Michael Kranish

Here it is, October, 2016, one month before the U.S. Presidential election. During these election cycles, I generally try to read a book by or about the Presidential candidates. Last month, I finished Gary Byrne's book about Hillary Clinton, "Crisis of Character". Then I tried David Cay Johnson's book, "The Making of Donald Trump", and Michael Kranish's book "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power".

None of the three offer glowing recommendations of the show more candidates, and as public opinion polls show, that's hardly surprising. The book about Hillary Clinton, "Crisis of Character", as the title implies, paints a nagative portrait of Hillary's character. The author, Gary Byrne, was a former uniformed officer in the White House, and during his time there, had occasional interactions with George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and then later with Bill and Hillary Clinton. He clearly preferred the Bush family over the Clinton family.

The two books I picked up about Trump were remarkably similar in their portrayal of Donald Trump. The first, by David Cay Johnson, "The Making of Donald Trump", was the shorter of the two. As such, it contained most, but not all of the Trump stories told in the Michael Kranish book, "Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power". Both paint a near identical picture of Trump as being obsessed with his image, obsessed with wealth, egotistical, vindictive, a phony, unwilling to take advice from others, a flagrant liar, and a bully. Other than having a vision for major real estate projects and the skill to find banks willing to fund his projects, neither Johnson nor Kranish have much positive to say about the candidate.

So the next question I wonder about is how impartial any of these authors might be when writing their books. That's hard to judge. While Gary Byrne, author of the anti-Hillary book "Crisis of Character", hasn't established any credentials to my knowledge as an investigative reporter or a journalist, both authors for the Trump books have. David Cay Johnson, author of "The Making of Donald J. Trump", is an investigative reporter, and won a Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 2001. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and 2003, was board president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, and in addition, knew Trump for 28 years at the time he wrote his book. Winning a Pulitzer and being president of and industry group is no guarantee of impartiality, but it doesn't smack of being a partisan reporter either. Michael Kranish, author of "Trump Revealed", has previously been involved in writing other similar books - including one about John Kerry, and one about Mitt Romney. So he's covered candidates from both political parties, and his books were generally considered fair and impartial.

Research for "Trump Revealed" was completed by a team of over 20 Washington Post reporters, 2 fact-checkers, and 2 editors. So the background seems to have been thoroughly reviewed by a respected team of reporters, fact-checked, and appears to be very factual. Trump supporters may certainly complain about bias, but I think the book appears to be based on verifiable facts which even Trump doesn't argue with. And given the Trump revelations which came out AFTER publishing of "The Making of Donald J. Trump" and "Trump Revealed", such as the extract from his old tax return showing huge business losses and likely paying no federal income taxes for almost twenty years, and then the release of his Billy Bush banter showing how he bragged about sexually abusing women, anything negative in the Trump books are relatively tame by comparison.

In researching "Trump Revealed", the Post editors assembled a team to research Trump's life, from his childhood, schooling, early business endeavors, and then his casinos in Atlantic City, and his later business investments in Panama, Russia, and Azerbaijan, etc. Reporters went to his ancestral home in Scotland, his childhood neighborhood in Queens, his schools, and interviewed classmates, business partners, friends, boosters, critics, and competitors.

Trump comes across as an entitled, somewhat spoiled youngster, but with a life-long dedication to being on top, building a real estate empire, getting rich, surrounding himself with beautiful women, doing what's necessary to protect his image, and denying anything negative against himself. He filed lawsuits at the drop of a hat to protect his status and intimidate opponents, punishing anyone who got in his way, and seemingly trusts no ones advice other than his own.

People sometimes have said "we need someone who will run this Country like a business", and have supported Trump because he's considered to be a successful businessman. But Kranish's book gives a different spin to that story. After amassing so much debt, defaulting on loans for a number of his businesses, losing his airline, his yacht, several of his hotels, etc., bankers put him on an allowance and took control of several properties. Later, he came up with the idea to "go public", creating a publicly traded company for his casinos, capitalizing on his name and fame, and raising needed cash. Many investors bought his (DJT) stock. He sold casino junk bonds, and raised $140 million from investors, and paid off many of his debts. His stake in the company increased to almost $300 million, putting him back on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans. He used the money to buy two of his own indebted casinos, being both buyer and seller, pocketing $880,000 in cash for his part in arranging the deal, and taking $7 million pay in 1996, which included a $5 million bonus. Eventually, heavy company debts caused stock prices to drop. Numerous fines were assessed for poor management practices. With Trump running the company, it lost over $1 billion dollars, and was in the red every year from 1995 - 2005. People who invested in the Trump name, buying shares of his Company, saw the stock price drop from a high of $35 dollars down to 17 cents. Kranish points out that a shareholder who put $100 in DJT shares in 1995 could sell those shares for about $4 in 2005. The same investment in MGM resorts would have increased to about $600. Holders of the Company's stocks and bonds lost more than 1.5 billion dollars during Trump's management. In 2004, Securities officials froze trading in the public Company as word spread that it was filing for bankruptcy, the fifth such corporate action in Trump's career. That's not exactly the kind of business record that most would find inspirational However, by careful management of his trademark name, Trump ended up OK, but the people who financed his gains lost millions. So the the end of the Kranish book, the idea that Trump's business record would translate to successfully running the Country is significantly diminished. show less

Michael Kranish's Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War (OUP, 2010) is a very detailed treatment of the British invasion of Virginia in 1781, including the near-capture of outgoing governor Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. Drawing on traditional sources, but complementing them nicely with primary documents from Hessian, British, and Continental soldiers involved in the fighting, Kranish tells the story of the tumultuous months in a compelling, narrative style.

By providing several show more chapters of background on Virginia politics, Jefferson's early life, career, and relationships, and the early years of the Revolution in the state, Kranish lays the groundwork for the main event, an in-depth reconstruction of the British assault on Virginia (led for a time by the traitor Benedict Arnold) and Jefferson's actions to combat the invasion and then, when the time came, to flee from it.

Putting Jefferson's escape into the context of the political, social and military situation in the state as the British drew nearer, it's really a surprise the whole thing didn't go even worse. Given the state of intelligence-gathering, executive authority, military readiness, &c., it actually is quite amazing that the entire governmental and military apparatus of the state wasn't completely demolished.

Kranish does well here in recreating the scenes, and provides some really fascinating anecdotes to weave into the fabric of the story, including the saga of John Champe, a Continental soldier who infiltrated British lines in New York under Washington's orders in a scheme to kidnap Benedict Arnold, but misses the chance and ends up on a British boat bound for Virginia. And the inclusion of elements from Jefferson's personal life add much: not only was he dealing with the collapse of the state he governed, but also with an ailing wife and a dying child.

The story of the flight itself is followed by a good treatment of the aftermath, in which Jefferson was strongly criticized for his actions at various later points, and felt compelled to depend himself vociferously and at great length. Kranish's closing episode of the book, which features Henry Lee visiting Monticello just six days before Jefferson's death to view papers pertaining to the period of the escape in 1781, makes the case quite clearly that this was an episode that had a major impact on Jefferson's life and reputation.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2010/07/book-review-flight-from-monticello.html show less

I think this biography does a remarkably even-handed job of presenting the facts about Donald Trump. The difference in opinion about him largely rests on how you read into those facts. Trump is unabashedly concerned with one person: Donald Trump. This does not make him unique or scary or terrible: It simply is his primary motivation.

It seems different and strange because a) he never says so directly, choosing instead to rely on his salesman's instincts to read the mood and close the sale, show more and b) this hyperfocused narcissism never faded or tempered the way we expect it to once a person reaches a certain level of success. It seems especially odd to us since politicians who run for president almost by definition have the same level of self-confidence, but they've learned it's better
electorally to obfuscate any self-interest - or at the very least it gets filtered by staff and handlers.

This book is unlikely to clear up any mysteries for you in terms of who you want to be president! You will likely find the right information to push you one way or the other in whatever direction you were already leaning. Nonetheless, it's worth the read if you're interested in the "why" of why Donald Trump does/did anything. I'll even give you a clue as his motivation: Because Donald Trump thought that doing that thing was the best for Donald Trump. show less

A biography of Mitt Romney by two Boston Globe reporters, with help (at least according to their notes) from a lot of other people. It seems to me basically fair (quotations are all sourced) and reasonably balanced -- Mr. Romney is not presented as either a superman or a devil. I expect that most people who read this book will already have made up their minds about Mr. Romney, and I don't think it will change many views. That said, I think those who would prefer not to see Mr. Romney elected show more will like it rather better than those who want him to be President. Anti-Romneyites won't have that much to chew on: there are no sensational revalations. But the book does make it quite clear just how sharply Mr. Romney has changed his positions on abortion, on gay rights, and on health care -- not particularly welcome reading for those who want to see him as President. show less