The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink

by Thom Hartmann

From bestselling progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann comes an urgent autopsy of American democracy, showing how plutocrats, political cowardice, and systemic rot built the perfect runway for Trump's authoritarian ascent.

The Last American President rips open America's wounded democracy to expose a terrifying Donald Trump isn't an anomaly—he's the inevitable product of a system engineered to fail. This searing investigation reveals how a man forged by childhood trauma, pathological narcissism, and calculated cruelty didn't hijack democracy—he was handed the keys by those who should have been its guardians.

Hartmann uncovers the unholy alliance between Trump's damaged psyche and America's rotted institutions. From Fred Trump's brutal parenting to Roy Cohn's lessons in shamelessness, from a Republican Party that traded principles for power to billionaire donors who treated democracy as a profit center, this book exposes the assembly line that manufactured an authoritarian.

But this is about more than Trump's past—it's about America's future. As climate catastrophe accelerates and fascism spreads globally, Hartmann reveals the nightmare a second Trump term that doesn't just end American democracy but also triggers irreversible planetary damage. Through meticulous research and unflinching analysis, he shows how political cowardice and corporate greed created the perfect storm that could extinguish humanity's last chance at survival.

This isn't just political commentary—it's a last-minute alarm sounding before the point of no return.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Presidents

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 23, 2025

About the author

Thomas Carl Hartmann is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and hosted a nightly television show, The Big Picture, between 2010 and 2017.

Reviews

[Wick Welker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fine book and I disagree with nothing but I learned nothing new. This is a cursory level analysis of Trump and the rise of neofascism in the US. There is nothing new here and the American exceptionalism left a bad taste. Milquetoast liberals love to talk about how we need to get back to our democratic roots ect and ra-ra-ra go activism and boycotts and non-violent resistance. The blind spot is the US has never ever ever been a bastion of freedom or democratic values so it always comes across disingenuous to me. America, at its best, has always been a halfway house of freedom, never a paragon.

[Gabrielė Bužinskaitė · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was this book written by ChatGPT? This question bothered me the whole time I was reading it. The structure of sentences felt like it, though I would love to give the benefit of the doubt (out of denial).

Aside from the fact that I struggled to focus out of worries of reading an AI-prompted book (just thinking of it pains my face with disgust), it was almost interesting.

The author (I’d hope) covered Donald Trump’s childhood and other psychological aspects from his biography, which explains his eccentric demeanour at least in part and, with that, the way he runs the United States of America.

Like some Trump critics, Hartmann describes the 47th US president as a mere symptom of a deeply polarised country, not its cause. The author also questions the validity of the last presidential election and repeatedly doomsays about fascism (Trump as a dictator-to-be) and environmental collapse.

It could be decent, even provocative. Unfortunately, I can’t move past the AI scare.

[Carol Dimitriou · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptionally honest book about the crisis facing the United States today. Every democracy loving person needs to read it. Hartmann lists the steps needed to save our democracy, if we can join together to implement them.

[Charles Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A government without empathy
This, by far, is the most frightening Hartmann book I have read.
This tome names names, corporations, and “think” tanks. The system- wealth, organized religion, crazy people- produces power leaders who give them tax breaks, religious goodies, and powers beyond that of mortal men. Couple this with a gullible/misinformed voting/non-voting public and disaster strikes. And, it is apparent that the current apparent leaders can easily be replaced with those even more awful and wacky at a second’s notice. It is an amazing phenomena.
Hartmann has outlined an evolutionary power growth which makes me wonder how a Democrat since Reagan was ever elected President and if a Democrat will ever again be elected. The future task may prove extremely more insurmountable. It appears improbable that the voters, if not disenfranchised and if there is another election, and if it would be even partially fair, will educate themselves enough to become informed voters.
The emperor commands an incomprehensible media presence owned by a few wealthy oligarchs who appear to care for nothing other than their own wealth and power.
A search of Evergreen Indiana turned up no Hoosier library owning this title and a great deal of poor Dewey Decimal cataloging of other titles. Yes, you will have to buy a personal copy.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A savage takedown of the would-be dictator in the Oval Office

Amazon lists more than 3,000 books about Donald Trump, and I feel as though I’ve read most of them. (Well, at least 23, anyway.) So, why do we need yet another one? Of course, he’s now well into his second term, and a lot has happened since January 20, 2025. A whole lot. So there’s that. But it also turns out that, despite all I’ve learned from extensive reading about our 47th President, there is more to know. And author and radio personality Thom Hartmann proves the point in his shocking new book, The Last American President. It’s a lucid and timely takedown of Donald Trump.

A deeply disturbing psychological and political profile of the President

Hartmann has been an unflinching critic of Donald Trump since his first appearance in the political arena. And no wonder: the man pushes all his buttons. Trump is, after all, demonstrably a pathological liar. He is a serial sexual offender, guilty of corrupt business practices, and a failure in his chosen field of real estate whose companies filed for bankruptcy six times. (Hartmann himself is a serial entrepreneur who has built at least half a dozen businesses.) But we know all this. It’s come to light in many of those 3,000 books about the man.

What Hartmann contributes is not more of the same but a psychological and political profile of Donald Trump that burrows deeply into available records that others have missed or failed to acknowledge. If you already think you’ve got the measure of the man, Hartmann will show you aspects of his record and his personality that others haven’t brought clearly into the light.

One major takeaway

Most of the material in Hartmann’s book is familiar to anyone who has tracked Donald Trump’s career for many years. (Or, as I have, read a great many books and articles about him.) But there are exceptions. And the standout is Chapter 8, “The Heist of Democracy.”

As Hartmann notes, just about everybody in America accepts the claim that Trump won the 2024 presidential election fairly and decisively. Hartmann demurs. “The corporate media keeps telling us that Donald Trump won the 2024 election fair and square. They’re almost certainly wrong: Joe Biden was, in my opinion, the last fairly elected American president.” To back up this assertion, Hartmann cites the work of investigative journalist Greg Palast, who details the many steps Trump’s campaign and the Republican Party did to prevent likely Democratic voters from casting their ballots. Here’s the gist of it . . .

Donald Trump did NOT win in 2024 “fair and square”
“if all legal voters had been allowed to vote and if all the legal ballots had been counted, Kamala Harris would have won Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. . . A staggering 4.7 million voters were purged from the voter rolls before the election, all on the false claim of ‘voter fraud,’ something so rare that you’re more likely to be hit by lightning than to ever encounter it. . . [And] a state audit in Washington, for example, found Black voters were four times more likely than white voters to have their mail-in ballots rejected. And that pattern repeated nationwide.”

Voter suppression sank Kamala Harris’ campaign
“When we apply the most conservative calculation to these numbers,” Hartmann goes on, “the suppression factor in 2024 was at least 2.3 percent of the vote. That translates to approximately 3,565,000 votes that, largely, should have gone to Kamala Harris. With those ballots properly counted, she would have topped Trump’s official total by 1.2 million and won the Electoral College with 286 votes.”

This chapter, at the least, should be required reading in every American government or introductory political science course. It shows how badly damaged the machinery of America’s democracy had become even before Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025.

Summary of this book by artificial intelligence

If you’ve been reading my reviews over recent months, you’ll be aware that I now often turn to the AI chatbot Claude for help. (I’m now using the upgraded Version Sonnet 4.5,) Here, once again, I’m including Claude’s summary of the book I’m reviewing. It’s verbatim, although I’ve deleted the sometimes lengthy URLs that link to Claude’s sources and added subheads to break up the text.

Be assured. What follows is accurate in every respect. There are no “hallucinations” here.

An analysis of American democracy today
The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink presents progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann’s analysis of American democracy, arguing that Donald Trump represents not an aberration but rather the predictable outcome of systemic failures. The book examines how wealthy elites, political cowardice, and institutional decay created conditions enabling Trump’s authoritarian rise.

Hartmann explores Trump’s psychological formation, tracing how childhood trauma, pathological narcissism, and calculated cruelty shaped him into what the author characterizes as an authoritarian leader. The investigation details how Fred Trump’s harsh parenting style and mentorship from attorney Roy Cohn taught Trump that kindness equals weakness and that power means never apologizing.

An unholy alliance yielded Trump’s ascendancy
The book exposes what Hartmann calls an “unholy alliance” between Trump’s damaged psychology and America’s deteriorating institutions. He argues that the Republican Party abandoned its principles for power while billionaire donors treated democracy as a profit-generating enterprise, essentially manufacturing the conditions for authoritarianism. Drawing on his background as both a psychotherapist and political scientist, Hartmann analyzes Trump as a pathological narcissist

Beyond examining Trump’s past, the book warns about America’s future, particularly concerning climate catastrophe and the global spread of fascism. Hartmann presents what he describes as a nightmare scenario in which a second Trump term could not only end American democracy but also trigger irreversible environmental damage. He contends that political cowardice and corporate greed have created a perfect storm threatening humanity’s survival.

A wake-up call about control by an oligarchy
Hartmann frames the book as a wake-up call, asserting that America faces its most critical moment for democracy since the Civil War. Rather than presenting mere political commentary, he positions his work as an urgent alarm about reaching a point of no return. The book examines the infrastructure of money and political power built over decades that Hartmann believes aims to transform America into an oligarchy, providing both historical analysis and warnings about the future of American democratic institutions.

About the author

Wikipedia characterizes Thom Hartmann as an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator. He has written dozens of books and has built a career on radio and television since 2003. He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1951 and majored in electrical engineering at Michigan State University. While active in the anti-Vietnam war movement, he built the first of several successful businesses. Hartmann published his first book in 1992. He has three children with his wife Louise.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thom Hartmann is one of today’s most important writers documenting the challenges facing US democracy. The Last American President, which chronicles Donald Trump’s long ascension to power, may be his most consequential work.

Hartmann details many items that I’d previously learned about at the one inch level, but takes you ten inches deep into the subject. Trump’s long affection and worship of Roy Cohn is one example. I hadn’t known, for instance, that as a federal prosecutor, Cohn pressured Ethel Rosenberg’s brother to provide false testimony against her, which lead to her execution. Nor did I know Cohn was a key figure in orchestrating McCarthyism’s character assassinations. Trump’s idolization of Cohn, and his own contemporary demagoguery, made a lot more sense after Hartmann’s revelations.

Hartmann further recounts how Trumpism was a logical, perhaps inevitable trajectory for the 21st century Republican Party built on Nixon’s southern strategy, Reagan’s fictional welfare queens, Tea Party astroturf, all then juiced by the Citizens United ruling.

The Last American President details many flaws in the 2024 election, which have been previously documented and are well footnoted. For instance:

* Over 2.1 million mail-in ballots were disqualified for minor clerical errors.
* 585,000 in-person ballots were thrown out.
* 1.2 million “provisional” ballots were rejected without being counted.
* 3.2 million new voter registrations were rejected or not processed in time.

Hartmann calculates this amounted to 2.3 percent of the vote, or 3,565,000 votes that he says “largely should have gone to Kamala Harris.”

As someone who has spent a lot of time studying election administration and voting rights, I agree with Hartmann’s accounting of votes that should have been counted, but weren’t. I’m less certain that these votes would necessarily have gone to Harris. We know from exit polling and voter turnout analysis that Trump made significant gains among Latino men, young voters, and low-propensity/low-information voters in 2024 compared to previous elections. These are often the same demographics disenfranchised by the voter suppression tactics Hartmann accurately details. Given Democratic gains among wealthier, well-educated voters who once leaned Republican (think Mitt Romney supporters) and Trump’s inroads into what was once the Democratic base, analysists on both the left and right might reconsider who actually benefits from suppression of infrequent voters.

It would be easy to conclude both from the book’s provocative title, and the structural issues leading up to Trumpism, that Hartmann is pessimistic about our future. And perhaps he is.

Yet if I’m right in my hunch that voter suppression tactics might blow up in Republican’s faces like an exploding cigar, maybe there is some reason for hope that their plans may backfire.
Hartmann quotes Mahatma Gandhi at opening of Part 3: “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always."

He further notes in the conclusion that there have been dirty tricks in politics before. Nixon’s deal with South Vietnam to boycott peace talks. Reagan’s deal with Ayatollah Khomeini to keep holding American hostages until he took office. Bush v Gore. Trump’s hiding hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. And yet they didn’t always work. Despite these dirty tricks and serious flaws in the fairness of our elections, we elected Presidents Carter, Clinton, Obama, and Biden.

Hartmann ends with hope, saying “It’s time to break this pattern and finally hold at least one (convicted) criminal Republican president accountable.” I for one, believe that is possible and that we haven’t yet seen the last American President.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: From bestselling progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann comes an urgent autopsy of American democracy, showing how plutocrats, political cowardice, and systemic rot built the perfect runway for Trump's authoritarian ascent.

The Last American President rips open America's wounded democracy to expose a terrifying Donald Trump isn't an anomaly—he's the inevitable product of a system engineered to fail. This searing investigation reveals how a man forged by childhood trauma, pathological narcissism, and calculated cruelty didn't hijack democracy—he was handed the keys by those who should have been its guardians.

Hartmann uncovers the unholy alliance between Trump's damaged psyche and America's rotted institutions. From Fred Trump's brutal parenting to Roy Cohn's lessons in shamelessness, from a Republican Party that traded principles for power to billionaire donors who treated democracy as a profit center, this book exposes the assembly line that manufactured an authoritarian.

But this is about more than Trump's past—it's about America's future. As climate catastrophe accelerates and fascism spreads globally, Hartmann reveals the nightmare a second Trump term that doesn't just end American democracy but also triggers irreversible planetary damage. Through meticulous research and unflinching analysis, he shows how political cowardice and corporate greed created the perfect storm that could extinguish humanity's last chance at survival.

This isn't just political commentary—it's a last-minute alarm sounding before the point of no return.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: At 40% I was reading about Giuliani's deceptively edited videos of the Georgia election workers from 2020, and realized, "I am just rehearsing my nuclear-grade hatred of this cabal of rotten-souled kakistocrats," and called the time of death for this read. I was not learning new-to-me facts; the analysis was wanting fresh insights; I was paying attention as it happened, so this was not the read for me.

Younger or less fully engaged readers might not know the facts presented here, so will derive more from reading the book. It is unabashedly tendentious, which I fully approve of and support. Gifting to your freshly jarred into alertness family members is an excellent idea...it has a message and delivers it. Hard.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers charges $24.95 no matter which edition you buy. Helping someone catch up to the existential threat to the US is worth it in my eyes.

[Edmund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hartmann brilliantly summarizes a ton of information into a clear-eyed distillation of how the US has come to teeter on the precipice of losing even the veneer of democracy, let alone holding meaningful elections ever again. He makes an impassioned plea for little "d" democracy and the morality and dignity that should be inherent in how we attempt to govern ourselves. I have no problem in Hartmann labeling the Great Depression as the Republican Great Depression. The culpable should face the music. Hartmann also rightly blames Republicans for their abject enabling of Trump and their decades-long history of stealing elections through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and removing thousands of people of color from voting rolls. Alas, there is so little accountability in the upper reaches (but paradoxically lowers depths) of US society.

My politics mostly align with Hartmann's. My only quibble is that he didn't sufficiently address, in my estimation at least, the not inconsiderable truckling and enabling perpetrated by the entrenched leaders of the Democratic Party. More folks like Ro Khanna, Cori Bush, Bernie Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, Ilhan Omar, Kshama Sawant, AOC, et al. are needed (while casting off Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Nancy Pelosi). He lets some Dems off the hook by not acknowledging their corrupt complicity. The billionaire oligarchs haven't bought off just one party. Also omitted is the fear rife among Republican and some Democratic congressional politicians of the gun-toting MAGA folks and assorted J6ers roaming the land. Republicans are far more liable for the morass in which we find ourselves but Democrats have also chosen power and profits over people in far too many circumstances. Hartmann at least urges the rest of us to make hope a discipline and to enact daily, weekly, and monthly acts of democracy to fight the madness raining down, and reigning, upon us. Invoking Margaret Mead's famous quote about the actions of a small group of people is never a bad idea as a call to creative, nonviolent arms, either.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Edelweiss and Berrett-Koehler Publishers for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I didn’t even realize that Thom Hartman was the writer of this book until I finally sat down to read it. I’d been listening to him on the only progressive talk radio station in my area (until the owners changed the format back to oldies, grrr.) But I digress. Hartman has always been very clear about his politics, and now, he’s breaking down the hows and whys the United States is in our current predicament.

I’m not going to hash out everything, but let’s just say that Hartman reveals who and what has pushed an authoritarian regime into power in America. Every day I find out more and more about the people and corporations behind all the worst policies and politicians, and it’s truly frightening.

The regime wants people to be uninformed and uneducated. That way, they can manipulate people into believing their lies and talking points. We’re seeing it now with the government shutdown; Republicans call it the Democratic Party shutdown, when the Republicans control both the executive and legislative bodies of federal government. Right now, I believe the government shutdown was part of the plan. And it gets more frightening every day.

This deep dive into plutocratic rot and the rise of authoritarian power needs to be seen by more eyes.

[Ava Courtney Sylvester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book. Save the country.

I think I highlighted over 90% of this book, and I’m screenshotting and sharing bits and blurbs with anyone who will listen.

From the first pages I was enraptured, eschewing sleep to read just a little more in this vivid and vital masterpiece. I’ve read over a hundred books on the cultural divide in this country and the rise and rule of Trump, but never have I seen the variables that have led to our current crisis woven together with such insight and urgency. It’s like all those hundreds of books—from “Dark Money” to “On Tyranny” and more—are condensed here in one book.

Thom Hartmann posits that just one man cannot topple a democracy: it takes an upbringing inculcating a fragile narcissism, a society that conflates television with reality and worships at its altar, and a power structure that would sacrifice its deepest values for the pursuit of power at any price. In this book, he explores what made Trump into the man who might be out last freely elected president, how we got into a place where we may lose our democracy, and what we might still be able to do to keep our country.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of refrigerators to plaster with printouts from this book.

[Kyle Grimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cursory—and honestly mediocre—review of Trump’s development, the systems in place that allowed his rise, and the transition to autocratic control in America. I learned nothing really new, and at times the writing felt incredibly repetitive, with the author using the same “catchphrase” (or variants of it) to hammer a point that read almost like AI slop. Sometimes Hartmann is almost there when he makes a point, then falls flat on his face with the same superficial talking point, and always refers back to previous chapters, which, in my opinion, insults the reader's intelligence. Overall, there are plenty of better options available if one wants to read more about Trump, the GOP, and the ambition to install American autocracy.

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifying and informative

I'll start my review with a warning; this book is horrifying. More horrifying than anything Stephen King or his fellow horror authors have ever written. I'm a fast reader but I had to read this in spurts or it might have broken my mind. I'm not kidding. I urge everyone to read this and to organize before this maniac and his sycophants destroy this country. While the author ends this with hope, this lunatic and his element can be stopped; it will take work. The first part: intelligent people need to READ THIS BOOK. I'm not kidding. It's horrifying and an eye opener. Don't just take my word for it; read it. Please.

[Jeremiah]

Accurate and yet incomplete and not insightful in diagnosing two Trump elections. To say that Biden is the last legitimate President falls into the Republican narrative of stolen elections instead of answer why did millions of Americans vote for Trump? Why did Harris perform even worse than Biden and Clinton with black and brown voters? How did identity politics hobble the Democratic party and cause them to lose focus on winning with uneducated American voters. When considering the climate issue you also have to recognize that the housing crisis has been exacerbated by decades of under building enabled by laws such as CEQA.

[J Mainor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent look into a lot of the Trump administration’s corruption. Although, there is a noticeable lack of mentioning Israel or Trump’s overt corruption with Netanyahu. I think the author’s biases are very easy to see in both this omission and his overtly emotional language. I think his message would have been strengthened had his writing style remained more professional and journalistic and less Twitter rant. He also repeats himself A LOT.

An incomplete and drawn-out, but somewhat informative look into Donald Trump’s corruption. 2/5

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Agree with the sentiment but this was just not a good book. Written with weirdly familiar tone while trying to be academic and largely an ad for his radio show. Bugged the fuck out of me how he kept saying “Me and Louise said this…” or “Me and Louise did this..” as if his wife is in any way a part of the narrative.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth is best

This book tells the truth, and lays out all of the proof in citations and sources. It’s a wonderful and frightening read. The author lays it out in a way to make it easy to understand and easy to remember. It’s amazing how we’ve gotten this far, I just hope that we can recover in the end. This is a wonderful warning, and a wake up call.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is a great primer book for people who don't really know how we've reached this point in our political scene. The reason for 3 stars instead of 4 is because I think the author could have (and should have) gone into greater depth. I learned very little new.

[Kathleen Woodcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the listen on Audible to discover that Democracy has been threatened since the Reagan Era. Learn how Trump became the ‘Con Man’ he is and also how he did not win the 2024 election! Democracy needs to be fought for and the time is NOW!

[Timothy H. Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well writen

Thom explains everything on a level you can understand. You can read for several hours and stay focused and interested. I enjoyed the book and recommend it to others interested in the present political environment.

[elaine harkreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Stark Warning: Will We Listen?

Why Is the Greatest Democracy in Our World on Life Support? How Can We Be That Support? Thom Hartmann Prescribes How We Can Be Its Solution!

[Mark Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written and researched, and disturbing all at once.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is *guaranteed* to make the banned book lists in some states. Because…oof. Great book about a horrible reality.

[Byravan Viswanathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reading. full of facts figures and dates.

[Garret Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

What started out as a strong and viable argument, quickly moved into opinion, rantings, and euphemistic claims.

[Arlene F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening. Some behind the scenes information that explains much of today's MAGA beliefs