{"id":2161,"date":"2022-10-18T13:07:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T20:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2022-10-18T13:08:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T20:08:55","slug":"bookshelf-confidence-man-maggie-haberman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161","title":{"rendered":"Bookshelf \u2013 Confidence Man,  Maggie Haberman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2162\" width=\"149\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan.jpg 596w, http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 149px) 100vw, 149px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">What most surprised me in this thorough, readable biography of the narcissistic, bullying charlatan who captured the White House and then held the nation hostage for four years is how surprising I found his political success at the time. Had I been paying attention, as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Maggie_Haberman\">Maggie Haberman<\/a> had through most of her career as a reporter in New York City and then in Washington, D.C., I would have seen Donald Trump coming \u2013 and so might have enough others to thwart his rapacious intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems almost redundant to use the word revelatory to describe any book about Trump because he himself is an open book. As Haberman writes, he treats everyone he knows as \u201ca chance for him to vent or test reactions or gauge how his statements are playing or discover how he is feeling. He works things out in real time in front of all of us.\u201d However, Confidence Man is filled with revelations, at least for those us who never saw an episode of \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The decades-long ties between Trump and the political puppeteers he employed as president such as Roger Stone and Paul Manafort (both convicted, both pardoned).<\/li><li>Trump\u2019s lifelong habit of deliberately exploiting hate and controversy: \u201cI bring out the worst in my enemies and that\u2019s how I get them to defeat themselves.\u201d And: \u201cI want to hate these muggers and murderers. I want them to suffer.\u201d Thus answering the question: Is he the way he is by choice? Yes, partly.<\/li><li>His instinct to simultaneously bloviate and obfuscate is purposeful: \u201cWhatever complicates the world more, I do. It\u2019s always good to do things nice and complicated so that nobody can figure it out.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many books in print about Trump\u2019s White House tenure, but of the few I\u2019ve read \u2013 Bob Woodward\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rage-Bob-Woodward\/dp\/198213173X\/ref=pd_bxgy_img_sccl_1\/145-7071645-2330435?pd_rd_w=27pi1&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.7757a8b5-874e-4a67-9d85-54ed32f01737&amp;pf_rd_p=7757a8b5-874e-4a67-9d85-54ed32f01737&amp;pf_rd_r=AHYSK86GFXG6JFR9DFYA&amp;pd_rd_wg=L4ZcF&amp;pd_rd_r=91e6bb2c-7639-4104-b543-3bb0c35d5036&amp;pd_rd_i=198213173X&amp;psc=1\"> Rage<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Peril-Bob-Woodward\/dp\/1982182911\">Peril <\/a>among them \u2013 Confidence Man tells the story of the craziness and immorality that characterized the period in the least breathless way, relying as it does on the solid reporting that won Haberman a Pulitzer, and, more importantly, wrapping all the self-serving shenanigans and the sideshow of characters in the context of Trump\u2019s fundamental yearning to be recognized and rewarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a post-presidency interview, Trump exposes this need, which Haberman describes as \u201cfor people to know who he was, and not merely to be rich.\u201d He tells her: \u201cThe question I get asked more than any other question: If you had to do it again (run for president), would you have done it? The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because here\u2019s the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, the nation is not yet done with Trump. Even if he can\u2019t rise out of the muck of Mar-a-Logo to despoil once more the Oval Office, he has sullied the American democracy with a stain that won\u2019t be removed in the short term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To Haberman\u2019s credit, she acknowledges that despite her formidable reporting she cannot answer the question: Who, really, is Donald J. Trump? \u201cI spent the four years of his presidency getting asked by people to decipher why he was doing what he was doing, but the truth is, ultimately, almost no one really knows him. Some know him better than others, but he is often simply, purely opaque, permitting people to read meaning and depth into every action, no matter how empty they may be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump remains afoot. We are forewarned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What most surprised me in this thorough, readable biography of the narcissistic, bullying charlatan who captured the White House and then held the nation hostage for four years is how surprising I found his political success at the time. Had &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[827,768],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-maggie-haberman","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bookshelf \u2013 Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman - Tim Porter&#039;s Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"However, Confidence Man is filled with revelations, at least for those us who never saw an episode of \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bookshelf \u2013 Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman - Tim Porter&#039;s Second Draft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"However, Confidence Man is filled with revelations, at least for those us who never saw an episode of \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tim Porter&#039;s Second Draft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/timporterphotography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-18T20:07:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-18T20:08:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Porter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Porter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161\",\"name\":\"Bookshelf \u2013 Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman - Tim Porter&#039;s Second Draft\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-18T20:07:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-18T20:08:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#\/schema\/person\/efd6f6b05808f784091b582e4231621d\"},\"description\":\"However, Confidence Man is filled with revelations, at least for those us who never saw an episode of \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ConfidenceMan.jpg\",\"width\":596,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2161#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bookshelf \u2013 Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/\",\"name\":\"Tim Porter&#039;s Second Draft\",\"description\":\"Photography, Books, Journalism &amp; 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