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Your Guide to What Trump’s Second Season Means Washington, Business and World
How did you get here? The question is more relevant as Donald Trump’s second presidency continues to be even more chaotic and destructive towards the world order than his first, and European governments struggle to curb their own Trump challenges.
There is little better insight into “how” than Alex Isenstadt’s Revenge: The Inner Story of Trump’s Return of Power (Grand Central Publishing £16.99). Previously a politician and now Axios’ Isenstadt knows Trump is beat better than most people, and the result is a great insight into the mind of Trump’s return to the White House, from an unnamed attack from the January 6, 2021 attack on Capitol to the first term from four years later to the inauguration two years later. At its heart, it is a story of Trump’s incredible, animalistic willpower, an effort by those around him to shape and direct what resembles an orthodox presidential election.
Perhaps because of Trump’s pitch to Susie Wills about why she should take over his presidential campaign, “I don’t know if I have the money. I don’t know if they’re stealing from me. I don’t know who’s in charge. I don’t know what’s going on. I need to take over you.” Trump’s second White House has already shown the limits of that approach as the campaign ends and Trump has to reign.
“Grip” their borders became their password, as the Western government fears they will replace them with rivals like their own Trumpes. In Ancillary Immigration (Bluemoose Books, £10.99), novelist Jo McMillan uses the very realistic bureaucracy of a British home office to construct the story of two fictional lovers. As island politics change drastically against British minorities, they are cast into a desperate battle for survival and evacuation. Fortunately, this book is nothing if the explanation sounds painfully didactic. It illuminates the process of border crossing and makes you think new about your place in the world, not feeling fooled by the civic lectures.
The fictional place of accidental immigration, and Michelle Clement’s The Art of Delivery: The Internal Stories of How the Blair Government Changed the UK’s Public Service (byteback £25) is consciously narrow and very realistic. The book tells the story of the delivery department, created in 2001 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Under the guidance of the first Chief, the special advisor became civil servant Michael Barber, and the unit changed how Downing Street in Blair was run. Clement, who interviewed essentially all surviving key players, was also drawn extensively from Barber’s unpublished diary.
A depressed starry sky may draw some comfort from its government’s early struggles and their own similarities. Discussions about the drawbacks of working at Blair’s Downing Street in Barber can straighten out the labor aides of private conversations who work for Keir Starmer. What appears in Clement’s book is that the creation of delivery units is about the importance of Barber’s administrative talent and structure. But it also concerns Blair’s underrepresented strengths as a leader and decision maker.
Joel Budd is a group that is frequently infuriated by politicians, and the truth about his excellent book: The white working class in the UK (Picador £20) is “white working class.” Bud, an economist reporter, travels widely throughout the UK, but avoids the usual pitfalls of poverty safari. The drawback of the book is its relatively narrow focus. “If you check that box or think most people see them that way, I’m describing people as white British” is Bud’s approach. But it would be worth exploring how the white working class has been mixed with the longest-standing immigrant groups in Britain, especially those from the West Indies. Nevertheless, his books, like Clement, are deeply reported and fascinating events that illuminate the present political moments of England.
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