Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America

Presidency of Donald Trump #4

by Jonathan Karl

The must-read new book from Jonathan Karl, the author of New York Times bestsellers Tired of Winning, Betrayal, and Front Row at the Trump Show

In Retribution, Jonathan Karl’s unparalleled access brings us behind closed doors deep inside the White House and presidential campaigns, revealing the extraordinary moments that ended one man’s presidency and brought another back to power.

This is a story of unprecedented political plot twists, showing what happened behind the scenes as political fortunes fell and rose again, and as a new team coalesced around President Trump with the goal of creating an entirely new world order. From President Biden’s shocking withdrawal and Vice President Harris’s historic run, to the multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, his election, and the changes he has brought to every corner of the country, this book reveals in surprising new detail how we got here, and what we can expect from American politics in the years to come.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Audiobook, Government, Historical

Audible Audio

First published October 28, 2025

Reviews

[Frank Luntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, the Real Story of 2024.

I don’t normally take the time to write reviews of books. But over the past few years, I’ve made a commitment to my American politics students to pick just one book each year that I think matters most.

Retribution is that book. It will correct the record and dispel all the myths about what actually happened in 2024 that led to the biggest political comeback in modern times. But equally important, it really doesn’t matter whether you love Donald Trump or hate him. This book will help you understand him and why he is back at the White House -- regardless of what side you’re on.

So let’s get specific. There are several components of Retribution that are particularly fascinating and enlightening because of the behind-the-scenes first-person accounts:

1) The personal, powerful, emotional conversations between Donald Trump and Joe Biden after the assassination attempt, the post-election meeting in the Oval Office, and in the presidential limo on Inauguration Day. Despite the acrimony between these men, readers will be surprised by the genuine humanity shown by Trump and the level of empathy shown by Biden.

2) The unraveling of the Biden reelection effort, a step-by-step (blow-by-blow) account of how leading Democrats turned against the former President. It reads like an Agathy Christie novel – and the competing and occasionally brutal roles played by Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi is almost Shakespearian. It all seemed so carefully orchestrated from the outside, but you’ll realize how ugly and bitter it was internally. (This chapter could be a book in itself. Thanks to the author’s impeccable research, we now know what actually transpired in those final ten days – and that it doesn’t make anyone involved look good.)

3) The formation of President Trump’s cabinet and why so many Big Names were rejected in favor of lessor known loyalists. Never in American history have we had a more politically, personally and ideologically loyal group of advisors around the President. What’s particularly fascinating is how some of the most influential people readers will recognize were done in by inuendo, circumstantial evidence and (to be blunt) lies.

4) The tall tales and sordid gossip, from the Hollywood debate watch party that led President Biden’s strongest supporters to drop him … to the various interactions with Hunter Biden, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and the other prominent names. If you want to know “the rest of the story,” as told by the people who were in the room … you’ll get it here.

I’ve told my students that Retribution is the most essential political book right now because it is the definitive account of the most consequential election of my lifetime. The decisions chronicled in such vivid detail will surely impact every reader for the rest of our lives.

The only negative I can offer – you really can’t skim the book. You need to read it cover to cover to fully capture the significance of what really happened and why. So if you’re just interested in a cursory 30-minute read, you should look elsewhere.

[Mark Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Karl has done it again - with pain staking research and superb investigative skills he has pulled back the curtains on Trump 47. Karl does not just explain how Trump practices retribution but more importantly explains why President Trump has been so aggressive in his first few months of the second Administration.

I did not expect a book would have me think that Indiana was the epicenter of our Constitutional core - but revealing storytelling by Karl explains how both Mike Pence and Dan Quayle were key to the saving of our democratic process on January 6th. Quayle deserves a statue in Congress’s Statutory Hall

Retribution has similar anecdote after anecdote that explain Americas political condition today - it is MUST reading this Fall. and superb investigative skills

[Jane Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Misleading title. 90% of info has been available from 2024 tv & books by Jake Tapper, Kamala Harris & others. Well written & nice audio, though. Looking forward to J Karl’s next book that will hopefully have more info on the horrors of continuing retribution by that awful person in the White House.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next one needs to be about the demise of Trump.

[Alex Gruenenfelder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read all three of Jonathan Karl's prior books about Donald Trump and the modern state of American politics, leading me to pick this one up with great interest. I was not disappointed, either in its compelling writing style or the revelations within that were new to me even as a political junkie, including how many Democratic Senators would have called on Joe Biden to step aside from the party's 2024 nomination if he had not done so voluntarily. Karl manages to simultaneously express journalistic neutrality and all-too-real exasperation, both of which are appreciated in a present day history such as this. Karl's many interviews with Trump and Hunter Biden, both of which come with a sense of entitlement and anger that can make one question why they warrant so much time, show how his access to powerful people makes this an accurate tome. I highly recommend this book as an assessment of our nation's most recent presidential election, one that is very readable by people of almost all political affiliations.

[Sandra Mistretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fourth book by Jonathan Karl about Trump. There was nothing new, Trump hasn't changed- just become meaner, more vindictive, more openly greedy, and more demented from age, at 79 years old.

Karl talks about Merrick Garland, the past DOJ head, and how Biden and others felt that he took too long to indict Trump on the January 6th insurrection, and was too harsh with Biden's son Hunter's conviction on drug charges.

Karl presented the other side that because of appeals and the court system, the Trump indictment could never have been completed before the election. When Trump won, they had to set the case aside because they couldn't charge an elected president. Jack Smith wanted to tell the American people the charges in detail so that the truth of Trump's involvement in the insurrection was known.

He also discussed the reluctance with which Biden finally pardoned his son before he left office because he knew that Trump would be merciless towards him just for spite.

[Emily Renee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not read this. I will not read anything about Stumpy Trumpy. He’s a fascist fucking pedophile and any positive comments regarding him or the republican party need to be voted down. Don’t bother refuting any of this. I will not listen or respond.
Fuck trump and anyone who supports him.

[alfred hair · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book sucks.

Who wants to be reminded in detail of these awful events and the terrible people involved
Screw this awful history

[Imlac · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first part of this book rehearses some of the most salient moments of the 2024 presidential campaign while completely ignoring some others. (There's no mention, for example, of the Vice-Presidential debate.) Karl is quite critical of Trump, despite repeatedly mentioning, evidently with eager pride, all the times he and Trump talked by phone. The whole opening section - the "Prologue" as it were - is a set up for its last line, which Karl seems to be both unhappy and happy to have delivered to Trump himself.

The second half of the book turns to the post-election maneuverings of the Trump team, at which point I totally lost interest and skimmed through to the end.

The one thing that will stay with me: Hunter Biden, who it seems gave unhindered (and unhinged) access to Karl, is a thoroughly despicable, repugnant and also pitiable man. It can't have been easy growing up in the shadow of an adored older brother, who ascended to sainthood upon his demise; but Hunter's utter self- and other-destructive behavior evades understanding and resists sympathy. To the extent that Beau mirrors Biden's better nature, Hunter is a reflection of his insecure, narcissistic and destructive worst.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulous read by Mr. Karl. In each of his books, including his latest, Retribution he delivers a fact based telling of the events that led up to the situation we live with today. While you can say "he's a journalist, of course he's a good writer." But I've read books by other journalists who write in a dry manner. Mr. Karl takes you behind the scenes, giving attribute where he can to the witnesses he interviewed and includes anonymous sources with verification of their stories. He gives a fair and unbiased telling of each side -- or the many sides if there are more. I look forward to his next book.

[Drew Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This makes me feel… things.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ugh, I wanted to like this book more than I did. Fair warning, I’ve already read three books breaking down the 2024 election (Fight, Uncharted, and 107 Days), and this book really didn’t add much to what I already knew. I feel like the other books I read (especially Fight and Uncharted) added a lot to my knowledge about 2024, even as someone who followed the election closely. Only a few chapters of this book did that for me. If you want to read about Trump’s re-election, go with Fight or Uncharted instead.

[Nanci Catalano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jon Karl does it again! An exceptional behind the scenes account of Trump’s return to the White House. A real eye opener.

[Earl Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonably unbiased look into the wildest U.S. election in recent memory.

[Carol N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently the citizens of the United States are experiencing the many outcomes of the 2024 election. Example being, when will the government open once again??? The subject matter of this election has been examined on television shows, through written material and the ever present internet. While the election of Donald Trump has been told from various perspectives, Jonathan Karl's new book, gives the reader a refreshing analysis of what really happened behind the scenes. He makes a point to include various sources to explain the twists and turns of the 2024 election.

[Silky Johnstone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn’t quite put my finger on it but there was an underlying hint of sucking up to Trump all the way through this that I found off putting. Also these type of books seem to rely on a lot of quoting from Steve “The Sand Eel” Bannon who seems a ridiculous character.

[Loree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book! The author tells what was going on from the end of the Biden Administration to the beginning of the Trump Administration. Very well done!

[Matt Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed all of Karl's books on Trump; they're well researched and fair. Great insights and analysis.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this and several of Karl's previous books about trump, I'm struck by the theme of predominantly positive things he says about him. Is this good investigative reporting or is he a closet trump supporter?

[Burpee Bibliophile (Ty) · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better books detailing the crazy circus-like 2024 presidential election. What I appreciate most about Jonathan Karl, is his commitment to accuracy and balance. He reports the facts regardless of who it might upset. He gives blame to both sides of the isle wherever it’s warranted which you have to respect. And this book is no different. He highlights the failures, misconduct, corruption, and incompetence from both the left and right. I learned a lot of things that I wasn’t previously aware of so that was an added bonus. The writing is top notch and it reads like a thriller. With that said, it’s obvious our political system is an absolute mess. Both the Democratic Party and Republican Party are in total disarray and both of their extreme sides are catastrophic and cancerous to our country. After reading this book, I was left even more angrier with the Democratic Party because it was their embarrassing incompetence and complete total failure that allowed this autocratic corrupt criminal coward to win office and fill his administration with a bunch of corrupt inept ignorant clowns. And we are now seeing and experiencing the devastating consequences of that in real time. Unfortunate and frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe it. This book gets a solid recommendation from me. Happy reading!

[Simon Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and unique audiobook. Definitely recommended for anyone who wants to read an autopsy of the dem campaign and hear what trump is like behind closed doors.

The author references several private conversations with trump and his circle, choosing to insert recording their phone calls in place of quotations. The most jarring element of this book is the way in which Trump is present— in private conversations and intimate moments, he is reasonable, mellow, and, at times seemingly, generous. Seconds later, when given a stage and an audience he becomes combative, vindictive, and frightening. At first I felt like this juxtaposition was a disservice that played-down the danger that trump poses. However, I by but he end that these two sides of trump are part of what made him so dangerous. The reasoning behind common phrase “that’s just trump being trump” on the right, alongside the perception that he’s “putting on a show” is makes more sense now. Fortunately, the author doesn’t lose sight of the danger that “show” poses to the Americans who are persecuted by trump and his goons.

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America by Jonathan Karl, published in 2025. Karl has been the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos.[4] Karl served as the chief White House correspondent for ABC News from December 2012 through the end of the first Trump administration in January 2021. I am amazed at Karl’s access to key players across the entire political spectrum. In particular I’m fascinated with his access to President Trump. They seem to enjoy an easy rapport while each speaks candidly of the others shortcomings in public. I found most of this book uncomfortable as Karl describes the incompetence and downright political malpractice of the Democrats. Biden trashed his legacy by staying too long and those around him deluded him into thinking he was still viable as president. His late exit from the race left Harris in a vulnerable position and additionally she ran poorly and so we are left with what we have today.

[disneypal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite an interesting book. Karl recounts the 2024 Trump campaign. As a Emmy nominated journalist, it’s his job to report the news without bias. He starts out saying that he called DJT to congratulate him on winning the presidency and when he call and said “I’m calling to congratulate you”. DJT said “For what”. Why did he say “For What?” Because he wanted Karl to actually say the words “because you won”. Anyone that knows anything about DJT knows he as an ego maniac and loves being praised.

Karl goes on to talk about the assassination attempt in which DJT tried to fight off the secret service and one of the first questions asked as he was being in treated at the hospital was “How did it look on TV”

Karl also talks about DJT’s smart campaign moves against Biden and Harris and how he won all the battle states during the election. He also mentions the follies of Biden and his forgetting major points or mixing up names and he seem to shed light on that Biden may not have been mentally fit another presidential run. He didn’t say a lot about Harris but he did mention the debates and how he thought Harris and Trump had good points in those debates.

Ultimately, as you have guessed, I’ve never been a fan of DJT and this book didn’t change my opinion about him, but it did backup some of my thoughts. It opened my eyes a bit to Biden a bit too.

I thought it was a very good book and I’m not one that normally reads political books.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Karl somehow always makes the unfathomable and indigestible completely digestible, no matter how many times you feel nauseous during the journey. I will continue to read everything he publishes.

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clearly left wing media bias. With that said, there are some interesting things in the book. One is that DJT is a bit of a buffoon. But remember what the great philosopher of the 21st century said: “every time I go to town and vote I come home with the blues. The lesser of two evils is all we ever get to choose. “

[Bubber Hutto · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book conveniently omits any explanations for the abject dishonesty of the trump campaigns and his incompetent administration.
It is a glorification of an imaginary political paradigm, acceptable only to those who are still willing to accept his criminality.

[George Hamblen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Karl has done an amazing job journaling the Trump years… so much has already been forgotten. His books are must reads to know what’s going on

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE PROMINENT JOURNALIST COVERS THE 2024 ELECTION, AND THE EARLY MONTHS OF TRUMP’S 2ND TERM

Correspondent Jonathan Karl wrote in the Introduction to this 2025 book, “It was 7:30 a.m. on November 6, 2024. I had been up all night tracking the results live for ABC News … after discussing Donald Trump’s victory on Good Morning America… I had spent much of the previous four years reporting on Trump’s efforts to overturn the last election, his lonely exit from the White House, his legal travails, and the dire warnings from so many people who had been close to him about what would happen if he ever returned to power. And now… Trump had won—and won big. By any objective measure, his victory was stunning… It wasn’t a landslide… But he had achieved something no Republican presidential nominee had in two decades: He won the popular vote... I figured I would call him and leave a voicemail message … congratulating him on his victory…

“Our relationship had grown contentious in recent years---he’d labeled me a ‘third-rate reporter,’ called me ‘a real scumbag’… but as Election Day approached, he almost always answered my calls… Trump’s voice sounded hoarse… ‘Mr. President-Elect, it’s Jonathan Karl,’ I said. ‘I just wanted to call to say congratulations.’ ‘On what, Jonathan?’ The exhausted president wanted to hear more… he needed to hear me describe out loud what he had accomplished… at this moment, there was only one answer to Trump’s question. ‘On the greatest comeback victory in the history of American politics.” (Pg. 2-4)

He states, “Hatred of those elites quickly became the driving force of Trump’s 2024 campaign. He told his supporters that their problems and frustrations were caused by those same elites who had denounced him, had investigated him, and were now prosecuting him… ‘For those who have been wronged and betrayed,’ he declared at a March 2023 rally, in Waco, Texas, ‘I am your retribution.’” (Pg. 6)

He recounts, “Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case was the first---and… only---criminal case against Donald Trump to go to trial. But for Trump’s opponents … Bragg’s was the last case they wanted to go forward. On the long list of Trump’s alleged misdeeds, the allegations underlying the Manhattan case seemed downright trivial… the guy who had been indicted … for allegedly pilfering America’s most sensitive national security secrets and unleashing a mob on the US Capitol building in an effort to overturn an election was on trial for mislabeling hush-money payments to a porn star. He had been indicted for far more serious crimes … but Trump’s legal team had successfully delayed those proceedings…” (Pg. 11-13)

He notes, “Biden had never explicitly promised to serve a single term, but many Democrats believed he had implied that was his plan… Several younger, popular Democratic leaders could have jumped into the race if Biden decided to pass the baton… Biden’s advisors downplayed the obvious warning signs. His approval rating cratered as the country watched his administration botch the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan… prices were on the whole 20% higher … than when Biden first took office. Even Democratic senators would privately admit… that the administration ‘utterly mismanaged’ the southern border. (Pg. 30, 32) Later, he adds, “The vast majority of voters … had concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity because of what they had seen with their own eyes and ears.” (Pg. 62)

He recounts that after Biden’s debate with Trump, “I interviewed Senator Chris Coons, one of Biden’s best friends in the Senate… I’m still stunned as I reread those words. A Democratic senator with a national leadership position on the campaign was telling me that an 81-year-old Joe Biden was the ONLY Democrat in America who could defeat Donald Trump?… If you were searching for evidence that Democrats tried to engage in a cover-up of Biden’s deteriorating age and health, you could consider this interview.” (Pg. 88-89) “But still, not a single Democratic senator---or governor---had publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race.” (Pg. 98)

After the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on Trump, Secret Service agent Nick Menster … [was] tasked with protecting a man who was fighting back, resisting his Secret Service agents as they attempted to rush him to safety. The episode would be… quite possibly, Trump’s finest hour.” (Pg. 107-108) “Pumping his right arm in the air, Trump pushed through the agents and repeated the word that would come to define his campaign: ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’” (Pg. 122) “Elon Musk posted a video of Trump’s defiant moment … and declared, ‘I fully endorse President Trump…’ Musk’s endorsement was easily the most important endorsement of the campaign… Muck, the richest man in the world, would go on to spend nearly $290 million to help elect Trump and play an extremely prominent role in his administration.” (Pg. 131)

He reports, “The decision to end the campaign may have been Biden’s alone. But in practice… it was already over. Party leaders had abandoned him. The money was drying up. An overwhelming majority of voters believed he was in no condition to serve another four years as president, as did many of his longtime allies in Congress.” (Pg. 178) Later, he adds, “Ultimately, it was Biden’s decision to run for reelection---after implying that he wouldn’t---that doomed his party’s chances, forestalling a real primary process.” (Pg. 349)

He observes, “Since becoming the nominee, [Kamala] Harris truly hadn’t faced any substantive questions. She hadn’t been pressed on whether the Joe Biden we saw on debate night was the same Joe Biden she had been having lunch with every week. She hadn’t explained why voters should view her as anything other than a direct extension of the Biden administration.…” (Pg. 211-212) Three days after the debate, she did an interview, and was asked about her plan for the economy: “There was nothing in Harris’s answer to offer hope for working families living paycheck to paycheck… Just about every answer Harris gave … followed the same pattern---bland, inoffensive, and forgettable… all those decisions were based on the assumption that Harris was, in fact winning. And by the time she realized that she wasn’t… it was too late.” (Pg. 253-254) Trump ran an ad from a 2019 Harris interview, “expressing support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for undocumented immigrants in prison… Harris could never come right out and admit what was likely the truth---she had concluded that the issue was politically helpful in 2019 and politically harmful in 2024.” (Pg. 278, 280)

Trump asserted, “I do the weave… I’ll talk about nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together… friends of mine that are … English professors… say, ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen… The fake news… they say, ‘He rambled…’” (Pg. 231)

He notes, “Trump clearly had more opinions about who would serve in his second administration than he’d had … in his first… In 2016… Trump was forced to rely on advice from others as he scrambled to staff the federal government… Trump wasn’t going to let that happen again.” (Pg. 292)

He reports, “[Emil] Bove’s reign over the DOJ began just hours after Trump was sworn in. He immediately got to work as the leading edge of Trump’s effort to fulfill his promise of exacting revenge on the people who’d gone after him… He used his first days in office to fire the top leadership of the FBI… He fired or forced the resignations of several of the top prosecutors at the Justice Department, targeting those who were assigned to work on the Special Counsel’s cases against Trump… It was a political bloodbath far beyond… the darkest days of Watergate…” (Pg. 323) He summarizes, “With a whimper, the historic and long-running federal investigation into the alleged crimes of Donald Trump had come to an end.” (Pg. 361)

At Trump’s inauguration, Steve Bannon observed, “The tech oligarchs [of Meta, Amazon, Apple, Google, TikTok] had tried to defeat Trump… and now they were coming to his inauguration to surrender to him. ‘They’re there as supplicants… President Trump broke the oligarchs… and they surrendered.” (Pg. 371)

He concludes, “During the first six months of his second term, Trump was tearing apart American institutions and challenging long-held American values and norms on an almost daily basis… going so far as to accept a $400 million luxury jumbo jet as a gift from Qatar---agreeing that it would be used as the new Air Force One, but then transferred to his presidential library shortly before he was scheduled to leave office… He … force[d] changes on America’s top law firms, punishing them financially for taking on clients or legal work he personally didn’t like.. He issued a slew of executive orders challenging the policies… and curricula of America’s private colleges and universities. And with an assist from Elon Musk, he dismantled the US Agency for International Development … thereby demolishing an instrument for projecting American influence and goodwill… that had been broadly supported by leaders in both parties since the 1960s.” (Pg. 393-394)

This is a very perceptive and informative book, on the early days of the Trump administration, and what led up to it.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Karl has done it again. 'Retribution' is another compelling read, featuring lots of brand-new reporting on events seared into our psyche. Highly recommended.