Alexander Zaitchik

Donald Trump is inflammatory, obscene, outrageous, and deeply disturbing, even to members of his own party. And despite employing rhetoric that some would consider xenophobic, sexist, and dangerous, in the opinion of many Americans, Donald Trump is exactly what this country needs. But who are Trump’s supporters? Join journalist Alexander Zaitchik on a wild ride into the hearts and minds of Trump advocates as they explain why they believe he alone can help “make America great again.” Desperate and angry, lacking stability and a politician to rely upon who will fight for their future, these men and women have no illusions about Trump’s glaring flaws. But they feel forgotten and screwed over by the political, corporate and media elites...and they feel that Donald Trump, despite his flamboyant demagoguery, might well be their last great hope for salvation. Zaitchik collects long-form biographical interviews with a broad range of people, from coal miners in West Virginia, to wounded veterans in Arizona. The interviews are mortared with on-scene reporting and analysis, but the book’s true authors are its subjects, whose voices provide a gripping, often surprising, and all-too-rare counterpoint to election-year data journalism, beltway think pieces, and daily dispatches focused on process and personality.Such reporting paints an intimate and heart-breaking portrait of the walking wounded who make up much of the base of the Trump movement. Part Hunter S. Thompson gonzo-journalism, part Studs Terkel storytelling of the common American, Zaitchik challenges you, as a reader and as a citizen, to commiserate with those who’ve lost everything, and who now believe in a controversial someone who promises them salvation.