Game of Thorns: How Hillary Clinton Lost the Election and What Donald Trump Will Do to Make America Great Again

by Doug Wead

Here is the first, insider, account of the precipitous fall of Bill and Hillary Clinton. How the scandals of a lifetime finally reached critical mass. How, in the last few days of the campaign, some on her staff saw the ghostly shroud of defeat creeping over them but were helpless to act, frozen by the self-denial of the group.

Here is an explanation of why the national media and their corporate owners kept Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren out of the race. Why they wanted their investment in the Clinton's to work and how they were willing to go to great lengths to make that happen.

Don't have time to read the tens of thousands of leaked emails from inside the Clinton machine?

The author has done it for you and has come back from the experience with a stunning peak into the world of a political leader who privately declared that she wanted a hemisphere "with open trade and open borders."

Finally, here is the story of the rise of Donald Trump.

How his opponents sought to derail him.

Visit behind the scenes at the national debates. In the holding rooms where aides offered last minute advice.

Listen in on the stressful conversations among family members at Trump Towers.

This is the story of how Donald Trump's message and brand transcended the traps laid by his enemies. How, against all odds, he won the presidency. And here are the details of his plan to make American great again.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, American History, Political Science, Audiobook, Presidents

Audio

Published February 21, 2017

Reviews

[mr michael j woods · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a better, less biased understanding of why the democrats where abandoned by the rust belt working class read hillbilly elegy. This book lacks any insight that could not be found by screaming I hate Hilary into a mirror.

[Randal White · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utter Hogwash! From the cover of the book, I expected it to be somewhat partisan. "The inside story of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign and Donald Trump's winning strategy". However, I was unprepared for what lay inside. Wead not only completely and utterly lays the fault of everything from the fall of America to the crucifying of Christ at the hands of Clinton, he totally absolves Trump as the second coming of Christ himself. While utilizing great journalistic prose such as "the first lady ALLEGEDLY answered. The story was APPARENTLY corroborated by others". Granted, Clinton was a deeply flawed candidate, with a huge trunk of baggage and an apparent dislike of the truth, but to have to embellish her story with the use of allegedly and apparently is the work of a jealous high schooler who has been thrown over for a prom date. It would have been so much more effective to just lay out the facts, and let the reader make up their own mind. Wead takes just the opposite tack with Trump. Not a word of dissent was spoken against him. Instead, readers learn of Trump's conquering of his military school, his unquestionable belief in God, and his single-handed saving of New York City in the 1970's. Not satisfied with merely trashing Clinton, Wead turns his eye on the "evil media". Such as "CNN covered the quote, but then added its own commentary; it couldn't trust the viewers to hear Trump without a filter". And, "But the major American media had already picked the winner and they weren't interested in narratives that might confuse their audience". I honestly could not stomach the entire book. I made it through the first 40%, by holding my nose and trying to give it a fair read. Perhaps it is too soon to objectively look at the election as the battle between two deeply flawed candidates. Hopefully we will learn from this round and improve in the future. I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. I only wish it was possible to assign a negative number of stars.

[Bob Mehlhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I was very surprised by the election of Donald Trump, I wanted to read about the "why?"

Probably too much baggage for Hillary. From this account, it appears her hubris knew no bounds and her key campaign people missed numerous signals that her campaign was in trouble. In this book, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, senses the race is closer in the final months and tries to push her to reach out more to disaffected blue collar workers in the upper Midwest - the very states which cost her the Electoral College majority in the end.

I thought Trump is fairly portrayed in the book - many of his faults are shown. Yet, this book shows that Trump tapped into a serious anger that many Americans had, and may continue to have, toward the elitist Washington establishment and how he used a very innovative strategy to turn the tables on both the Republican and Democrat political parties to win the Presidency. To underestimate the calculatedness of his strategy, perhaps going forward into his Presidency, seems to me to underestimate the man's intellect and vision.

Excellent read!. Highly recommended.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is hard on Hillary Clinton and gently apologist of Donald Trump. However, I now understand much more clearly the relationship between the FBI and the Clintons, and the role of Bill Clinton's earlier presidency and indiscretions on the Hillary campaign.

What is clear from this book - and we do know this - is that the Clintons had to play hard ball for a long time to claim the White House for Bill's presidency. This book shows there was too much baggage, too many enemies, and too many bad deals for Hillary to claim any moral high ground. Even in response to the ethics-vacuum that is Donald Trump, Hillary could not claim ascendancy because of the deals that had been done with, by and for Bill Clinton.

Disturbing reading.

[Brendan Crowley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written rushed book with gushing sycophantic praise of Trump and his team.

The collection of the Clinton scandals was eye opening but the repeated use of alt right language like "corporate media" and the references to Kushner, Ivanka, Bannon etc as geniuses was ridiculous.

The chapter on how Trump almost single handedly saved New York City is so ridiculous even Trump wouldn't make such claims.

Clearly written by someone looking to praise trump at all costs with zero objectivity. The response to media bias is not to be even more biased in the other direction.

[Edd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a Trump supporter.
Not a Clinton supporter.
This was really just a fluff piece about Trump; hit piece on Clinton. If you had paid just a little attention to the the news during the primary and general election reading most of this book is unnecessary; just a rehash. Wead goes into great detail revisiting the Clinton's scandals going back to Whitewater. If you're old enough to remember Bill Clinton's presidency there isn't much more here.

[Jason Long · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no inside story here. It's equal parts 1) thorough cataloging of the 90s Clinton scandals (told in a scornful tone), 2) Trump's family and history, (told in a glowing tone) and 3) a chronological retelling of the primaries and election.

[Randal White · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the cover of the book, I expected it to be somewhat partisan. "The inside story of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign and Donald Trump's winning strategy". However, I was unprepared for what lay inside.
Wead not only completely and utterly lays the fault of everything from the fall of America to the crucifying of Christ at the hands of Clinton, he totally absolves Trump as the second coming of Christ himself. While utilizing great journalistic prose such as "the first lady ALLEGEDLY answered. The story was APPARENTLY corroborated by others". Granted, Clinton was a deeply flawed candidate, with a huge trunk of baggage and an apparent dislike of the truth, but to have to embellish her story with the use of allegedly and apparently is the work of a jealous high schooler who has been thrown over for a prom date. It would have been so much more effective to just lay out the facts, and let the reader make up their own mind.
Wead takes just the opposite tack with Trump. Not a word of dissent was spoken against him. Instead, readers learn of Trump's conquering of his military school, his unquestionable belief in God, and his single-handed saving of New York City in the 1970's.
Not satisfied with merely trashing Clinton, Wead turns his eye on the "evil media". Such as "CNN covered the quote, but then added its own commentary; it couldn't trust the viewers to hear Trump without a filter". And, "But the major American media had already picked the winner and they weren't interested in narratives that might confuse their audience".
I honestly could not stomach the entire book. I made it through the first 40%, by holding my nose and trying to give it a fair read. Perhaps it is too soon to objectively look at the election as the battle between two deeply flawed candidates. Hopefully we will learn from this round and improve in the future.
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. I only wish it was possible to assign a negative number of stars.

[Emely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe instead of reading "thousands of leaked emails from inside the Clinton machine" the author Wead should read history books. A lot of them. Just to make this clear, I am not a Clinton supporter, but this "her emails" is getting really, really damn old. Unfortunately "her emails" was one of the reasons why Americans are now facing and witnessing the fall of an empire. Their own country.

Besides, absolving an extremely dangerous, destructive, narcissistic, and obsessively ill informed and un-/under-educated dictator named Trump is not worth a single star (but alas, in order to rate this horrific book I'm forced to give one).

I will not even pass on this book to others, neither will I drop it off it at a thrift shop. No, I will simply rip it up and then burn it. But that's probably already too much attention I would give its destruction.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see what happened behind the scenes. Regardless of whose side your on, this is going to be a fascinating part of history and I enjoyed learning about it.

[Mike He · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not fair to say that Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election simply by chance or out of luck. "Game of Thorns," though superficial and written by a partisan author, does reveal some of the tit-for-tat, sometimes trial-and-error political campaign strategies that really worked and eventually sent Trump to the White House.

[Sharon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for an unbiased depiction of what happened in November 2016, but instead the author chose to denigrate Hillary Clinton and sing the praises of Donald Trump. I'll continue to look for something less partisan.

[Robin Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written account of both the Donald Trump phenomenon and the Hillary Clinton campaign. As a former Bill Clinton apologist, I had to rethink some of my previous beliefs. Most of the book is rehash if you are interested in politics, but this book has the first intelligent reason for the Hillary Clinton campaign for President that I have encountered. There are a few interesting new interpretations, evidence and critics. I would call it 95% well written account and 5% new stuff.

[Daniel Hewitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is no inside story. It’s a trawl through the best and worst of the Clinton scandals of yesteryear: part factual, part rehashed conspiracy theory. What follows is a superficial overview of the primaries with no inside knowledge or first account information. It’s vaguely useful if you want a very general understanding of why conservatives hate Hilary Clinton So much, but this book is the one of the worst you will ever read on the 2016 election. Do not bother.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just garbage. I can't believe I read the whole thing. I didn't know Doug Wead at the outset, but now I know he's a Clinton-hating hack and Trump sycophant. Six months into the abomination administration, I hope he's working on a sequel. How do you like your record-setting disapproval polling, justice obstructing dumpster fire now, Wead? But her emails(!), right?

[Csparrenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Where did this book come from? I had not heard about it when I picked it up. What a great book about the2016 election. Very well written and so much information between the covers. I especially liked the historical look at the candidates and their pasts. There is a lot of interesting material here. A+

[Ken Hamner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that should be read by anyone interested in that election. Great background research.

[Ronnie Cramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

As is often the case with political books, people on one side rate it with one star and call it 'worthless' while people on the other side call it 'brilliant' and give it five stars. I'd say the truth is somewhere in between; this book is interesting but it's no masterpiece. I'll give it two and a half stars rounded up to three because if nothing else, it's better than the similarly-themed SHATTERED by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

[Bert Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good review of the many, many scandals of both Hillary and Bill Clinton.

At age 71 I had forgotten the myriad scandals of the Clintons in the 70's. For example she traded cattle futures where: "Her initial $1,000 investment had generated nearly $100,000 when she stopped trading after ten months." Incidentally : "One analysis performed by Auburn University and published in the Journal of Economics and Finance claimed to find that the odds of a return that large during the period in question were about one in 31 trillion."

Her defense of a rapist of a 12 year old girl is especially disturbing after a recording emerged where she laughed about getting her client off.

Then we had the 80's, the 90's with the Clinton presidency (many, many scandals), 00's with her time in the Senate and the 10's with her her stint as Secretary of State. All leading up to her monumental loss to President Trump.

Let me be very clear. I am convinced that Hillary committed the crimes of espionage and treason against my country to advance own private agenda. She must be brought to justice but only time will tell if she is prosecuted.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I completely tuned out of the 2016 presidential campaign because I was sure Hillary was going to win, and I didn’t want to watch it happen. But then, I wasn’t excited about Trump, either--he didn't seem like presidential material. And, like everybody else, I was shocked to wake up on the morning of November 9th to find out that he had won. How did it happen? This unabashedly pro-Trump retelling of the campaign is a page turner. And there’s lots of cool inside information. On election night, Hillary screamed obscenities and threw things at her staff. Donald Trump’s supporters gave each other high fives and sang“God Bless America.” Now, with 20-20 hindsight, I wish I had followed the whole thing. I doubt we'll ever see a campaign like this again!

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for all registered voters.

[Preacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bit longwinded about the Clinton's scandal's but he managed to keep me interested enough to get through them. Seems like he rushed the ending of the book,I wanted more insider info on how things were going on election night. All together good book,very informative.

[Ari Damoulakis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not conservative, the author is. And yet this is a brilliant book that made me finally understand exactly why Clinton lost the American election. Even to a person far away like me, she sounded like a robot though compared to Trump and I sort of got why she lost.
The only problem, and this is not with his book, the only problem is that it doesn’t translate, I don’t understand the 2024 result.
Ok, again, Harris was also a totally incoherent political communicator, but Trump is and was just awful.

[Dgoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Superficial look

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book to be very insightful and non partisan concerning the 2016 election. It put into order the series of events leading to the Clinton defeat and the Trump win which almost no one predicted. Highly recommend.

[Owlseyes]

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards"
Soren Kierkegaard


"We're in trouble"
Chuck Schumer to Biden
29th October 2022

[Vnunez-Ms_luv2read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book with an in-depth look at the Republican and Democratic nominee of the 2016 presidential election. Very good analysis on who Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are and very interesting background on both. Although there are things that are written about in this publication, the way it is presented may have you looking at things a bit differently than you already may have/be. Very good writing, holds your interest and actually have you wanting to go back as soon as you can to pick up where you left off. Yes, we know how the election turned out, but still read this book. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review. I will be purchasing this book to pass along to family/friends.

[Mike Hohrath · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent book on the two candidates running. He spent about half the book bashing Clinton, a quarter chronicling the meteoric rise of President Trump, and a quarter going over the actual election. I think he went a bit too far bashing Hillary, although the scandals are definitely a big reason why she wasn't elected, the author went into detail into each and everyone of them, even the one's that weren't as relevant to the election. This book did get me fired up though & glad to have Trump as victor of the election, although I admittedly had been a supporter since the early days of the Republican Primaries. Still a good read, if you still don't understand why Trump won and Hillary lost, this is a good book for you.

[Corban Ford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean, I expected it to be more partisan and an even-handed, objective look at the 2016 election, and I can't say that it was. Perhaps it was too soon after the election, too fresh, for the writer to have the nuance necessary to attempt such an endeavor. Or maybe he wrote "Game of Thorns" exactly as he intended. Regardless the reason, the book very early leans a certain way and stays that way for its duration, and it just wasn't something I had expected after reading the cover and glancing at a few pages. My bad for that one, lol

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written but certainly favoring the Republican party. Lots of dirt on the Clinton camp and this was a down and dirty run for the presidency. OK Trump you won. However, the leadership is poor and it's encouraging extremists to think they can do anything. Now it's high noon in Portland this Sunday. Looks like the USA is going back to the wild west.