WeeklySA_AdminMAVERICK: President Trump uses sleight of hand to gain second term in the Oval Office, writes author Michael Wolff in his book…
By Jacob Mawela
It is junk, bellowed President Donal Trump, of the latest book Michael Wolff wrote about the maverick leader of the country described by economists as the largest economy in the world, the United States.
The title of the book is All or Nothing, which the raging bull, which is Trump, described as “a total fake job, just like the other junk he wrote”.
The “just like the other junk” jibe on Wolff by Trump, refers to another scathing book the same author, Wolff, wrote about Trump, with the title, Fire and Fury, released earlier, selling millions, despite Trump’s attempt to block its publication.
All or Nothing in graphic detail describes Trump’s re-election, offering, as some writers allude, “breezy but disturbing read about how Trump willed his way back to power and captured a plurality of the electorate”.
The author transports readers on a journey accompanying Trump on his return to power as only Wolff – the foremost chronicler of the Trump era – could, describing how, by sleight of hand, slithered his way back to power, and in the process, capturing “a plurality of the electorate – enroute to re-occupying the White House.
Through personal access to Trump’s inner circle, the author narrates a behind-the-scenes landscape of Trump’s world in American politics.
His third campaign was better organised than his previous ones because he hired competent political consultants — Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, now his
As Trump cruelly and swiftly dispatched his opponents, vented fury on prosecutors and judges pursuing him, and belittled anyone in his way – including President Joe Biden – the 2024 election became not just another election but one in which the stakes were high.
DROP QUOTE: If your luck breaks for you fifty-fifty, you’ve certainly done well. Donald Trump, for his part, might seem to have been among the highest lucky percentages ever recorded…
His luck extended to his various legal troubles, one of which had the justices on the Supreme Court bench – a third of whom Trump had appointed – granting him—and all presidents—immunity for any act that could be construed as “official,” no matter how dubious this turned out to be.
Wolff writes: “If your luck breaks for you fifty-fifty, you’ve certainly done well. Donald Trump, for his part, might seem to have been among the highest lucky percentages ever recorded.”
In 2024, Trump was said to be all fury, a “petty, spiteful, raging, aggrieved King John — nothing ever going his way.”
Ultimately, came November, Trump would trump the Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris by 312 votes to 226 in the electoral college, and in addition to victory in the popular vote – making him only the second Republican candidate to win the popular vote since 1988.
Analysts attributed the 2024 election outcome which returned Trump to power to the 2021–2023 inflation surge, a global anti-incumbent wave, the unpopularity of the Biden administration Black Asian woman (Harris) becoming nominee for president whilst only having 107 days to prepare;
The fourth book and final chapter by Wolff about Trump’s political journey, is a moment-by-moment, behind-the-scenes, first-hand observation of Trump at significant and revealing junctures during his third run for US presidency.
Donald’s 34 criminal convictions for paying the porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her claimed affair could not have helped.
Between Trump and his daughter Ivanka, and Jared Kushner, her husband, Wolff depicts a dance of ambitions and expectations.
“Kushner’s own clear and immediate post-White House plan was to put distance between himself and his father-in-law,” Wolff writes, of the Jared and Ivanka’s flight from Trump’s side after January, 2021 attack on the Oval Office.
Richard Nixon never enjoyed a second act. It seemed Trump would not either.Political analysts claim that the White House has pushed back against Wolff, using expletives to discredit him.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of sh… and has been proven to be a fraud,” said Steven Cheung, the White House communications director.
Michelle Obama refused to attend Trump’s second inauguration.
Term.
• A trade paperback, All or Nothing is published by Little Brown and distributed in South Africa by Jonathan Ball Publishers. Available at leading bookstores countrywide, it retails for R480
