Review of “Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show” by Jonathan Karl

This excellent book details the ways in which, in the last months of the his administration, Donald Trump betrayed supporters, advisers, norms, laws, and most importantly, the country he was elected to serve in 2016.

Karl avers that he attempted to write the book with “objectivity and balance” from a journalistic standpoint. Yet, he observes, “But the first obligation of a journalist is to pursue truth and accuracy. And the simple truth about the last year of the Trump presidency is that his lies turned deadly and shook the foundations of our democracy.” The Trump that emerges from Karl’s objective and balanced reporting is a demented, raging, utterly deceitful and unscrupulous maniac.

Karl delves into the activities of Johnny McEntee, a 29-year-old former college football player who was hired by Trump as Director of the Presidential Personnel Office in which capacity he was responsible for hiring and firing of more than 4,000 political appointees across the federal government. McEntee apparently got his playbook from Stalin, using the office to purge anyone deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump and his policies.

It was McEntee who encouraged Trump to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper, because he was, inter alia, committing the sin of “actively pushing for ‘diversity and inclusion.” It was also unclear if Esper would support a military takeover of the country if Trump called for it. Thus on November 9, Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper via tweet in his inimitable manner, replacing him with Christopher C. Miller, then director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Joining Miller as chief of staff was Kash Patel, formerly top aide to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Both Esper and Miller come across more favorably in Karl’s account than they have been portrayed in the liberal press: neither would support using the military in controlling the election.

Karl focuses on the *established* fact that Trump lost the November 3, 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, but then launched a violent insurrection (or as Ronna McDaniel, chair of the RNC, called it, “legitimate political discourse”) to overturn the results.

Instead of concerning himself with mitigating the effects of COVID-19, Trump was laser-focused on staying in power (for a job he didn’t seem interested in doing), and got a distressing number of people to go along with his efforts.

Karl reviews many of the conspiracy theories and rafts of misinformation bruited about by Trump’s inner circle about the “stolen” election (explaining just how and why they were absurd) and claims that these same people confided in him that they were telling Trump the truth in private. However, Trump knows the issue of what his knowledge and intentions were is critical and he continues to take steps [see his statement on February 4, 2022 for example] to counter that narrative with an assertion that he believed there was fraud and “large scale irregularities,” and therefore his behavior was “appropriate.”

Karl reviews Trump’s multiple meetings with Michael Flynn and attorney [sic] Sidney Powell, who argued for seizing the country’s voting machines; his calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger demanding that he “find” more votes (that were, he insisted, legitimately his); his efforts to get Republican legislators in other key states to substitute the Biden slate of electors with those certifying Trump as the winner instead; and his bullying and threatening of his vice president, Mike Pence.

Karl concludes with a limited bit of good news that “Democracy prevailed” in the end, but stops the story (by necessity) a bit too soon. He doesn’t deal with all the steps the Republicans have taken *since* January 6 to make sure Democracy won’t prevail again if they can help it. Another bit of good news, [pardon my schadenfreude], reading between the lines, we can infer that this egomaniacal menace is not a happy man: he may be monumentally delusional, and in any event, he is exceedingly frustrated.

Karl’s book should be read with fear and trepidation by all those who love Democracy, the rule of law, and the primacy of reason.

Rating: 5/5

Published by Dutton Books, 2021