Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Donald Trump’s final days as president were defined by near-total chaos as House Democrats moved to impeach him for his action (and inaction) during the January 6 riot at the US Capitol even as the soon-to-be-former president sought to use the power of his office to settle scores and reward loyalists.
And yet, even amid those last, wild days, there was a sense that for as bad as everything we could see was, there was even worse stuff going on behind closed doors that wouldn’t be made public until Trump left office, and the true reportorial digging began.
Which brings me to Tuesday, when two highly anticipated Trump books — Michael Bender’s “Frankly We Did Win This Election,” and Michael Wolff’s “Landslide” — went on sale, with a third book — “I Alone Can Fix It” by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker — scheduled to be released in seven days’ time.
All three books focus on Trump’s last year in office. And all three present what can only be described as a terrifying picture of a president consumed by personal hatred and unwilling to even consider the limits his predecessors had placed on themselves in office.
The stories that have already emerged paint a scary picture. Trump calling for the execution of whoever leaked that he had been taken to the White House bunker while Black Lives Matter protesters were marching through the streets of Washington in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. His volcanic reaction when Arizona was called for Joe Biden on election night. Trump raging at then-Attorney General Bill Barr about (nonexistent) voter fraud. A shouting match between Trump and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley over the appropriate response to the BLM protests engulfing the country in the summer of 2020.
There are more stories that have emerged from these books. And there will be even more once readers — and reporters — get their hands on the hard copies and are able to do their own digging into Trump’s final days.