American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump

New York Times Bestseller

"Not a conventional Trump-era book. It is less about the daily mayhem in the White House than about the unprecedented capitulation of a political party. This book will endure for helping us understand not what is happening but why it happened…. [An] indispensable work."—Washington Post

Politico Magazine’s chief political correspondent provides a rollicking insider’s look at the making of the modern Republican Party—how a decade of cultural upheaval, populist outrage, and ideological warfare made the GOP vulnerable to a hostile takeover from the unlikeliest of insurgents: Donald J. Trump.

As George W. Bush left office with record-low approval ratings and Barack Obama led a Democratic takeover of Washington, Republicans faced a moment of reckoning for the conservative movement: they had no vision, no generation of new leaders, and no energy in the party’s base. Yet Obama’s progressive agenda, coupled with the nation’s rapidly changing cultural identity, lit a fire under the right. Republicans regained power in Congress but spent that time fighting among themselves. With these struggles weakening the party’s defenses, and with more and more Americans losing faith in the political class, the stage was set for an outsider to crash the party. When Trump descended a gilded escalator to launch his campaign in the summer of 2015, the candidate had met the moment. Only by viewing Trump as the culmination of a decade-long civil war inside the GOP can we appreciate how he won the White House and consider the fundamental questions at the center of America’s current turmoil.

Loaded with explosive original reporting and based on hundreds of exclusive interviews—including with key players such as President Trump, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell—American Carnage takes us behind the scenes of this tumultuous period and establishes Tim Alberta as the premier chronicler of this turbulent political era and the rise of the Trump presidency.

Based on a decade of reporting and unprecedented access, this essential work of modern American political history reveals:

• The Republican Civil War: How ten years of infighting, from the Tea Party to the Freedom Caucus, created the conditions for a hostile takeover of the GOP.
• Rise of Populism: An insider’s look at the populist outrage that simmered for years before boiling over in the form of Donald J. Trump.
• Unprecedented Access: Explosive, behind-the-scenes reporting based on hundreds of exclusive interviews with Washington’s most powerful figures—including President Trump, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, and John Boehner.
• The Trump Presidency: The definitive chronicle of a turbulent political era, explaining not just what happened to the Republican Party, but why it happened, and what it means for the future of American politics.