energy that powered him out of it. (Aug.)

Out of the White House, Trump rages. McGraw, a national political correspondent atPolitico, makes her book debut with a close look at Trump's life as ex-president, much of the time spent at Mar-a-Lago, his "decadent, sprawling, gilded mansion on the sea." Trump bought the estate in 1985, converting it 10 years later into a posh club and resort, where "membership costs hundreds of thousands of dollars up front, plus annual fees of $14,000." Drawing on interviews with politicians and aides, source notes from her reporting, and published articles, McGraw reveals Trump denying his presidential loss and plotting ways to burnish his political clout. He constantly whipped up conspiracy theories. Frustrated after being banned from Twitter, he founded Trump Media LLC to give him an internet presence in Truth Social, and he encouraged Republicans to grovel for his backing in upcoming races. "Believing--or at least peddling--Trump's falsehoods about the election," McGraw writes, was "a litmus test for a Trump endorsement." Republicans who had voted for his impeachment were targeted for defeat. The much-publicized FBI raid of his premises in the summer of 2022 proved a fundraising boon. "More than ever," writes the author, "he would become his own rallying cry.I am suffering for you would become his gospel." McGraw chronicles Trump's fury over books warning against the perils of another Trump presidency, as he kept close tabs on who was--and wasn't--defending him. He dubbed the Jan. 6 committee the "Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs." He refused to take the blame for Republicans' poor showing in the midterms, "the worst performance by an out of power party in decades." McGraw ends with his victory in the Iowa caucuses, auguring the dismaying prospect of another Trump presidency, fueled by his desire for apocalyptic revenge. Informative but largely unsurprising. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.