The Case for Trump

Yes, President Trump is vulgar, petty, cruel, and occasionally incoherent, but he is also a political maestro with an impressive record in office who champions forgotten Americans, argues this enthusiastic apologia. Hanson (The Second World Wars), a Hoover Institution scholar of classics and military history and National Review columnist, credits Trump’s tax cuts, deregulation initiatives, and hard-line stances on trade and foreign policy with igniting an economic boom and advancing America’s national interests. Trump has also, he argues, revolutionized American politics with crude, blunt rhetoric and a populist vision that addresses the beleaguered white working class that feels threatened by globalization, mass immigration, and left-wing identity politics. Hanson is shrewd and insightful on Trump’s appeal—even the dyed hair and tan bespeak an endearing authenticity, he notes, “proof that even aging billionaires were patched-together, creaking everymen and insecure humans”—and on the disdain with which liberal (and Never-Trump Republican) politicians, media, and celebrities portray Trump’s supporters as bigots and losers. He’s less cogent when dubbing Trump a “tragic hero” like Achilles or Dirty Harry, and when he cursorily dismisses the importance of welfare initiatives like Obamacare to working-class people of all races. But this is one of the smartest conservative defenses of Trump yet published. [em]Agents: Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu, Writers’ Representatives. (Mar.) [/em]