by David Frum
Not only I, but everyone who cares about American democracy, owe a vast moral debt to my colleagues across the vast array of titles and platforms we call the American media. No single person could possibly plumb the foulnesses of the Trump presidency. I have gratefully relied on the discoveries and analyses of others. I have done my best to give credit not only in footnotes but in the text of this book to the people who have made of the Trump years—if nothing else—a golden age of courageous and honest reporting.
Ever and always, closest and dearest, my wife, Danielle Crittenden Frum, brought to these pages her keen editorial eye, her clear memory for detail, her biting sense of absurdity, and her noble heart that detests a bully and hates a lie. This is the ninth book through which she has helped me. All are finer and wiser for her guidance—as is their author.
Notes
Introduction
1. Charles de Montesquieu, Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws, trans. and ed. Anne M. Cohler, Basia C. Miller, and Harold S. Stone (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 71.
2. Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Donald Trump and Iraq: Not Loud, Not Strong, and No Headlines,” Washington Post, February 25, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/02/25/timeline-of-trumps-comments-on-iraq-invasion-not-loud-not-strong-and-no-headlines/.
3. Eric Trump, foreword to Newt Gingrich, Understanding Trump (New York: Hatchette Book Group, 2017), xii; Adam Kelsey and Ali Rogin, “Steve Bannon Says Media ‘Always Wrong’ about Trump, President ‘Maniacally Focused’ on Agenda,” ABC News, February 23, 2017, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/steve-bannon-media-wrong-trump/story?id=45691100.
4. James Neugass, quoted in The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Literatures in English, ed. Brian McHale and Randall Stevenson (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 87.
Chapter 1: Pre-existing Conditions
1. “Transcript of the President’s Speech, Conceding His Defeat by Clinton,” New York Times, November 4, 1992, B5, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/04/us/1992-elections-disappointment-transcript-president-s-speech-conceding-his-defeat.html.
2. “Transcript of President Barack Obama with Univision,” LATimes.com, October 25, 2010, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/10/transcript-of-president-barack-obama-with-univision.html.
3. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President on Comprehensive Immigration Reform in El Paso, Texas,” May 10, 2011, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/10/remarks-president-comprehensive-immigration-reform-el-paso-texas.
4. Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President in an ‘Open for Questions’ Roundtable,” September 28, 2011, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/28/remarks-president-open-questions-roundtable.
5. Tom Cohen, “Obama administration to stop deporting some young illegal immigrants,” CNN.com, June 16, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/15/politics/immigration/index.html.
6. “2014 Executive Actions on Immigration,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, last modified April 15, 2015, https://www.uscis.gov/immigrationaction. The 2014 order also further relaxed standards of eligibility for the 2012 order.
7. Ariane de Vogue and Tal Kopan, “Deadlocked Supreme Court Deals Big Blow to Obama Immigration Plan,” CNN.com, June 23, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/politics/immigration-supreme-court/index.html.
8. That latter argument—that to qualify as a “natural-born citizen” under Article II of the Constitution an American must be born of American parents—originated, curiously, in a learned 1916 pamphlet arguing that the Republican presidential nominee Charles Evans Hughes was disqualified because of his father’s British birth. The author, Breckenridge Long, would rise high in the Democratic Party, culminating his career as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s immigration commissioner, notorious for his indifferent response to the desperate Jewish emigration from Nazi Germany and Austria. See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Breckinridge Long,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10008298. The 1916 pamphlet can be read at https://www.scribd.com/doc/68922032/Natural-Born-Citizen-Within-Meaning-of-Constitution-by-Breckenridge-Long-Democrat-1916.
9. Josh Clinton and Carrie Roush, “Poll: Persistent Partisan Divide Over ‘Birther’ Question,” NBC News, August 10, 2016, http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-persistent-partisan-divide-over-birther-question-n627446.
10. Meet the Press, NBC, February 13, 2011, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/41536793/ns/meet_the_press-transcripts/t/meet-press-transcript-feb/.
11. It should be noted that the “I take him at his word” formula was originally coined by Hillary Clinton back in 2008. In an interview with Steve Kroft on CBS’s 60 Minutes, she added a new twist: asked whether Obama was a Muslim, she replied, “There’s nothing to base that on”—and then added lethally, “as far as I know.” 60 Minutes, CBS, March 2, 2008, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/all-eyes-on-ohio-29-02-2008/4/.
12. Aliyah Shahid, “Donald Trump Takes Lead in Gop Primary Poll, Beats Romney, Huckabee, Palin, Gingrich, Bachmann, Paul,” New York Daily News, April 15, 2011, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/donald-trump-takes-lead-gop-primary-poll-beats-romney-huckabee-palin-gingrich-bachmann-paul-article-1.112460.
13. Dan Balz and Robert Costa, “Gov. Scott Walker: ‘I Don’t Know’ Whether Obama Is a Christian,” Washington Post, February 21, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/walker-says-he-is-unaware-whether-obama-is-a-christian/2015/02/21/6fde0bd0-ba17-11e4-bc30-a4e75503948a_story.html.
14. Bruce Ackerman, “The Court Packs Itself,” American Prospect, December 3, 2001, http://prospect.org/article/court-packs-itself.
15. Elaina Plott, “Eric Cantor: ‘If You’ve Got That Anger Working for You, You’re Gonna Let It Be,’” Washingtonian, July 26, 2017, https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/07/26/eric-cantor-republicans-obamacare-donald-trump/.
16. John McCain, Senate floor statement, July 25, 2017, https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/7/mccain-on-senate-floor-today.
17. “Direction of Country,” RealClearPolitics, accessed September 11, 2017, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/direction_of_country-902.html.
18. Tom Perkins, letter to the editor, Wall Street Journal, January 24, 2014, https://www.wsj.com/articles/progressive-kristallnacht-coming-1390600169.
19. Nathan Vardi, “Inside the Obama Stock Market’s 235% Return,” Forbes, January 17, 2017, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2017/01/17/inside-the-obama-stock-markets-235-rise/.
20. “Man Carries Assault Rifle to Obama Protest—and It’s Legal,” CNN.com, August 17, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/17/obama.protest.rifle/.
21. Manny Fernandez, Richard Pérez-Peña, and Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Five Officers Killed as Payback, Chief Says,” New York Times, July 9, 2016, A1, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/09/us/dallas-police-shooting.html.
22. Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism (New York: Basic Books, 2012).
Chapter 2: Enablers
1. Hugh Hewitt, Twitter, August 17, 2017, 8:34 p.m., https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/898387559230742528.
2. Hugh Hewitt, Twitter, August 17, 2017, 8:36 p.m., https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/898388112274997248; Hewitt, August 17, 2017, 8:39 p.m., https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/898388940347932672; Hewitt, August 17, 2017, 8:40 p.m., https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/898389181885431813.
3. Dan Balz, “After Charlottesville, Republicans Remain Stymied over What to Do about Trump,” Washington Post, August 19, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-charlottesville-republicans-remain-stymied-over-what-to-do-about-trump/2017/08/19/774bddd4-81d4-11e7-ab27-1a21a8e006ab_story.html.
4. David A. Fahrenthold, “Trump Recorded Having Extremely Lewd Conversation about Women in 2005,” Washington Post, October 8, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-re
corded-having-extremely-lewd-conversation-about-women-in-2005/2016/10/07/3b9ce776-8cb4-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html.
5. Alex Isenstadt, “RNC Halts Victory Project Work for Trump,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/rnc-halts-all-victory-project-work-for-trump-229363.
6. Matt Fuller, “Paul Ryan Responds to Donald Trump’s Misogyny,” Huffington Post, October 7, 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-donald-trump-misogyny-silence_us_57f81f60e4b068ecb5de8a5c.
7. A recording of the call would become public only in March 2017, but its gist was widely reported almost immediately afterward. See Matthew Boyle, “Exclusive—Audio Emerges of When Paul Ryan Abandoned Donald Trump: ‘I Am Not Going to Defend Donald Trump—Not Now, Not in the Future,’” Breitbart, March 13, 2017, http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/13/exclusive-audio-emerges-of-when-paul-ryan-abandoned-donald-trump-i-am-not-going-to-defend-donald-trump-not-now-not-in-the-future/.
8. Travis Andersen, “Ayotte and Other Republicans Criticize Trump’s Lewd Remarks,” Boston Globe, October 8, 2016, https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/10/07/ayotte-and-other-republicans-criticize-trump-lewd-remarks/XbLfZbuEzBMdVlX4coAtMP/story.html.
9. “McConnell: Trump Must Apologize for ‘Repugnant’ Comments,” Politico, October 7, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/mcconnell-trump-must-apologize-for-repugnant-comments-229332.
10. David Weigel, “Sen. Mike Lee Urges Trump to Quit, as Utah Republicans Abandon Their Party’s Nominee,” Washington Post, October 8, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/08/sen-mike-lee-urges-trump-to-quit-as-utah-republicans-flee-from-their-presidential-nominee/.
11. Reena Flores, “Republicans Who Have Called on Donald Trump to Quit 2016 Race,” CBS News, October 8, 2016, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republicans-who-have-called-on-donald-trump-to-quit-2016-race/.
12. John Thune, Twitter, October 8, 2016, 9:51 a.m., https://twitter.com/SenJohnThune/status/784798261781598208.
13. Cristiano Lima, “‘I’m Out’: Rep. Chaffetz Withdraws His Endorsement of Trump,” Politico, October 8, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/rep-chaffetz-withdraws-his-endorsement-of-trump-229335.
14. Donald J. Trump, Twitter, October 7, 2016, 9:19 p.m., https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/784609194234306560.
15. WikiLeaks, Twitter, October 7, 2016, 1:32 p.m., https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/784491543868665856.
16. Roger Stone, Twitter, October 1, 2016, 9:52 p.m., https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/782443074874138624.
17. “WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Dashes Hopes of #NeverHillary Alt-Right with Boring 2-Hour Informercial,” Week, October 4, 2016, http://theweek.com/speedreads/652833/wikileaks-julian-assange-dashes-hopes-neverhillary-altright-boring-2hour-informercial.
18. Ken Meyer, “Alex Jones Rips ‘Hillary Butt-Plug’ Julian Assange After Disappointing WikiLeaks Announcement,” Mediaite, October 4, 2016, https://www.mediaite.com/online/alex-jones-rips-hillary-butt-plug-julian-assange-after-disappointing-wikileaks-announcement/.
19. Chris Kahn, “Clinton Leads Trump by 5 Points in Presidential Race: Reuters/Ipsos Poll,” Reuters, October 7, 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN1272F1.
20. “HRC Paid Speeches,” WikiLeaks, https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/927.
21. Ibid.
22. Third presidential debate, University of Nevada–Las Vegas, Paradise, NV, October 19, 2016. See “Final 2016 Presidential Debate (Full) | The New York Times,” YouTube video, 1:33:01, posted by “The New York Times,” October 19, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_pEb1bDN-w.
23. Scott Clement and Emily Guskin, “Post-ABC Tracking Poll Finds Race Tied, as Trump Opens Up an 8-Point Edge on Honesty,” Washington Post, November 2, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/02/tracking-poll-finds-race-tied-as-trump-opens-up-an-8-point-edge-on-honesty/.
24. Mark Hensch, “Trump: ‘I Love WikiLeaks,’” Hill, October 10, 2016, http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300327-trump-i-love-wikileaks.
25. “Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Rally in Fletcher, North Carolina,” C-SPAN video, 43:18, https://www.c-span.org/video/?417259-1/donald-trump-campaigns-fletcher-north-carolina; Judd Legum, “Trump mentioned Wikileaks 164 times in last month of election, now claims it didn’t impact one voter,” ThinkProgress, January 8, 2017, https://thinkprogress.org/trump-mentioned-wikileaks-164-times-in-last-month-of-election-now-claims-it-didnt-impact-one-40aa62ea5002.
26. “Re: Conservative Catholicism,” WikiLeaks, https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/4364.
27. “Re: opening for a Catholic Spring? just musing . . . ,” WikiLeaks, https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/6293.
28. “U.S. Catholics Open to Non-Traditional Families,” Pew Research Center, September 2, 2015, http://www.pewforum.org/2015/09/02/u-s-catholics-open-to-non-traditional-families/.
29. Sarah Pulliam Bailey, “WikiLeaks Emails Appear to Show Clinton Spokeswoman Joking about Catholics and Evangelicals,” Washington Post, October 12, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/12/wikileaks-emails-show-clinton-spokeswoman-joking-about-catholics-and-evangelicals/.
30. Cooper Allen, “Pence at Liberty University Calls on Christians to Forgive Trump,” USA Today, October 12, 2016, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/10/12/mike-pence-liberty-trump-forgive/91948768/.
31. Jennifer Jacobs, Twitter, October 12, 2016, 10:30 a.m., https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/786257660324622336.
32. Charles J. Chaput, “About Those Unthinking, Backwards Catholics,” First Things, October 13, 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/10/about-those-unthinking-backwards-catholics.
33. Eric Fehrnstrom, “Clinton’s Revolution against the Catholic Church,” Boston Globe, October 20, 2016, https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/10/20/clinton-revolution-against-catholic-church/GrFpxMOUpKtGUCqPK95B6J/story.html.
34. Julie Asher, “WikiLeaks Hack Exposes Clinton Staff’s Past Catholic Conversations,” National Catholic Reporter, October 13, 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/wikileaks-hack-exposes-clinton-staffs-past-catholic-conversations.
35. Marc A. Thiessen, “Hillary Clinton Is a Threat to Religious Liberty,” Washington Post, October 13, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clinton-is-a-threat-to-religious-liberty/2016/10/13/878cdc36-9150-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html.
36. Nick Gass, “Trump Rips Pope Francis for Visiting Mexican Border,” Politico, February 11, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-pope-francis-mexican-border-219154.
37. Daniel Burke, “Pope Suggests Trump ‘Is Not Christian,’” CNN.com, February 18, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/18/politics/pope-francis-trump-christian-wall/.
38. Donald Trump, Facebook, February 18, 2016, 9:23 a.m., https://www.facebook.com/DonaldTrump/posts/10156658168535725.
39. Craig Silverman and Jeremy Singer-Vine, “The True Story Behind the Biggest Fake News Hit of the Election,” BuzzFeed News, December 16, 2016, https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/the-strangest-fake-news-empire.
40. Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster, “All Politics Is National: The Rise of Negative Partisanship and the Nationalization of U.S. House and Senate Elections in the 21st Century” (paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 16–19, 2015), http://stevenwwebster.com/research/all_politics_is_national.pdf.
41. Niraj Chokshi, “The 100-plus Times Donald Trump Assured Us That America Is a Laughingstock,” Washington Post, January 27, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/27/the-100-plus-times-donald-trump-has-assured-us-the-united-states-is-a-laughingstock/.
42. Richard Johnson, “DC Private Schools Giving Kellyanne Conway the Brush-Off,” New York Post, December 28, 2016, http://pagesix.com/2016/12/28/dc-private-schools-giving-kell
yanne-conway-the-brush-off/.
43. David Sanders, “Principled Losers,” Radix Journal, May 23, 2016. Archived at http://archive.is/YcsgQ#selection-591.0-599.524.
44. Peter Augustine Lawler, “Trump Today,” National Review Online, August 7, 2016, http://www.nationalreview.com/postmodern-conservative/438751/entering-new-american-disorder.
45. Harvey C. Mansfield, “Why Donald Trump Is No Gentleman,” Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2016, A13, http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-donald-trump-is-no-gentleman-1469831003.