As Cohen studied his anecdotes and memories, he sorted them into three categories that he believed best described Trump: racist, con man and cheat.
--Rucker and Leonnig, A Very Stable Genius (Penguin, 2020).
To those of us who read The New York Times fairly thoroughly every day there is nothing new in this book; it is a detailed description of Trump's presidency so far and serves the useful historical purpose of recording all the dreadful details and the dissembling of his administration. It is told largely from the perspective of all those originally loyal to Trump who either resigned when he asked them to undertake illegal and unethical actions or were fired because they were insufficiently supportive of every Trump move. Leonnig and Rucker detail all the comings and goings of insufficiently toadying staff and appointees and state, in conclusion:
As the legislative branch scrutinized his actions, Trump looked in the mirror and saw no wrongdoing. Rather, he nursed a deep and inescapable sense of persecution and self-pity, casting himself as a victim in a warped reality and alleging that Democrats and the media were conspiring to perpetuate hoaxes, defraud the public, and stage a coup. This mind-set followed the historical pattern of authoritarian leaders creating a cult of victimization to hold on to power and to justify their repressive agendas.
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