Trumpocracy - MAGA Dystopia Book

Democracy Book Challenge. Day 25 of the MAGA Dystopia. Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum, 2018. So here was a book written by a conservative Republican two years into the first Trump presidency warning America of what was happening and what was to come. It was written by David Frum a former White House speechwriter for George W. Bush, a columnist and media commentator and is a thought-provoking and hard hitting discussion of the threat to America's democracy by the corruption put in place by the trump family in their ongoing attempts to enrich themselves with the office of the presidency. We all saw that happen despite some lame attempts at impeachment. This book was both eye-opening and powerful in the description of American life under trumpism. Much of what Frum wrote about was familiar to anyone following the lies and corruption of trump and there really wasn't anything new here. However, it was all conveniently documented in one place and was an important book at the time it was published in January 2018. I read an e-book version from the library in February. One problem I had with the book was that Frum likes to describe the beginnings of the problems to our democracy as having started in 2008 after his serving in the Bush administration which is patently false and misleading for we all know the decline began with Ronald Reagan although the racial animosity and "White Fear" from conservative republicans did dramatically increase with the election of Barack Obama. Frum wrote a follow-up book on trump in 2020 and he is now probably collecting lots of new material for another book. I also saw that he officially left the Republican Party following the election in November 2024.