Joshua Green
Devil’s Bargain
Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency
Penguin Press, 2017
What's inside?
Donald Trump couldn’t have won the presidency without Steve Bannon.
Recommendation
Joshua Green is the rare mainstream journalist who understands the nationalism and populism that Donald Trump harnessed to win the 2016 election. Here, Green chronicles Steve Bannon’s role at Breitbart News and in Trump’s campaign, offering one of the best explanations yet of the white working-class support that sent Trump to the White House. As Green retells the debates and speeches of the 2015 and 2016 campaign, he provides behind-the-scenes details about Trump’s tantrums and Bannon’s button pushing. Green is no apologist for Trump’s rhetoric, which he sees as racist and factually challenged, but he offers a straightforward account of how Bannon tapped into right-wing rage to guide Trump’s victory. Green describes Trump’s surprising popularity among minority television audiences due to The Apprentice – popularity that plummeted after Trump embraced the “birther” campaign attacking President Barrack Obama. Green also reports on Bannon bankrolling investigators to dig up unflattering stories about Hillary Clinton. Green’s report is a useful, readable guide to the racial and political undercurrents that traditional journalists and politicians often overlook.
Summary
About the Author
Joshua Green, senior national correspondent for Bloomberg Businessweek, was senior editor at The Atlantic and columnist for The Boston Globe.
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