It took me a long time to get through “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump,” authored by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Not that it isn’t a riveting read. It is, but I could get through only a few pages at a time without feeling the need for a shower. It was both absorbing and grotesque as the grift, corruption, lies, and sleaze of Donald Trump and his administration piled up under the authors’ well-researched investigative process. Each page seemed splotched with layers of the muck and filth that Donald Trump revels in.
When the book was released in April, news reports focused on the farcical image of Donald Trump super-gluing gold ornaments to a fireplace mantel. The gilded decor of Trump’s office is well-documented in thousands of news photos that reflect (pun intended) his obsession with anything and everything gold – ballrooms, bridge lions, arches, and medals and prizes especially designed for obsequious flattery. That gold story takes only about three pages of the book. More engrossing and dangerous are the book’s four sections: Whirlwind, Retribution, The Enemy Within, and Plunder. Interestingly, the longest part is Retribution, but the entire book could be, quite simply, Plunder. Plunder of democratic ideals, plunder of America’s reputation, plunder of hard-working taxpayers, plunder of virtues, plunder of trust in America’s government and the judicial process, and plunder of our longtime allies. The list is long and grows longer by the day.
Donald Trump is not the sole antagonist in “Regime Change.” Deputy Chief-of-Staff Steven Miller plays a major role, aided by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and assorted collaborators, including family members weaving webs of deceit and aggrandizement. Making occasional appearances are Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, who got their start as “dirty tricksters” in the Nixon years. Stone, Manafort, and the late Lee Atwater, Terry Moran, Paul Weyrich, Richard Vigurie and others came to prominence right here in Northern Virginia in the early 1970s as they created the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). NCPAC’s direct mail fundraising and slash-and-burn tactics fundamentally changed political campaigning and the direction of the Grand Old Party in the intervening decades and set the stage for Trump’s MAGA takeover in 2016.
The book’s narrative ends in mid-March, when the war against Iran was in its infancy, gasoline and diesel prices had gone up but not to the level they are today, and before the debacles of the Reflecting Pool renovation, the UFC fights on the White House grounds, golf course tree removals, and the mid-term elections ramped up. Trump’s past six months would make another book all by itself, with some of the same characters, the same sleaze, but with even greater challenges to our democratic institutions.
Next Tuesday’s mid-term elections may begin the process of the pendulum swinging back toward the middle ground. Political and cultural shifts are hallmarks of American democracy but never has the occupant of the White House been pulling so hard on the chain to prevent the natural movement of the device. Everyone is exhausted by the broad swings of our political process, hoping for gravity to pull us back to equilibrium. When/if that occurs, it does not mean that things will return to tried-and-true familiar ways. Too much has happened to expect simple remedies, but elevating the human condition, a desire for fair play, and sustaining and celebrating our shared values are important elements in advancing a renewed democracy.