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Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission
The #1 New York Times Bestseller
"He's one of the best chroniclers of politics today." -Jake Tapper
"This is a really funny book." -Kara Swisher
"His writing is so damn good." -John Berman
"Really fascinating...There are so many revelations." -Anderson Cooper
"The new must read summer book." -Stephanie Ruhle
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington's "swamp" into a gold-plated hot tub--and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
In the early months of Trump's candidacy, the Republican Party's most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united--and loud--in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won.
Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich's unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration's chief enablers, and the swamp's lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their "relevance"? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump's savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were "in on the joke." As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don't read The New York Times, and they won't read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It's a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison.
Thank You for Your Servitude isn't another view from the Oval Office: it's the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.
"He's one of the best chroniclers of politics today." -Jake Tapper
"This is a really funny book." -Kara Swisher
"His writing is so damn good." -John Berman
"Really fascinating...There are so many revelations." -Anderson Cooper
"The new must read summer book." -Stephanie Ruhle
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington's "swamp" into a gold-plated hot tub--and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
In the early months of Trump's candidacy, the Republican Party's most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united--and loud--in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won.
Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich's unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration's chief enablers, and the swamp's lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their "relevance"? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump's savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were "in on the joke." As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don't read The New York Times, and they won't read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It's a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison.
Thank You for Your Servitude isn't another view from the Oval Office: it's the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published July 12, 2022
752 people are currently reading
2849 people want to read
About the author
Mark Leibovich
8 books137 followersMark Leibovich is The New York Times Magazine chief national correspondent, based in Washington, D.C. In 2011, he received a National Magazine Award for his story on Politico's Mike Allen and the changing media culture of Washington. Prior to coming to The New York Times Magazine, Leibovich was a national political reporter in the Times's D.C. bureau. He has also worked at The Washington Post, The San Jose Mercury News, and The Boston Phoenix. Leibovich lives with his family in Washington, D.C.
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did-not-finish
November 22, 2025Nope, I've decided I can't do this right now. It's not the book's fault — it's actually quite good considering the distasteful subject matter — but I can't laugh about a Trump presidency at present moment. This book was written in 2022 after Trump's first term, which, while still terrible, was far more comedic than this time around (anyone remember the Four Seasons Total Landscaping debacle? Straight out of an SNL skit, that was). This term is much scarier, what with the straight-up fascism and all, and I can't stomach reading about the stupidity that led us to this point (or even just hearing Trump's name over and over and over). Perhaps I'll revisit this book in 2028 once the Stewart/Colbert administration (oh please I would give just about anything for this to happen) or whoever has been safely inaugurated and all of the orange stains have been scrubbed from the White House walls …
July 20, 2022
To date there have been countless books written about Donald Trump’s machinations. They seem to cover all aspects of his presidency, personality, and private life. They range from psychological profiles, the women he has been involved with, his career in business, his election in 2016, his presidency, and finally his defeat in 2020 and its ramifications for the American people. The books are written mostly by reporters who have covered Trump, acolytes, family members, and people that Trump has used. Most are well written and are supported by author’s research in addition to the facts and reality of living with the MAGA world. No matter how important each book may be in their own right, none can compare with Mark Leibovich’s new book, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVITUDE: DONALD’S TRUMP’S WASHINGTON AND THE PRICE OF SUBMISSION. What sets Leibovich’s work apart from others is his writing style, which is humorous, sarcastic, caustic, and in its own way analytical. Leibovich’s narrative encompasses much of the same material as others, but it is in his presentation that makes another rehash of the Trump years palatable.
As he has done in his bestseller, THIS TOWN which dissected the current political culture in Washington, his latest focuses and confronts the leadership of the Republican Party and their minions and appley describes the type of power hungry individuals who have ridden roughshod over the former principles of the GOP and latched onto Donald Trump to maintain their own self-interest and political office. In his entertaining account Leibovich zeroes in on Senators Marco Rubio, Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, along with other characters like Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, Reince Priebus, among others who seem to dominate Trump’s circle, despite the fact that most previously chronicled their distaste for Trump. What all of these personages have in common is that they sold their souls to the devil, in the name of the “Donald.”
Leibovich’s profile has a locus that seems to be the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. After reading Leibovich’s account it is hard to distinguish between the importance of the Hotel and the White House. It is clear that the hotel is the center of power where acolytes, notable members of society, Trump supporters, and administration colleagues gather to make policy and plan what is best for Donald Trump and America in general.
Unlike many of the new books on Trump, personal memoirs by individuals who have seen the light and analyze how the MAGA world has altered American politics, Leibovich zeroes in on the creation of a dangerous culture of submission within the GOP and the nihilism and cynicism that has resulted. At times Leibovich’s humor and sarcasm dominates the narrative, but in reality his narrative is based on factual information, and it is a serious analysis of what Trump and his MAGA converts have done to America.
Leibovich’s purpose in authoring the book is not to rehash events and personalities that have dominated the news for the last seven years but to tell the story of the ordeal Trump has put this country through - “the supplicant fanboys who permitted Donald Trump’s depravity to be infected on the rest of us.”
Leibovich is correct that the key to Trump’s support in 2016 and 2020 was that his followers saw him as a truth teller, despite the fact he was a habitual liar. Further, Trump’s appeal in the MAGA world is clear – “Trump’s spool of personal grievances had become their own. In effect, his narcissism did, too.” From the outset Trump presented an alternative reality that was supported by the likes of Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, Vice President Pence. Mark Meadows, Reince Priebus and a host of many other enablers. Leibovitch takes the reader through each of these individuals and their role in dealing with Trump, be it the size of the 2016 inauguration crowd, the cabinet meeting when Trump’s appointee kowtowed to their leader, to the clearing of Lafayette Park by the military in order for Trump to have a photo op in front of a church holding a bible. Leibovich’s commentary is priceless as he describes Hicks – “She has the distinct superpower in her ability to manage Trump, not unlike how a care provider might have a special knack for managing a particular toddler.”
Leibovich has the ability to put on paper exactly what mature people were thinking in response to Trump’s latest scheming. Mitch McConnell comes under Leibovich’s lens as the political operator and power hungry person that he exhibits each day. It is a fundamental problem, but Leibovich makes it acceptable as he describes McConnell’s “zombie walk – stony faced, owlish, and keep walking” approach to responding to the most egregious actions taken by Trump. McConnell is not the only person to be skewered by Leibovich. Lindsay Graham is a special target particularly his relationship with Senator John McCain, supposedly his friend and accomplice in the senate. But his true nature is front and center when McCain passes away and Graham “sucks up” to Trump as he knew how to stroke the president’s erogenous zones, i.e., undoing Obama’s accomplishments and restoring America to greatness. In a sense McCain’s death was liberating for Graham as he could now be out in the open about what type of person he really is.
Trump converted many lemmings such as Ron DeSantis and Devin Nunes who experienced non-descript careers before attaching themselves to Trump. Trump had a gift in knowing how to draw in disaffected characters. Leibovich is correct that in a sense that Trumpism was like “group therapy for conservatives who feel alienated from, and hostile toward, the progressive consensus…Trumpism is, at heart, not a philosophy, but an enemies list.” Republicans had the remarkable ability to “suspend belief” when it came to impeachment and other issues and illegalities. They had to or else the Trump smear brigade of Fox News and co, plus supporters would have made their lives miserable.
Leibovich tries hard to find heroes in the Republican Party. He praises Mitt Romney for voting for impeachment and other comments, but in the end Romney can not overcome his past, just look at his actions in dealing with the “Big Dig” in Boston when he was Massachusetts governor. Perhaps the topic that is most disturbing which even Leibovich’s sarcasm and humor cannot overcome is the rehashing of January 6, 2021. It is here that the author describes the “land the plane” strategy pursued by the GOP leadership to get the country to January 20th and Joe Biden’s inauguration. Along the way Leibovitch drills down into the duplicitous and hypocritic Speaker of the House hopeful, Kevin McCarthy. There is no need to trace his anger at Trump for January 6th to his visit to Mar-a-Lago a few weeks later when he realized he could not be Speaker without Trump. So off he went to kiss the ring and kowtow once again. What is most disturbing is that January 6th underscores how extreme Trump’s one way loyalty really is and the contempt he has for those most devoted to him.
If there is a pseudo hero in Leibovitch’s account it is Liz Cheney who despite her conservative credentials and voting record (93% with Trump) is being drummed out of the GOP because of her stand for constitutional principles and democracy. Be that as it may, we as Americans are stuck. Even if Donald Trump passed from the scene, Trumpism is embedded in the GOP and almost half the country. It will be interesting if Attorney General Merrick Garland decides to prosecute Trump, Trump declares for the GOP nomination for 2024, or any matter of things that could rip our country further apart. One thing is clear in that the Trump acolytes will continue to serve his interests because they correspond with their own need for power and recognition.
As he has done in his bestseller, THIS TOWN which dissected the current political culture in Washington, his latest focuses and confronts the leadership of the Republican Party and their minions and appley describes the type of power hungry individuals who have ridden roughshod over the former principles of the GOP and latched onto Donald Trump to maintain their own self-interest and political office. In his entertaining account Leibovich zeroes in on Senators Marco Rubio, Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, along with other characters like Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, Reince Priebus, among others who seem to dominate Trump’s circle, despite the fact that most previously chronicled their distaste for Trump. What all of these personages have in common is that they sold their souls to the devil, in the name of the “Donald.”
Leibovich’s profile has a locus that seems to be the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. After reading Leibovich’s account it is hard to distinguish between the importance of the Hotel and the White House. It is clear that the hotel is the center of power where acolytes, notable members of society, Trump supporters, and administration colleagues gather to make policy and plan what is best for Donald Trump and America in general.
Unlike many of the new books on Trump, personal memoirs by individuals who have seen the light and analyze how the MAGA world has altered American politics, Leibovich zeroes in on the creation of a dangerous culture of submission within the GOP and the nihilism and cynicism that has resulted. At times Leibovich’s humor and sarcasm dominates the narrative, but in reality his narrative is based on factual information, and it is a serious analysis of what Trump and his MAGA converts have done to America.
Leibovich’s purpose in authoring the book is not to rehash events and personalities that have dominated the news for the last seven years but to tell the story of the ordeal Trump has put this country through - “the supplicant fanboys who permitted Donald Trump’s depravity to be infected on the rest of us.”
Leibovich is correct that the key to Trump’s support in 2016 and 2020 was that his followers saw him as a truth teller, despite the fact he was a habitual liar. Further, Trump’s appeal in the MAGA world is clear – “Trump’s spool of personal grievances had become their own. In effect, his narcissism did, too.” From the outset Trump presented an alternative reality that was supported by the likes of Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway, Hope Hicks, Vice President Pence. Mark Meadows, Reince Priebus and a host of many other enablers. Leibovitch takes the reader through each of these individuals and their role in dealing with Trump, be it the size of the 2016 inauguration crowd, the cabinet meeting when Trump’s appointee kowtowed to their leader, to the clearing of Lafayette Park by the military in order for Trump to have a photo op in front of a church holding a bible. Leibovich’s commentary is priceless as he describes Hicks – “She has the distinct superpower in her ability to manage Trump, not unlike how a care provider might have a special knack for managing a particular toddler.”
Leibovich has the ability to put on paper exactly what mature people were thinking in response to Trump’s latest scheming. Mitch McConnell comes under Leibovich’s lens as the political operator and power hungry person that he exhibits each day. It is a fundamental problem, but Leibovich makes it acceptable as he describes McConnell’s “zombie walk – stony faced, owlish, and keep walking” approach to responding to the most egregious actions taken by Trump. McConnell is not the only person to be skewered by Leibovich. Lindsay Graham is a special target particularly his relationship with Senator John McCain, supposedly his friend and accomplice in the senate. But his true nature is front and center when McCain passes away and Graham “sucks up” to Trump as he knew how to stroke the president’s erogenous zones, i.e., undoing Obama’s accomplishments and restoring America to greatness. In a sense McCain’s death was liberating for Graham as he could now be out in the open about what type of person he really is.
Trump converted many lemmings such as Ron DeSantis and Devin Nunes who experienced non-descript careers before attaching themselves to Trump. Trump had a gift in knowing how to draw in disaffected characters. Leibovich is correct that in a sense that Trumpism was like “group therapy for conservatives who feel alienated from, and hostile toward, the progressive consensus…Trumpism is, at heart, not a philosophy, but an enemies list.” Republicans had the remarkable ability to “suspend belief” when it came to impeachment and other issues and illegalities. They had to or else the Trump smear brigade of Fox News and co, plus supporters would have made their lives miserable.
Leibovich tries hard to find heroes in the Republican Party. He praises Mitt Romney for voting for impeachment and other comments, but in the end Romney can not overcome his past, just look at his actions in dealing with the “Big Dig” in Boston when he was Massachusetts governor. Perhaps the topic that is most disturbing which even Leibovich’s sarcasm and humor cannot overcome is the rehashing of January 6, 2021. It is here that the author describes the “land the plane” strategy pursued by the GOP leadership to get the country to January 20th and Joe Biden’s inauguration. Along the way Leibovitch drills down into the duplicitous and hypocritic Speaker of the House hopeful, Kevin McCarthy. There is no need to trace his anger at Trump for January 6th to his visit to Mar-a-Lago a few weeks later when he realized he could not be Speaker without Trump. So off he went to kiss the ring and kowtow once again. What is most disturbing is that January 6th underscores how extreme Trump’s one way loyalty really is and the contempt he has for those most devoted to him.
If there is a pseudo hero in Leibovitch’s account it is Liz Cheney who despite her conservative credentials and voting record (93% with Trump) is being drummed out of the GOP because of her stand for constitutional principles and democracy. Be that as it may, we as Americans are stuck. Even if Donald Trump passed from the scene, Trumpism is embedded in the GOP and almost half the country. It will be interesting if Attorney General Merrick Garland decides to prosecute Trump, Trump declares for the GOP nomination for 2024, or any matter of things that could rip our country further apart. One thing is clear in that the Trump acolytes will continue to serve his interests because they correspond with their own need for power and recognition.
November 9, 2022
I wasn’t sure I could stomach a book about Trump, especially starting this on the day of the midterm elections. But the reviews talked about the revelations revealed and I thought, why not.
I found the book in equal parts infuriating and humorous. How could so many people go along with this wanna-be autocrat? I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the power hungry would stoop to such low levels to keep control. But from the get go, I found it amazing that the party of “Christian Values” would become so morally bankrupt.
What I was disappointed by was the lack of revelations. Maybe because there were so many leaks from the Trump White House or the number of tell all books to come out over the past few years, all of this seemed old news.
Leibovich’s style of writing is like talking over cocktails with a knowledgeable friend. Definitely entertaining but not light.
Joe Barrett narrates the book with the proper amount of snark.
I found the book in equal parts infuriating and humorous. How could so many people go along with this wanna-be autocrat? I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the power hungry would stoop to such low levels to keep control. But from the get go, I found it amazing that the party of “Christian Values” would become so morally bankrupt.
What I was disappointed by was the lack of revelations. Maybe because there were so many leaks from the Trump White House or the number of tell all books to come out over the past few years, all of this seemed old news.
Leibovich’s style of writing is like talking over cocktails with a knowledgeable friend. Definitely entertaining but not light.
Joe Barrett narrates the book with the proper amount of snark.
August 4, 2022
This is not who we are.
Or, maybe, it’s exactly who we are.
Thank You For Your Servitude marks the thirteenth book I’ve read on the shitshow that was the Trump presidency. By contrast, I’ve read just five books on the life and presidency of Barack Obama, a president I admire. Lincoln, alone among our presidents, comes close to this mark on my reading list, at eleven volumes read.
So what’s the connection between the execrable Trump and the legendary Lincoln? Both oversaw periods when our country was ripping itself apart. Lincoln helped guide us through a bloody Civil War. Trump nearly started a civil war with his attempted coup to maintain power.
Leibovich’s book is a retrospective on the entire Trump presidency. It takes in the complete, exhausting experience, from Trump’s announcement that he was running in 2015, to his retirement to Mar-a-Lago to play Republican king-maker and plot his return.
Instead of a tight focus on Trump, Leibovich hones in on his enablers. He mercilessly lampoons the full cast of careerist, sycophants, opportunist, and toadies in the Republican Party who aided and abetted, or stood by passively and allowed the Trump atrocity exhibition. The sarcasm and snark he uses when describing them seems the perfect tone for persons who willingly abandoned honor, dignity, and reputation to suck up to America’s Great Orange Bully.
Or, maybe, it’s exactly who we are.
Thank You For Your Servitude marks the thirteenth book I’ve read on the shitshow that was the Trump presidency. By contrast, I’ve read just five books on the life and presidency of Barack Obama, a president I admire. Lincoln, alone among our presidents, comes close to this mark on my reading list, at eleven volumes read.
So what’s the connection between the execrable Trump and the legendary Lincoln? Both oversaw periods when our country was ripping itself apart. Lincoln helped guide us through a bloody Civil War. Trump nearly started a civil war with his attempted coup to maintain power.
Leibovich’s book is a retrospective on the entire Trump presidency. It takes in the complete, exhausting experience, from Trump’s announcement that he was running in 2015, to his retirement to Mar-a-Lago to play Republican king-maker and plot his return.
Instead of a tight focus on Trump, Leibovich hones in on his enablers. He mercilessly lampoons the full cast of careerist, sycophants, opportunist, and toadies in the Republican Party who aided and abetted, or stood by passively and allowed the Trump atrocity exhibition. The sarcasm and snark he uses when describing them seems the perfect tone for persons who willingly abandoned honor, dignity, and reputation to suck up to America’s Great Orange Bully.
July 13, 2022
One thing missing in American society for the past few years has been humor. Agreed that there’s not been much to laugh about - Covid and Trump haven’t exactly been a laugh-a-minute. The sharper wags among us have made jokes on TV and certain websites, but Garry Trudeau has cut his “Doonesbury” down to one weekly cartoon. And that hasn’t been enough to satisfy our humor-deprived citizenry.
Well, at least we have columnist Mark Leibovich’s new book, “Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and The Price of Submission”. He takes in Donald Trump and the Republicans who put him into office and supported him as he and his administration pillaged and burned our country.
I’ve read many political books about Trump and his administration. Most have been as depressing to read as it was to live through. Leibovich’s book however is an intriguing addition to these books. There’s a lightness about Leibovich’s writing the various characters
Well, at least we have columnist Mark Leibovich’s new book, “Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and The Price of Submission”. He takes in Donald Trump and the Republicans who put him into office and supported him as he and his administration pillaged and burned our country.
I’ve read many political books about Trump and his administration. Most have been as depressing to read as it was to live through. Leibovich’s book however is an intriguing addition to these books. There’s a lightness about Leibovich’s writing the various characters
July 11, 2023
“Coming to terms with Donald Trump as the Republican nominee is like being told you have Stage 1 or Stage 2 cancer. You know you’ll probably survive, but one way or the other, there’s going to be a lot of throwing up.”—-Christopher Buckley
In a way, Mark Leibovich’s “Thank You For Your Servitude” can be looked at as a romance novel. More to the point: an anti-romance novel. A love story gone very wrong.
Republican Party (we’ll call her Reba for short) was kind of quiet and mousy in 2015. Nobody really paid much attention to her. It wasn’t that she didn’t have anything to offer. In truth, she started out quite strong, many years ago, when she married the man in the top hat who changed the world. He ended slavery, in fact.
Over the many years, though, Reba made some missteps. Nothing huge, and nothing that wasn’t looked at as too horrible. In fact, some of what she promoted actually sounded good—-smaller government, being more frugal, vetting immigrants better—-but she ended up seeming too militant, somewhat compassionless towards the poor and the sick, too infatuated with her many wealthy suitors.
Then, 2015 happened, and along came Donald Trump. Reba was disgusted. He was so crass, so crude. She fought his advances, at first, fairly successfully. Yet, he was wealthy, or so he claimed. And a growing base did seem to like him.
Eventually, despite his blatant white nationalism and misogynistic pussy-grabbing, Reba got in bed with him. He wasn’t very exciting in the sack. (In truth, he reminded her a little bit of Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, both of whom she bedded for a minute, regrettably.) He smelled like Diet Coke and Big Macs, but, again, he was wealthy. She allowed him his foibles.
When he became president—-to her shock and (secret) chagrin—-she feigned reluctant happiness. What could happen?
The mental abuse began on day one, along with the blatant disregard for truth and facts. (His bitchy aide, Kellyanne, and her goddamned “alternative facts”.) Lying is lying, but Reba dismissed it all as relatively harmless. It’s his policies that mattered, right?
But Jesus Christ his policies: the Muslim Ban, leaving the Paris Accords, threatening to pull troops out of South Korea (South Korea, for fuck’s sake?). Then there was that debacle with the Russians and James Comey and Robert Mueller. That whole report that nobody actually read (except Reba, secretly, under the covers at night with a flashlight). Trump and his “I’m exonerated!”, when, in fact, the report is quite clear that he wasn’t. Whatever. She put a smile on her face for the paparazzi, and pretended to support everything Trump said and did.
Then Covid-19 struck. And then the thing with George Floyd. And it was hard to watch Trump fuck up so badly that last year, the election year. And yet, Reba stayed, like a battered housewife.
The election happened. Joe Biden won, without a doubt, and despite his stupid grin and sleepy eyes, Reba had to admit: she kinda had a thing for him. But she was still with Trump, barely. He kept going on and on about the “rigged election” and how his presidency “was stolen” and all the “voter fraud” for which there was absolutely no evidence. Reba began publicly keeping a straight face, but in private it was eye-rolls and constant hand-wringing.
January 6, as awful as it was, seemed inevitable. Still, it provided an out for Reba. After all, who in their right mind would stay with a man so callous and cruel? Reba turned on him, and it felt good to do so.
But Lindsay Graham and Kevin McCarthy talked her into going back to him. Don’t leave him now they told her. It would devastate him. It would kill him. More importantly, who knows what the fuck he might be capable of? You thought he was unpredictable before…
There’s no illusions now: she’s stuck with this asshole. Despite the dreaminess of that younger model from Florida, Ron DeSantis, who’s always giving her the fuck-me eye winks. Despite all Trump’s mentally retarded hillbilly idiot friends—Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz, for example—-who are always hanging around him, saying the dumbest shit. Despite the fact that Trump is now facing potential jail time with all these lawsuits against him.
She knows she did this to herself, but she’s too much of a Proud Girl to admit it…
In a way, Mark Leibovich’s “Thank You For Your Servitude” can be looked at as a romance novel. More to the point: an anti-romance novel. A love story gone very wrong.
Republican Party (we’ll call her Reba for short) was kind of quiet and mousy in 2015. Nobody really paid much attention to her. It wasn’t that she didn’t have anything to offer. In truth, she started out quite strong, many years ago, when she married the man in the top hat who changed the world. He ended slavery, in fact.
Over the many years, though, Reba made some missteps. Nothing huge, and nothing that wasn’t looked at as too horrible. In fact, some of what she promoted actually sounded good—-smaller government, being more frugal, vetting immigrants better—-but she ended up seeming too militant, somewhat compassionless towards the poor and the sick, too infatuated with her many wealthy suitors.
Then, 2015 happened, and along came Donald Trump. Reba was disgusted. He was so crass, so crude. She fought his advances, at first, fairly successfully. Yet, he was wealthy, or so he claimed. And a growing base did seem to like him.
Eventually, despite his blatant white nationalism and misogynistic pussy-grabbing, Reba got in bed with him. He wasn’t very exciting in the sack. (In truth, he reminded her a little bit of Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, both of whom she bedded for a minute, regrettably.) He smelled like Diet Coke and Big Macs, but, again, he was wealthy. She allowed him his foibles.
When he became president—-to her shock and (secret) chagrin—-she feigned reluctant happiness. What could happen?
The mental abuse began on day one, along with the blatant disregard for truth and facts. (His bitchy aide, Kellyanne, and her goddamned “alternative facts”.) Lying is lying, but Reba dismissed it all as relatively harmless. It’s his policies that mattered, right?
But Jesus Christ his policies: the Muslim Ban, leaving the Paris Accords, threatening to pull troops out of South Korea (South Korea, for fuck’s sake?). Then there was that debacle with the Russians and James Comey and Robert Mueller. That whole report that nobody actually read (except Reba, secretly, under the covers at night with a flashlight). Trump and his “I’m exonerated!”, when, in fact, the report is quite clear that he wasn’t. Whatever. She put a smile on her face for the paparazzi, and pretended to support everything Trump said and did.
Then Covid-19 struck. And then the thing with George Floyd. And it was hard to watch Trump fuck up so badly that last year, the election year. And yet, Reba stayed, like a battered housewife.
The election happened. Joe Biden won, without a doubt, and despite his stupid grin and sleepy eyes, Reba had to admit: she kinda had a thing for him. But she was still with Trump, barely. He kept going on and on about the “rigged election” and how his presidency “was stolen” and all the “voter fraud” for which there was absolutely no evidence. Reba began publicly keeping a straight face, but in private it was eye-rolls and constant hand-wringing.
January 6, as awful as it was, seemed inevitable. Still, it provided an out for Reba. After all, who in their right mind would stay with a man so callous and cruel? Reba turned on him, and it felt good to do so.
But Lindsay Graham and Kevin McCarthy talked her into going back to him. Don’t leave him now they told her. It would devastate him. It would kill him. More importantly, who knows what the fuck he might be capable of? You thought he was unpredictable before…
There’s no illusions now: she’s stuck with this asshole. Despite the dreaminess of that younger model from Florida, Ron DeSantis, who’s always giving her the fuck-me eye winks. Despite all Trump’s mentally retarded hillbilly idiot friends—Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gaetz, for example—-who are always hanging around him, saying the dumbest shit. Despite the fact that Trump is now facing potential jail time with all these lawsuits against him.
She knows she did this to herself, but she’s too much of a Proud Girl to admit it…
July 15, 2022
Leibovich’s book, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVITUDE: DONALD TRUMP’S WASHINGTON AND THE PRICE OF SUBMISSION is aptly titled. As a journalist and resident of Washington, D.C., the author is in a unique position to discuss politicians.
Unlike many of the books written by others, this book is not a memoir. And it’s not actually about Trump, either. Although TFG appears throughout the pages, Leibovich focuses on members of Congress and other officials who worked at the White House during TFG’s tenure.
The crux of this book looks at the way in which Republican members of Congress betrayed their Constitutional oaths to the United States for the sole purpose of remaining in power; enabling and then whitewashing, illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional behaviors and actions in order to keep their jobs. We saw this in real time, but the author takes us backwards to reexamine the effects of how this submission of morals to one man, rather than to the Constitution, has had on our nation, and how it will continue to unravel our society.
Both people in the country and abroad are cognizant of what happened from 2016 to the present. But reading about how politicians reacted to the author and the things that they said to him during his many informal interviews with them is eye opening. Leibovich argues that the price of submission to a single man, rather than to the Constitution, has devastating effects. Not only did it divide the country, but this unswerving cult-like devotion threatened to destroy it.
Leibovich talks about cowardice, self-preservation, selfishness, and fear. And he doesn’t mince words when naming and discussing his many political informants. Reading this book, it reminded me of Hitler’s seduction of the German people during the early twentieth century, culminating in the murder of millions. With this book, no one can ever rightly ask again: how did people allow Hitler to gain power? Because we now have the answer; we learned the answer in our own lifetime.
This is a well-written book. I highly recommend this to all.
Unlike many of the books written by others, this book is not a memoir. And it’s not actually about Trump, either. Although TFG appears throughout the pages, Leibovich focuses on members of Congress and other officials who worked at the White House during TFG’s tenure.
The crux of this book looks at the way in which Republican members of Congress betrayed their Constitutional oaths to the United States for the sole purpose of remaining in power; enabling and then whitewashing, illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional behaviors and actions in order to keep their jobs. We saw this in real time, but the author takes us backwards to reexamine the effects of how this submission of morals to one man, rather than to the Constitution, has had on our nation, and how it will continue to unravel our society.
Both people in the country and abroad are cognizant of what happened from 2016 to the present. But reading about how politicians reacted to the author and the things that they said to him during his many informal interviews with them is eye opening. Leibovich argues that the price of submission to a single man, rather than to the Constitution, has devastating effects. Not only did it divide the country, but this unswerving cult-like devotion threatened to destroy it.
Leibovich talks about cowardice, self-preservation, selfishness, and fear. And he doesn’t mince words when naming and discussing his many political informants. Reading this book, it reminded me of Hitler’s seduction of the German people during the early twentieth century, culminating in the murder of millions. With this book, no one can ever rightly ask again: how did people allow Hitler to gain power? Because we now have the answer; we learned the answer in our own lifetime.
This is a well-written book. I highly recommend this to all.
August 5, 2022
The growing number of books about the Trump administration is starting to rival the diet and parenting categories so the key for me is how they stand out. This book goes up to March 2022 so that's a plus for this particular moment. More importantly, Leibovich actually says the very things you're thinking (the "Are you fucking kidding me?" moments) and in very biting and funny ways. (I highlighted many passages.)
This was his sober description of the purpose of the book:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 202
"This book is about the view from the Trump Hotel. If not always physically, it is set against the unholy backdrop and sensibility that the owner fostered during his Washington residency. It is about the dirt that Trump tracked in, the people he broke, and the swamp he did not drain."
He largely hits the mark here. He does often reference his trips to the aforementioned hotel and the scenes he witnessed.
As to the biting and funny takes here are a few samples:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 1033
"Spicer had other issues. He suffered nonstop abuse and incredulity from much of the press corps. In a job where every little slipup was accentuated, Spicer slipped up regularly. At one point, he claimed that Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” (fact check: extremely wrong). His job appraisals were across-the-board brutal. “There’s something about Sean Spicer that inspires pity,” the Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote, and then proceeded to eviscerate him without pity."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2365
"Gohmert was one of several House members who were there to watch the proceedings, even though he was not on the Intelligence Committee—or possessed of much intelligence. “There’s not a functional brain in there,” was former Speaker Boehner’s succinct assessment of Gohmert. Gohmert would pigeonhole reporters and call for Democrats to apologize to my president for the ordeal they had put him through. No apology appeared to be forthcoming."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3079
"Apparently, the Clintons, the Venezuelans, and those ever-present deep state agents had executed a massive scheme to steal victory away from Trump (while still allowing other, victorious Republicans to keep their jobs). It was a stunningly far-reaching and complicated plot that only counselor MyPillow seemed to have the bandwidth to grasp."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3100
"After November 3, the Trump GOP’s messaging apparatus moved almost immediately from screeching about Hunter Biden to a singular focus on getting the president’s stolen tricycle back."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3496
"Other than that, the forty-fifth president was a perfect hybrid of Lincoln and FDR."
I was pleased the author mentioned Trump's prior episodes of leveling complaints about rigged elections. It's a silly and tired pattern: it's fair when I win and rigged when I lose. No proof, no logic. It still baffles me that it gets any traction whatsoever. Anyway, here's one snippet:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3023
"Four years earlier, after Trump lost to Cruz in the Iowa caucuses, the future president trotted out his usual playbook of insisting he had won and accusing the actual winner (Cruz) of election fraud. This was, even then, entirely predictable for Trump, who was never a huge adherent of that old Republican ethic of “personal responsibility.” He had previously complained that he’d “gotten screwed” out of, among other things, an Emmy Award and would later insist he’d have won the popular vote against Hillary, except for the ever-present “voter fraud” and the (nonexistent) “busloads of people from Massachusetts” brought in to vote illegally in New Hampshire. After Obama defeated Romney in 2012, at the height of Trump’s birther phase, he immediately
jumped on Twitter to helpfully inform everyone about “more reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama. Pay close attention to the machines, don’t let your vote be stolen.”
Beyond all of this the book was very similar to most of the others I've read about the topic. The recent standout for me is still "The Steal" by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague; it deals exclusively with the stolen election claims and thoroughly debunks them in an interesting and readable manner.
This was his sober description of the purpose of the book:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 202
"This book is about the view from the Trump Hotel. If not always physically, it is set against the unholy backdrop and sensibility that the owner fostered during his Washington residency. It is about the dirt that Trump tracked in, the people he broke, and the swamp he did not drain."
He largely hits the mark here. He does often reference his trips to the aforementioned hotel and the scenes he witnessed.
As to the biting and funny takes here are a few samples:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 1033
"Spicer had other issues. He suffered nonstop abuse and incredulity from much of the press corps. In a job where every little slipup was accentuated, Spicer slipped up regularly. At one point, he claimed that Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” (fact check: extremely wrong). His job appraisals were across-the-board brutal. “There’s something about Sean Spicer that inspires pity,” the Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote, and then proceeded to eviscerate him without pity."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 2365
"Gohmert was one of several House members who were there to watch the proceedings, even though he was not on the Intelligence Committee—or possessed of much intelligence. “There’s not a functional brain in there,” was former Speaker Boehner’s succinct assessment of Gohmert. Gohmert would pigeonhole reporters and call for Democrats to apologize to my president for the ordeal they had put him through. No apology appeared to be forthcoming."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3079
"Apparently, the Clintons, the Venezuelans, and those ever-present deep state agents had executed a massive scheme to steal victory away from Trump (while still allowing other, victorious Republicans to keep their jobs). It was a stunningly far-reaching and complicated plot that only counselor MyPillow seemed to have the bandwidth to grasp."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3100
"After November 3, the Trump GOP’s messaging apparatus moved almost immediately from screeching about Hunter Biden to a singular focus on getting the president’s stolen tricycle back."
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3496
"Other than that, the forty-fifth president was a perfect hybrid of Lincoln and FDR."
I was pleased the author mentioned Trump's prior episodes of leveling complaints about rigged elections. It's a silly and tired pattern: it's fair when I win and rigged when I lose. No proof, no logic. It still baffles me that it gets any traction whatsoever. Anyway, here's one snippet:
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 3023
"Four years earlier, after Trump lost to Cruz in the Iowa caucuses, the future president trotted out his usual playbook of insisting he had won and accusing the actual winner (Cruz) of election fraud. This was, even then, entirely predictable for Trump, who was never a huge adherent of that old Republican ethic of “personal responsibility.” He had previously complained that he’d “gotten screwed” out of, among other things, an Emmy Award and would later insist he’d have won the popular vote against Hillary, except for the ever-present “voter fraud” and the (nonexistent) “busloads of people from Massachusetts” brought in to vote illegally in New Hampshire. After Obama defeated Romney in 2012, at the height of Trump’s birther phase, he immediately
jumped on Twitter to helpfully inform everyone about “more reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama. Pay close attention to the machines, don’t let your vote be stolen.”
Beyond all of this the book was very similar to most of the others I've read about the topic. The recent standout for me is still "The Steal" by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague; it deals exclusively with the stolen election claims and thoroughly debunks them in an interesting and readable manner.
December 14, 2022
I didn’t think I was gonna read more books about the 45th President and his term because even the few I already have felt like enough, and there’s more coup related revelations coming out everyday these days. But the title and the cover instantly drew me in when I first saw it in a bookstore and I was glad to get an audiobook from my library.
This turned out to be interesting because its not focused entirely on 45 but on the Republicans around him who knew what a disaster he was but still sucked up to him because being in power is their main goal, and who cares what havoc he creates in the meantime as long as it helps them win. While there’s nothing truly revelatory in the book itself because we’ve seen this shit show play in front of our eyes, it felt worse to see it all consolidated in one place.
The way proximity to power will make politicians give up any of their principles and just cling to anyone who will let them win is not a new concept to me - I grew up in India and we’ve had our very fair share of huge corruption scandals but also numerous politicians who jump parties before and after elections based on what will profit them most. So I find this kind of behavior in politicians mostly par for the course. But the USA which touts itself as the best in the world was always better in my head, and it wasn’t until I came to live here that I realized that lust for power is the same everywhere, probably even more in a country like America because of the money involved and the kind of influence anything that happens here can have on the rest of the world. And maybe it was more behind closed doors before, but the 45th President’s term and everyone who enabled him brought it all out into the open.
I mostly just felt horrified reading this book. But what kept me going was the author’s very good sarcasm and snark, and you could really feel how horrified he himself when he was having some of those conversations with the republicans. Despite all this sycophancy, we somehow averted catastrophe in 2020 but who knows what’s next. The same gop politicians who became yes men to the president in those years have now gone full maga and qanon, and until the next presidential election actually happens, and everyone’s votes are truly counted properly without interferences from right wing legislatures and courts, we have to keep our eyes open. Or who knows, maybe we can all just give up based on whatever the judgement will be in Moore v. Harper.
This turned out to be interesting because its not focused entirely on 45 but on the Republicans around him who knew what a disaster he was but still sucked up to him because being in power is their main goal, and who cares what havoc he creates in the meantime as long as it helps them win. While there’s nothing truly revelatory in the book itself because we’ve seen this shit show play in front of our eyes, it felt worse to see it all consolidated in one place.
The way proximity to power will make politicians give up any of their principles and just cling to anyone who will let them win is not a new concept to me - I grew up in India and we’ve had our very fair share of huge corruption scandals but also numerous politicians who jump parties before and after elections based on what will profit them most. So I find this kind of behavior in politicians mostly par for the course. But the USA which touts itself as the best in the world was always better in my head, and it wasn’t until I came to live here that I realized that lust for power is the same everywhere, probably even more in a country like America because of the money involved and the kind of influence anything that happens here can have on the rest of the world. And maybe it was more behind closed doors before, but the 45th President’s term and everyone who enabled him brought it all out into the open.
I mostly just felt horrified reading this book. But what kept me going was the author’s very good sarcasm and snark, and you could really feel how horrified he himself when he was having some of those conversations with the republicans. Despite all this sycophancy, we somehow averted catastrophe in 2020 but who knows what’s next. The same gop politicians who became yes men to the president in those years have now gone full maga and qanon, and until the next presidential election actually happens, and everyone’s votes are truly counted properly without interferences from right wing legislatures and courts, we have to keep our eyes open. Or who knows, maybe we can all just give up based on whatever the judgement will be in Moore v. Harper.
July 16, 2022
Composed over 14-15 July 2022
This is the story of desperate men desperately seeking to hold onto power.
"Republicans have gone from being a party that touted virtue to being the most squalid and grubby expression of institutionalized self-interest in the modern history of the American republic."
A quick preface
Unlike other recent major books about the Trump era by journalists, this particular book has very few news-media bombshells. The only snippet of this book that gained traction in the media before the book's publication was the fact that former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan "sobbed" while watching the January 6th riots.
This is stark in comparison to, say, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for American Democracy the book by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns that came out two months ago. This Will Not Pass was subject to weeks of snippets in media coverage, or presumably myriad other books that are coming sooner or later. (I, for one, am thrilled at the prospect of Maggie Haberman's book. I imagine I'll want to throw things at her for having likely saved many significant stories until she had a book to sell. But still, can't wait to read it.)
Frankly, I'm okay with this. Goodness knows politics has been exceptionally exhausting under the Trump regime, so distilling it into episodes that we know well is fine with me.
Leibovich's style is blessedly sardonic
This is the third book by Mark Leibovich that I've read in the last two months.
The first two were published a decade ago, and include political reporting that may have been headline-grabbing then but read as dated now. In my defense, how much can I actually care about Teresa Heinz Kerry as a difficult-to-comprehend Senate wife?
(Note: there was a significant amount of overlap in content in those first two books. Citizens of the Green Room (2014) was a set a of character sketches as news stories published over a stretch of ten years; This Town (2013) distilled some of that same material into a loose narrative. Only one anecdote seems to have appeared in all three: a comment from a CNN staffer that Al Gore, then a presidential contender, was "remarkably lifelike.")
It's hard to authentically describe Leibovich's writing style because while it is journalism, it isn't the cut-and-dry facts-only journalism that other books of this era have been. There's a snideness to his tone, a bit of editorializing even in his most basic descriptions.
I'm an audio book fan. This sardonic-ness is only compounded by the fact that all three of his political books to date have been read in audio form by the same reader, who is a wildly entertaining narrator who you feel is kind of looking at you and saying, "Isn't this some bulls***?"
The fact is, if you want cut-and-dry facts, this isn't gonna be your book. You have plenty of other options.
Let those of us who are exhausted have this: a journalist's work that is self-aware enough to acknowledge the absurdity.
To repeat: The content here really isn't new.
With the exception of the Ryan anecdote previously mentioned, there isn't much in the way of "new" material here. If you followed the slow-moving monstrosity that was the Trump presidency, you probably remember every event Leibovich describes.
He moves relatively quickly. There isn't a belaboring of events; as he notes, you probably remember most if not all of the basic info.
That's not a bad thing, though, because Leibovich moves the camera focus.
The goal of this book is not to stop and stare at Trump and think to yourself, "Holy crap, this monster was ELECTED PRESIDENT" (though you'll do that anyway).
It's rather a look at the people that surrounded and enabled Trump.
This isn't necessarily a look at the immediate surroundings. If you want to look at the dysfunctional and destructive role that the likes of Jared and Ivanka had, or Stephen Miller had, or Steve Bannon had, there are books written just about that one person.
It's also not the rank and file that are attacked: the staffers who stuck around, likely supported Trump in policy goals, probably voted for him, but ultimately wielded only snippets of power.
Leibovich's main targets are the people who knew better, or who at least continually insisted to Leibovich that they knew better.
So who are the main targets?
The main targets of this book are elected officials who conceivably were "serious" people before 2016. (Or, at least thought of themselves as serious people.)
Marco Rubio is an early target.
[There's a scene described from 2016 with Rubio that is actually factually inaccurate. I know because I was there.
In 2016, Marco Rubio visited my college, in southwest Virginia, and gave a speech where he obliquely stated that Donald Trump had a small penis. According to Leibovich, "the college kids loved it."
The inaccuracies here are multifold. First, a healthy majority of the college kids in that room were not Rubio supporters. They were rather college kids who were weirded out that Rubio was doing a rally on their campus. Our student government leaders were shown in the episode of Showtime's The Circus in a prominent location during that rally; when Rubio makes the comments, only one gave even a cursory clap. The rest just stood there. The majority of people in that gymnasium were not even students at our college.
I was outside the rally at first, protesting with a ragtag group of students led by an exceptionally colorful professor. At one point we were screaming, "WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER," despite that not being true for many of us. I then watched the rally myself.]
Rubio was viscerally opposed to Trump during the primaries, but then fell in line.
As Leibovich writes, "Rubio became just another dispiriting casualty of Trump’s moral slaughter of the Republican Party. He was another in the parade of leaders willing to discard every principle they once held for the purpose of staying in office."
After January 6th, his support of Trump is explained by the fact that there was just violence at that one rally, so why should he be that upset? (Bulls***, Rubio.)
Or there's Chris Christie. Business leaders in particular loved Christie until he fizzled and moved his support to Trump. Kudos to Meg Whitman for calling out his bulls***.
The likes of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, William Barr, Mike Pence, enablers-in-chief rammed into submission by the Trump monstrosity, are also covered, but perhaps with less fortitude than others.
Who looks worst, though? Kevin McCarthy is a contender.
Understandably. Kevin McCarthy, usually regarded as among the dumbest people in Washington (no, seriously, there was just a Politico article about this), did whatever he good to get in Trump's good graces and had little issue with bending over backwards to do so. He also gave Trump a legitimizing moment when he traveled to Mar-a-Lago weeks after January 6th.
The McCarthy that Leibovich describes is a feckless man whose sole goal seems to be power.
But no one gets it worse than Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey Graham seems to have been given exceptionally harsh treatment by Leibovich.
And, after reading this, it is COMPLETELY justified.
I've often thought of Graham, over the last few years, as human scum. During the 2016 campaign, when her quixotically ran for president, he came across as... well, I disagreed with just about everything he said but I thought at least he came across as someone who had actual priorities and principles. I remember a couple of progressive-minded friends commenting that they didn't hate Lindsey Graham while watching a Republican debate.
After reading this, I've determined that Lindsey Graham is a walking, talking piece of human excrement worthy of little more than the toilet flush of history.
In death, John McCain's reputation as an American hero seems to have been truly cemented. Even those who disagreed with his politics seem to agree on that. In 2019, at one of the Democratic presidential debates, there was once a question asked, something along the lines of, "Do you have any Republican friends? If so, who?" and it seemed almost every sitting or one-time Senator spoke of their deep affection for John McCain. It may have even been genuine: some, like Joe and Amy Klobuchar, genuinely had relationships with McCain. Even more recently, before his daughter defected to write books trashing her colleagues and a column trashing common sense in the Daily Mail, Whoopi Goldberg suggested on The View that military installations that are still named after Confederate traitors could be named in McCain's honor.
McCain had no time for Donald Trump, and Trump made it a special goal, it seemed, to trash John McCain whenever possible (and he continues to do so).
Lindsey Graham was John McCain's sidekick and best friend.
This book, though, lays bear McCain's absolute disgust as his bestie's unapologetic subservience to Trump.
McCain, Leibovich says, understood the rationale - McCain, after all, had done his fair share of reelection-minded political groveling to the base. Still, he viewed it as pure cowardice on Graham's part.
Graham is documented doing whatever he can to get in Trump's good graces - talking about how nice his golf clubs are on Twitter (barf) and such.
Yet Graham is always described as being "in on the joke" - no one, he says, actually takes Trump seriously.
Except. of course, that was fantastically untrue, and the likes of Lindsey Graham hold as much responsibility for the disintegration of American democracy as Trump does himself.
And why? For Leibovich, the reason is simple: "Bottom line: any ambivalence Graham had over Trump’s conduct (for example, for trashing his best friend to the grave and beyond) was eclipsed by his desperation to remain a U.S. senator."
Just to reiterate: Lindsey Graham is a vile, contemptible piece of human trash.
Place is essential to Leibovich.
If you've read This Town, you know how Leibovich unites a loose set of stories around particular places. For This Town, the story begins at Tim Russert's 2008 funeral. In Thank You For Your Servitude, it is the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. It is a stretch to suggest that the Trump Hotel is a driving force of the book; rather, it's the White House away from the White House, where every significant, contemptible person seems to end up at some point.
The question of legacies is a recurring theme in this book.
There is a story, repeated by Leibovich but long reported elsewhere, about a time when Rudy Giuliani was asked about how he would be viewed after he was gone. He said, "I don't care. I'll be dead."
Several others - William Barr, Lindsey Graham - express near-identical messages in this book.
Leibovich puts these in contrast to Liz Cheney, in particular, someone who seems to have an eye toward how history will remember her.
There's a mentality now said on liberal-oriented Twitter that there are no heroes in the GOP anymore, that the likes of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) are not actual heroes but are instead the only two who have not morally bankrupted themselves in this instance. Cheney is being attacked for abortion comments; Kinzinger is being attacked for speaking favorably of voting rights but voting against voting rights legislation. Fair.
Yet Cheney has an eye toward doing the right thing, at least in this, in the grand scope of history.
Graham, McConnell, McCarthy, Barr, etc. don't.
I think there's something very revealing about that mindset, actually.
I have no idea who views 2022-era Republican policies and thinks of them as anything but destructive. And these people, it seems, genuinely do not care. They want power and will do whatever they need to to get it.
These people have pure contempt for the people who support them.
I think it's been confirmed elsewhere, but the contempt Trump feels for his most loyal supporters is real - the mocking of evangelical Christians, for example. It seems that all these other enablers feel the same way. (And chances are this isn't just a Republican thing: in This Shall Not Pass, Sen. Joe Manchin (supposedly D-WV) is repeatedly quoted as saying West Virginians shouldn't get money from the government because they'll just use it on drugs.)
The biggest takeaway: the Republicans were wrong.
There's a constant thread about "being in on the joke": no one takes Trump seriously, it's a joke! And everyone gets that.
No.
January 6th is a reflection of this.
Trump is an existential threat to the republic, to democracy, to the concept of America itself (and by extension, frankly, the world).
If it's not too late, historians will remember him for the spectacularly destructive human being he is.
But I think the Grahams, the McCarthys, the Grahams, and their ilk, will be treated just as harshly. They knew better and didn't do a damn thing about it.
Bottom line: this is at times a funny book. But even when it's funny, it's depressing as hell.
I like the metaphor I used earlier so I'm going to repeat it: may these walking, talking pieces of human excrement be relegated to toilet flush of history.
And sooner, rather than later, please.
This is the story of desperate men desperately seeking to hold onto power.
"Republicans have gone from being a party that touted virtue to being the most squalid and grubby expression of institutionalized self-interest in the modern history of the American republic."
A quick preface
Unlike other recent major books about the Trump era by journalists, this particular book has very few news-media bombshells. The only snippet of this book that gained traction in the media before the book's publication was the fact that former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan "sobbed" while watching the January 6th riots.
This is stark in comparison to, say, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for American Democracy the book by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns that came out two months ago. This Will Not Pass was subject to weeks of snippets in media coverage, or presumably myriad other books that are coming sooner or later. (I, for one, am thrilled at the prospect of Maggie Haberman's book. I imagine I'll want to throw things at her for having likely saved many significant stories until she had a book to sell. But still, can't wait to read it.)
Frankly, I'm okay with this. Goodness knows politics has been exceptionally exhausting under the Trump regime, so distilling it into episodes that we know well is fine with me.
Leibovich's style is blessedly sardonic
This is the third book by Mark Leibovich that I've read in the last two months.
The first two were published a decade ago, and include political reporting that may have been headline-grabbing then but read as dated now. In my defense, how much can I actually care about Teresa Heinz Kerry as a difficult-to-comprehend Senate wife?
(Note: there was a significant amount of overlap in content in those first two books. Citizens of the Green Room (2014) was a set a of character sketches as news stories published over a stretch of ten years; This Town (2013) distilled some of that same material into a loose narrative. Only one anecdote seems to have appeared in all three: a comment from a CNN staffer that Al Gore, then a presidential contender, was "remarkably lifelike.")
It's hard to authentically describe Leibovich's writing style because while it is journalism, it isn't the cut-and-dry facts-only journalism that other books of this era have been. There's a snideness to his tone, a bit of editorializing even in his most basic descriptions.
I'm an audio book fan. This sardonic-ness is only compounded by the fact that all three of his political books to date have been read in audio form by the same reader, who is a wildly entertaining narrator who you feel is kind of looking at you and saying, "Isn't this some bulls***?"
The fact is, if you want cut-and-dry facts, this isn't gonna be your book. You have plenty of other options.
Let those of us who are exhausted have this: a journalist's work that is self-aware enough to acknowledge the absurdity.
To repeat: The content here really isn't new.
With the exception of the Ryan anecdote previously mentioned, there isn't much in the way of "new" material here. If you followed the slow-moving monstrosity that was the Trump presidency, you probably remember every event Leibovich describes.
He moves relatively quickly. There isn't a belaboring of events; as he notes, you probably remember most if not all of the basic info.
That's not a bad thing, though, because Leibovich moves the camera focus.
The goal of this book is not to stop and stare at Trump and think to yourself, "Holy crap, this monster was ELECTED PRESIDENT" (though you'll do that anyway).
It's rather a look at the people that surrounded and enabled Trump.
This isn't necessarily a look at the immediate surroundings. If you want to look at the dysfunctional and destructive role that the likes of Jared and Ivanka had, or Stephen Miller had, or Steve Bannon had, there are books written just about that one person.
It's also not the rank and file that are attacked: the staffers who stuck around, likely supported Trump in policy goals, probably voted for him, but ultimately wielded only snippets of power.
Leibovich's main targets are the people who knew better, or who at least continually insisted to Leibovich that they knew better.
So who are the main targets?
The main targets of this book are elected officials who conceivably were "serious" people before 2016. (Or, at least thought of themselves as serious people.)
Marco Rubio is an early target.
[There's a scene described from 2016 with Rubio that is actually factually inaccurate. I know because I was there.
In 2016, Marco Rubio visited my college, in southwest Virginia, and gave a speech where he obliquely stated that Donald Trump had a small penis. According to Leibovich, "the college kids loved it."
The inaccuracies here are multifold. First, a healthy majority of the college kids in that room were not Rubio supporters. They were rather college kids who were weirded out that Rubio was doing a rally on their campus. Our student government leaders were shown in the episode of Showtime's The Circus in a prominent location during that rally; when Rubio makes the comments, only one gave even a cursory clap. The rest just stood there. The majority of people in that gymnasium were not even students at our college.
I was outside the rally at first, protesting with a ragtag group of students led by an exceptionally colorful professor. At one point we were screaming, "WE'RE HERE, WE'RE QUEER," despite that not being true for many of us. I then watched the rally myself.]
Rubio was viscerally opposed to Trump during the primaries, but then fell in line.
As Leibovich writes, "Rubio became just another dispiriting casualty of Trump’s moral slaughter of the Republican Party. He was another in the parade of leaders willing to discard every principle they once held for the purpose of staying in office."
After January 6th, his support of Trump is explained by the fact that there was just violence at that one rally, so why should he be that upset? (Bulls***, Rubio.)
Or there's Chris Christie. Business leaders in particular loved Christie until he fizzled and moved his support to Trump. Kudos to Meg Whitman for calling out his bulls***.
The likes of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, William Barr, Mike Pence, enablers-in-chief rammed into submission by the Trump monstrosity, are also covered, but perhaps with less fortitude than others.
Who looks worst, though? Kevin McCarthy is a contender.
Understandably. Kevin McCarthy, usually regarded as among the dumbest people in Washington (no, seriously, there was just a Politico article about this), did whatever he good to get in Trump's good graces and had little issue with bending over backwards to do so. He also gave Trump a legitimizing moment when he traveled to Mar-a-Lago weeks after January 6th.
The McCarthy that Leibovich describes is a feckless man whose sole goal seems to be power.
But no one gets it worse than Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey Graham seems to have been given exceptionally harsh treatment by Leibovich.
And, after reading this, it is COMPLETELY justified.
I've often thought of Graham, over the last few years, as human scum. During the 2016 campaign, when her quixotically ran for president, he came across as... well, I disagreed with just about everything he said but I thought at least he came across as someone who had actual priorities and principles. I remember a couple of progressive-minded friends commenting that they didn't hate Lindsey Graham while watching a Republican debate.
After reading this, I've determined that Lindsey Graham is a walking, talking piece of human excrement worthy of little more than the toilet flush of history.
In death, John McCain's reputation as an American hero seems to have been truly cemented. Even those who disagreed with his politics seem to agree on that. In 2019, at one of the Democratic presidential debates, there was once a question asked, something along the lines of, "Do you have any Republican friends? If so, who?" and it seemed almost every sitting or one-time Senator spoke of their deep affection for John McCain. It may have even been genuine: some, like Joe and Amy Klobuchar, genuinely had relationships with McCain. Even more recently, before his daughter defected to write books trashing her colleagues and a column trashing common sense in the Daily Mail, Whoopi Goldberg suggested on The View that military installations that are still named after Confederate traitors could be named in McCain's honor.
McCain had no time for Donald Trump, and Trump made it a special goal, it seemed, to trash John McCain whenever possible (and he continues to do so).
Lindsey Graham was John McCain's sidekick and best friend.
This book, though, lays bear McCain's absolute disgust as his bestie's unapologetic subservience to Trump.
McCain, Leibovich says, understood the rationale - McCain, after all, had done his fair share of reelection-minded political groveling to the base. Still, he viewed it as pure cowardice on Graham's part.
Graham is documented doing whatever he can to get in Trump's good graces - talking about how nice his golf clubs are on Twitter (barf) and such.
Yet Graham is always described as being "in on the joke" - no one, he says, actually takes Trump seriously.
Except. of course, that was fantastically untrue, and the likes of Lindsey Graham hold as much responsibility for the disintegration of American democracy as Trump does himself.
And why? For Leibovich, the reason is simple: "Bottom line: any ambivalence Graham had over Trump’s conduct (for example, for trashing his best friend to the grave and beyond) was eclipsed by his desperation to remain a U.S. senator."
Just to reiterate: Lindsey Graham is a vile, contemptible piece of human trash.
Place is essential to Leibovich.
If you've read This Town, you know how Leibovich unites a loose set of stories around particular places. For This Town, the story begins at Tim Russert's 2008 funeral. In Thank You For Your Servitude, it is the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. It is a stretch to suggest that the Trump Hotel is a driving force of the book; rather, it's the White House away from the White House, where every significant, contemptible person seems to end up at some point.
The question of legacies is a recurring theme in this book.
There is a story, repeated by Leibovich but long reported elsewhere, about a time when Rudy Giuliani was asked about how he would be viewed after he was gone. He said, "I don't care. I'll be dead."
Several others - William Barr, Lindsey Graham - express near-identical messages in this book.
Leibovich puts these in contrast to Liz Cheney, in particular, someone who seems to have an eye toward how history will remember her.
There's a mentality now said on liberal-oriented Twitter that there are no heroes in the GOP anymore, that the likes of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) are not actual heroes but are instead the only two who have not morally bankrupted themselves in this instance. Cheney is being attacked for abortion comments; Kinzinger is being attacked for speaking favorably of voting rights but voting against voting rights legislation. Fair.
Yet Cheney has an eye toward doing the right thing, at least in this, in the grand scope of history.
Graham, McConnell, McCarthy, Barr, etc. don't.
I think there's something very revealing about that mindset, actually.
I have no idea who views 2022-era Republican policies and thinks of them as anything but destructive. And these people, it seems, genuinely do not care. They want power and will do whatever they need to to get it.
These people have pure contempt for the people who support them.
I think it's been confirmed elsewhere, but the contempt Trump feels for his most loyal supporters is real - the mocking of evangelical Christians, for example. It seems that all these other enablers feel the same way. (And chances are this isn't just a Republican thing: in This Shall Not Pass, Sen. Joe Manchin (supposedly D-WV) is repeatedly quoted as saying West Virginians shouldn't get money from the government because they'll just use it on drugs.)
The biggest takeaway: the Republicans were wrong.
There's a constant thread about "being in on the joke": no one takes Trump seriously, it's a joke! And everyone gets that.
No.
January 6th is a reflection of this.
Trump is an existential threat to the republic, to democracy, to the concept of America itself (and by extension, frankly, the world).
If it's not too late, historians will remember him for the spectacularly destructive human being he is.
But I think the Grahams, the McCarthys, the Grahams, and their ilk, will be treated just as harshly. They knew better and didn't do a damn thing about it.
Bottom line: this is at times a funny book. But even when it's funny, it's depressing as hell.
I like the metaphor I used earlier so I'm going to repeat it: may these walking, talking pieces of human excrement be relegated to toilet flush of history.
And sooner, rather than later, please.
September 11, 2022
Fast read, full of great satirical quips, truthful, ominous, and yet delightful. I could hardly put it down. I knew all the major parts of the stories, but this book provides interviews and quotes and background not available to the little people (like me).
August 25, 2022
First of all, I love Mark Leibovich's style. Smart, funny, observational, sarcastic, connected, likely accurate. He is an outsider that seems to be a true insider. I remember meeting him in DC on the day Paul Manafort was arrested.
I have read his other books, and this one is right on target. Mark covers all the groveling, hypocritical, two faced, politically ambitious republicans who once disavowed Trump, then realized they needed to hitch their wagon to that crazy train. He spares no snark when speaking about Lindsey Graham, and his flip flopping, ass kissing, willing to abandon all matter of friends (John McCain) and fine republican principles for some good golfing at Mar-A-Lardo. The parts about Kevin McCarthy pulling up pictures on his phone of his glory days in high school, with his football teammates--what an absolute lunkhead. Paul Ryan telling him he cried as he watched what went down on January 6, as if he had no culpability in how we got there.
I laughed throughout this book, even though the subject matter is hardly comical, it's actually depressing and frightening. How Adam Kinzinger told his staff not to come in on January 6 and brought a gun into the office that day, Liz Cheney telling Jim Jordan as he tried to help her off the floor to leave her the hell alone, this is your fault, Mitt Romney considering his luck that he walked down the right hallway opposite of where the capital police were able to keep the animals at bay.
Anyway, there is a lot of insider information in this book, told in a funny manner, and of all the Trump books I have read (and I don't know why it's been a lot), this was by far my favorite and the one I was most looking forward to reading.
I have read his other books, and this one is right on target. Mark covers all the groveling, hypocritical, two faced, politically ambitious republicans who once disavowed Trump, then realized they needed to hitch their wagon to that crazy train. He spares no snark when speaking about Lindsey Graham, and his flip flopping, ass kissing, willing to abandon all matter of friends (John McCain) and fine republican principles for some good golfing at Mar-A-Lardo. The parts about Kevin McCarthy pulling up pictures on his phone of his glory days in high school, with his football teammates--what an absolute lunkhead. Paul Ryan telling him he cried as he watched what went down on January 6, as if he had no culpability in how we got there.
I laughed throughout this book, even though the subject matter is hardly comical, it's actually depressing and frightening. How Adam Kinzinger told his staff not to come in on January 6 and brought a gun into the office that day, Liz Cheney telling Jim Jordan as he tried to help her off the floor to leave her the hell alone, this is your fault, Mitt Romney considering his luck that he walked down the right hallway opposite of where the capital police were able to keep the animals at bay.
Anyway, there is a lot of insider information in this book, told in a funny manner, and of all the Trump books I have read (and I don't know why it's been a lot), this was by far my favorite and the one I was most looking forward to reading.
September 11, 2022
As someone who grew up in the days where the differences between Republicans and Democrats weren't so distanced, it's baffling to me how so many GOPers in positions of power have given up their most basic human and political values. This book helps with understanding what has happened--and what is still happening.
What also became clear was my own expectation that many of these people had complex reasons for bowing to Trump in public while hating him in private. For example, I’ve tried to figure out (like many of us) why Lindsay went along with Trump, but this book makes it clear. For so many of us, we’re trying hard to do the right thing, so when we see someone like Lindsay, who will do whatever it takes to stay in the Senate, it’s baffling to us.
Leibovich is an engaging, very funny writer with years of experience and connections; he's also highly skilled in getting people to talk. But there are many lines that made me laugh out loud (e.g., the Rubio section made me choke a little on the toast I was eating), which will help those of us who *loathe* Trump get through some difficult sections. I'm not sure if this book deserves 4 or 5 stars because I got sad. The writing is sharp throughout, but it seemed to slow down toward last third. I think this is because, for Leibovich, the joke can only last so long. Instead, we're left with a dispiriting comment from more than one GOPer who says their only plan for Trumpism is waiting for him to die. You're left with the sadness that we've been abandoned by a party that used to take care of its country.
What also became clear was my own expectation that many of these people had complex reasons for bowing to Trump in public while hating him in private. For example, I’ve tried to figure out (like many of us) why Lindsay went along with Trump, but this book makes it clear. For so many of us, we’re trying hard to do the right thing, so when we see someone like Lindsay, who will do whatever it takes to stay in the Senate, it’s baffling to us.
Leibovich is an engaging, very funny writer with years of experience and connections; he's also highly skilled in getting people to talk. But there are many lines that made me laugh out loud (e.g., the Rubio section made me choke a little on the toast I was eating), which will help those of us who *loathe* Trump get through some difficult sections. I'm not sure if this book deserves 4 or 5 stars because I got sad. The writing is sharp throughout, but it seemed to slow down toward last third. I think this is because, for Leibovich, the joke can only last so long. Instead, we're left with a dispiriting comment from more than one GOPer who says their only plan for Trumpism is waiting for him to die. You're left with the sadness that we've been abandoned by a party that used to take care of its country.
July 21, 2022
I've got a penchant for what I call "pop history" — books written by serious authors while in close chronological proximity to the events being reported. If newspapers are the first draft of history, pop history books are the second draft.
Mark Leibovich made his name as a dazzling author of Washington D.C. pop history. His book, This Town (2013), was an insider's story about the "blatantly corruptible celebrity wannabes" who run Washington D.C.
This book, Thank You For Your Servitude, is an examination of the Republican Party during the Trump administration. In short, the book asks why so many Republicans failed to stop Trump's takeover of their party.
Leibovich's book is so easy to read, full of playful writing, clever insights, and clever barbs. I read it quickly. I laughed; I snickered; I shook my head in disgust; I finished it in 3 days and afterward felt — besmirched. Not by our former president. Chronic narcissists are everywhere (though he surely set new standards). No, I felt besmirched by how easily elected Republicans bowed to him.
The book does have heroes. Leibovich recounts how Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, and John McCain all defied Trump. But their integrity is overwhelmed by a dark and rising tide.
The story of the Republican submission is like a family living with an alcoholic. Everyone knows the problem. Every day, the alcoholic overdrinks, smashes the dishes, vomits the bed, and then complains nobody likes him. The family? Rather than address the problem, they make excuses for him.
The book is excellent. My 4-star review (instead of 5) is more about the reader, not the author. Having finished the book, I can't get the smell off me. That's the only reason I cannot recommend it more highly.
Mark Leibovich made his name as a dazzling author of Washington D.C. pop history. His book, This Town (2013), was an insider's story about the "blatantly corruptible celebrity wannabes" who run Washington D.C.
This book, Thank You For Your Servitude, is an examination of the Republican Party during the Trump administration. In short, the book asks why so many Republicans failed to stop Trump's takeover of their party.
Leibovich's book is so easy to read, full of playful writing, clever insights, and clever barbs. I read it quickly. I laughed; I snickered; I shook my head in disgust; I finished it in 3 days and afterward felt — besmirched. Not by our former president. Chronic narcissists are everywhere (though he surely set new standards). No, I felt besmirched by how easily elected Republicans bowed to him.
The book does have heroes. Leibovich recounts how Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, and John McCain all defied Trump. But their integrity is overwhelmed by a dark and rising tide.
The story of the Republican submission is like a family living with an alcoholic. Everyone knows the problem. Every day, the alcoholic overdrinks, smashes the dishes, vomits the bed, and then complains nobody likes him. The family? Rather than address the problem, they make excuses for him.
The book is excellent. My 4-star review (instead of 5) is more about the reader, not the author. Having finished the book, I can't get the smell off me. That's the only reason I cannot recommend it more highly.
August 8, 2022
I’ve made a habit of reading the avalanche of books about Trump that have appeared in the last year (God help me). This is solidly in the middle to bottom tier of that sampling. The book can’t decide what it wants to be. At times, it is a short but cursory, and not particularly enlightening, summary of the entire Trump presidency. On that front, there are a host of better reads out there. It is particularly frustrating when the only insights the book offers on that overview are anecdotes that various politicians give to the author, usually anonymously, that do nothing more than establish the author’s bona fides as an insider. You aren’t going to read any breaking news or new information that have not been covered ad nauseum by other authors and journalists.
What is more interesting is when he tries to get inside the heads of Trump’s enablers to discuss where they were before, what they became during the Trump presidency, and where they are now. But again, the book can’t decide if it is about those characters or just a cursory overview of the last four years. Moreover to the extent that there is a hypothesis that Trump rolls the bus over his enablers to their eternal detriment, it fails to make a very strong case since most of those enablers are in stronger positions and closer to power than the ones who took a stand against him. For every Jeff Sessions, there is a Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, and Elise Stefanik. So to the extent that the book’s title about serving in servitude rings true, it highlights that their servitude bore fruit.
What is more interesting is when he tries to get inside the heads of Trump’s enablers to discuss where they were before, what they became during the Trump presidency, and where they are now. But again, the book can’t decide if it is about those characters or just a cursory overview of the last four years. Moreover to the extent that there is a hypothesis that Trump rolls the bus over his enablers to their eternal detriment, it fails to make a very strong case since most of those enablers are in stronger positions and closer to power than the ones who took a stand against him. For every Jeff Sessions, there is a Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, and Elise Stefanik. So to the extent that the book’s title about serving in servitude rings true, it highlights that their servitude bore fruit.
October 26, 2023
I simply must be stopped from reading yet more accounts of the Trump presidency.
(I've already begun another one.)
(I've already begun another one.)
February 3, 2024
Very very good. I think it’s unique among the seemingly endless “Trump is bad” memoirs in that it actually uses a thoughtful, analytical, and serious lens through which to examine the political dynamics of his administration. Leibovich does a really convincing job of diagnosing one of the actual causal mechanisms through which Trump affected American politics. In contrast to the endless books one could read about how bad Trump was, this book I found to be meaningfully substantive, mature, and serious - it actually wants to understand WHY and HOW things happened, rather than join the chorus of those singing about how bad those things are.
It’s also laugh out loud funny at times. Seriously. Hats off to the author.
It’s also laugh out loud funny at times. Seriously. Hats off to the author.
October 24, 2022
"Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission: is filled with entertaining vignettes of Trump-era Washington, DC.
Reviewer's note: hereafter, please do not be alarmed if Donald Trump is only referred to with the dishonorarium Orange Criminal Julius.
If Bush 41’s inaugural address (penned by DC insider, Peggy Noonan, before her descent into a Chardonnay-colored fog acquiescence to serve as a MAGA Trump apologist) spoke with a hopeful aspiration of a 1000 points of light fueled by civic-minded volunteerism, then Mark Leibovich’s “Thank You for Your Servitude” can best be summarized as a 1000 telling anecdotes of snark & hard truths (the truths yet requiring some light-hearted knowing snark & jokes in order to bear witness if not total belief or understanding) of politicians volunteering to torch their own moral codes & debase their own public service futures to defend an amoral wannabe crime boss.
By no means does Mark Leibovich claim to have written a comprehensive rundown of the Orange Criminal Julius era, but he does manage to capture & relay the highlights & lowlights with far more candor and WAY MORE humor than most cable news shows will contain in a month's viewing.
Leibovich is an equal opportunity truth teller calling out politicians from all sides for their foibles, shortcomings & inadequate responses, but he does reserve extra special tangy zings for the most deserving of subjects, Orange Criminal Julius. (as an aside, the J in Donald K. Trump does indicate Julius, right? I like to think so-- if only to bring to mind (no subtlety intended), the Julius of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were the couple railroaded to execution by Nixon & McCarthy protege Roy Cohn. And Roy Cohn was Donald (Orange Criminal Julius) Trump's mentor in how to lie, cheat, lie, steal, and lie one's way to infamy and power.
Well worth the read, Leibovich’s book does not get mired in usual Washington's gerbil wheel of 1) scoops of criminality that should have been reported to law enforcement months ago OR 2) the NYTimes' unending need to provide useless both-siderism.
If anything, one hopes Leibovich's books might spark Tony Kushner's mission to write "Angels in America 3" with the ghosts of Roy Cohn advising Orange Criminal Julius on how to deal with encroaching legal difficulties, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg could also make a fantastic return to the Broadway stage with a new level of truth-telling and world-weary schadenfreude & snark for Orange Criminal Julius's downfall.
Reviewer's note: hereafter, please do not be alarmed if Donald Trump is only referred to with the dishonorarium Orange Criminal Julius.
If Bush 41’s inaugural address (penned by DC insider, Peggy Noonan, before her descent into a Chardonnay-colored fog acquiescence to serve as a MAGA Trump apologist) spoke with a hopeful aspiration of a 1000 points of light fueled by civic-minded volunteerism, then Mark Leibovich’s “Thank You for Your Servitude” can best be summarized as a 1000 telling anecdotes of snark & hard truths (the truths yet requiring some light-hearted knowing snark & jokes in order to bear witness if not total belief or understanding) of politicians volunteering to torch their own moral codes & debase their own public service futures to defend an amoral wannabe crime boss.
By no means does Mark Leibovich claim to have written a comprehensive rundown of the Orange Criminal Julius era, but he does manage to capture & relay the highlights & lowlights with far more candor and WAY MORE humor than most cable news shows will contain in a month's viewing.
Leibovich is an equal opportunity truth teller calling out politicians from all sides for their foibles, shortcomings & inadequate responses, but he does reserve extra special tangy zings for the most deserving of subjects, Orange Criminal Julius. (as an aside, the J in Donald K. Trump does indicate Julius, right? I like to think so-- if only to bring to mind (no subtlety intended), the Julius of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were the couple railroaded to execution by Nixon & McCarthy protege Roy Cohn. And Roy Cohn was Donald (Orange Criminal Julius) Trump's mentor in how to lie, cheat, lie, steal, and lie one's way to infamy and power.
Well worth the read, Leibovich’s book does not get mired in usual Washington's gerbil wheel of 1) scoops of criminality that should have been reported to law enforcement months ago OR 2) the NYTimes' unending need to provide useless both-siderism.
If anything, one hopes Leibovich's books might spark Tony Kushner's mission to write "Angels in America 3" with the ghosts of Roy Cohn advising Orange Criminal Julius on how to deal with encroaching legal difficulties, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg could also make a fantastic return to the Broadway stage with a new level of truth-telling and world-weary schadenfreude & snark for Orange Criminal Julius's downfall.
September 6, 2022
Deliciously snarky.
Read
July 15, 2022i dont know why i read books like this
July 18, 2022
There is nothing you didn't already know, just a new twist. The story tries to explain the ridiculous, blind, self-serving people who sacrificed themselves at the altar of Trump.
Why they did what they did is still a mystery to anyone with a smidgeon of morality and will be the basis for history books yet to be written.
Parts are hilarious, and you will laugh aloud until you realize this national nightmare is a deadly threat to the last best hope of mankind. That's not funny - it's chilling.
By: Mark Leibovich
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
Release date: 07-12-22
Why they did what they did is still a mystery to anyone with a smidgeon of morality and will be the basis for history books yet to be written.
Parts are hilarious, and you will laugh aloud until you realize this national nightmare is a deadly threat to the last best hope of mankind. That's not funny - it's chilling.
By: Mark Leibovich
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
Release date: 07-12-22
August 9, 2022
Hilarious, surprising, pleasantly sarcastic, and utterly horrifying in its accurate recollections of the awful people profiled.
August 8, 2022
At times, this book seems to be an attempt to capture the feeling of Washington and its politicians like Hunter S. Thompson did in his 1972 classic "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail."
At other times, Leibovich seems to be just rewriting news accounts during Trump's tenure in the White House, including the "take the bleach" answer to Covid, the anger and insanity behind closed doors and, of course, the Jan. 6 resurrection at the capitol.
Leibovich writes well and at times, it skirts into realm of the good doctor HS Thompson. But instead of providing a look in the future and the context of all that happened, like Thompson did, Thank You looks more at the imploding Republican party because of Trump and the divisiveness he creates. It also shows those who hung on to the Trumpster, despite being used. His description of Lindsey Graham as Trump's lapdog is funny, yet sad.
I didn't follow politics too closely the past few years. I was laid off at a newspaper where I had worked for 20 years and, because of the bitterness that ensued, I shunned a lot of news coverage for a while. Still, the things Leibovich touched upon in his book were so prevalent at the time that it bust through my non-news attitude. I remember much of what he wrote about. So, Leibovich may just be scratching the surface of what happened by just doing a Nexus search for relevant things about Trump's controversial presidential leadership.
At other times, Leibovich seems to be just rewriting news accounts during Trump's tenure in the White House, including the "take the bleach" answer to Covid, the anger and insanity behind closed doors and, of course, the Jan. 6 resurrection at the capitol.
Leibovich writes well and at times, it skirts into realm of the good doctor HS Thompson. But instead of providing a look in the future and the context of all that happened, like Thompson did, Thank You looks more at the imploding Republican party because of Trump and the divisiveness he creates. It also shows those who hung on to the Trumpster, despite being used. His description of Lindsey Graham as Trump's lapdog is funny, yet sad.
I didn't follow politics too closely the past few years. I was laid off at a newspaper where I had worked for 20 years and, because of the bitterness that ensued, I shunned a lot of news coverage for a while. Still, the things Leibovich touched upon in his book were so prevalent at the time that it bust through my non-news attitude. I remember much of what he wrote about. So, Leibovich may just be scratching the surface of what happened by just doing a Nexus search for relevant things about Trump's controversial presidential leadership.
August 2, 2022
Facts with a healthy sprinkling of snark. I've seen Leibovich as one of the sensible (to me) talking heads called upon by various MSNBC shows to comment on 45's regime. His magnifying glass might be a little cracked, but I sure enjoyed his view.
October 16, 2022
Yes, it’s depressing to read this book. But I mean that as a compliment. It’s also funny, infuriating, and thoughtful. What makes the Trump enablers in Washington so special? What makes a guy like Mike Pompeo “like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass”? What led John McCain, in his last months of life, to ask about his old friend Lindsey Graham, “Do you really have to keep saying how great of a f***king golfer he [Trump] is?” Leibovich talks to the whole pathetic, sniveling lot of cretans who grovel before the giant baby, hearing their claims of the need for “relevance.” Even someone like Bill Barr, who lambasted the ex-president in his book, can still declare, “I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic Party.” Thus we’ve come to this place—where no Republican can afford not to repeat and amplify Trump’s election lies and seek his approval. While Leibovich cannot fully explain the perfidy of these charlatans, he certainly examines it with the withering scrutiny it deserves. There is some satisfaction in reading this, even if it will not brighten your day or leave you with much hope. It is, however, an almost unbelievable story. If only it weren’t so true.
September 14, 2022
This was a frank and entertainingly written review of TFG's misdeeds and how various sycophants stunningly sold themselves and the country out for approval from the obese, grifting liar apparently for their own political gain. It's a good read but nothing will explain any of this to my satisfaction and I'm not sure that more of the horrors of TFG than I've already consumed is useful for me - and at this point I'd like to see more consequences - I've already given enough headspace and time reading about the orange horror show.
November 3, 2022
This was just the thing I needed to leaven all the deep, weighty political and current events books I've been reading lately. The author completely destroys those sycophantic GOP members who kowtowed to the former president and imperiled our democracy for their own gain. The tone was perfectly cutting and acerbic and he was able to find the humor (gallows though it may have been) in the absurdity of the whole ordeal. A fantastic addition to the ever-growing assortment of post-Trump writings.
November 27, 2022
What a bunch of weak-ass losers. And while I enjoy humor/sarcasm/snark as much as the next person, this book would've been SO much funnier if it was fiction. . .Then again, who'd believe that a sitting POTUS would attempt the dissolution of his own country from inside the White House. Ugh.
July 26, 2022
Unfortunately this book is a cluster of lies.
It is written with such a air of hatred and close mindedness it’s just bad period.
Don’t waste your money!
It is written with such a air of hatred and close mindedness it’s just bad period.
Don’t waste your money!
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