Part II Retribution
Chapter 15: It recounts how law firms, universities, and media organizations were given the shake down. Most capitulated. Fascinating account of Boris Ephysteyn shaking down Bessen, basically saying pay me a fee or I'll knife you to Trump. Boris was so corrupt White House lawyers said it was too much and the President shouldn't meet with him. Choosing who is too corrupt in THIS White House?
this s the bring in thbe crzy chapter Details Lara Lommer's abiityto get many good people fired.
Chapter 16 This akk abiytsysoebdubg tge writ of habeus corpus, it includes /trump telling the salvadorian president tgt ge wukk beed ti bhuild four or five more opisons for the hoemgrowns.
Vhapter 17 Foreign policy not as easy as exxpted Ci putin and Bibi not doing what he wanted. Firsst major fortiegn trip to middle east. Watar gifted plane - not sold so Trump coud use it after leaving. UAE investing two billion in USD1
Chapter 18: 12 day Iran stIt's a good behind the scenes look at what happened. The big takeaway? The fact that many were against it, but it worked so it emboldened him that his gut was right, advisors be damned.
Chapter 19: Opens with Trump ordering firings at the Smithsonian because he objected to his portrait and the description. It's a bizarre story I hadn't heard before: Trump's people tried to execute incredible overreach; mostly successful in that people resigned before they could be fired. Trump then used a charm offensive with the chair of Smithsonian. In the end Trump didn't fire the African American but expressed to aids that he didn't think it was successful. I am not sure what to make of this. Trump didn't fire the first African American chair because??? I'm guessing he decided that he got what he wanted and the firing would have been a headache.
Chapter 20: Term 2 TRump had a sycophantic Republican party to deal with. Mike Johnson took his marhcing orders from the President, unlike Mike Ryan who considered himself intellectually superior. Speaker Ryan in term one who saw himself as intellectually superior.
The most interesting storie were about how he enforcred discipline. Iowa's Senator Joni Ernst initially opposed Pete Hegsnbreth. Suddenly leaks about her divorce went public. Even after she acquiesed she knew he had fallen out of the good c=gracces of thePresident and decided not to run for reelection rikes of 2025.
Chapter 21: Divorcing Elon - The first several pages recounts the story we all know: Elon scorched earth by tweeting that Trump is not only in the Epstein files but this is a massive coverup. He went on to many right-wing podcasts to reaffirm that... then... the juicy stuff never reported before: The Situation Room.
The TLDR? Vance was a major source for this book. He urged to have everything released. Arguably, his rip the band-aid off strategy would have been a good one. If there is one hashtag that deserves resurrecting it is #BondisBinders. The Bongino screaming match with Bondi story is worth the price of the book. Buy the book and read this chapter. "Blondie fucked this whole thing up" he told friends after the fact.
Chapter 22: The "Can I please fire Fed Chair J. Powell" chapter. Powell was the one goof appointment Trump made in his first term. Interestingly, Kevin Warsh was almost picked to be Treasury Secretary. Having seen interviews with both of them? Warsh is smarter but Bessent is more sycophantic. So for what Trump really wants? He probably made the right call.
As an economist, this was is the most depressing chapter (so far).
Chapter 23: How AI gave CheetoDick a semi. I didn't really learn anything new in this chapter. That they all suck up to him is a given.
That Trump invested used US money to invest $8.9 Billion into Intel is stunning considering Mitt Romney once criticized Obama for bailing out GM and Chrysler.
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