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Arun Kumar’s Trumpiana is revealing with anecdotes in the White House. The format is refreshing, smooth-flowing, and an easy read. The short and engaging narrative style of the author will keep you hooked page after page. It gives a glimpse of the week-to-week happenings of the year in the echelons of power. It puts no strain on eyes or mind. Elucidation of events has brought to light many interesting facets of Trump’s administration.
The e-book, divided into 60 weeks, underlines the events that attract the curious readers. His published works on elections and coalition governments helped him to keep the narrative flow interesting, as it brings forth to the audience a new perspective. This has come as no surprise.
Spanning over 250 pages, the book brings out how Donald Trump functions impulsively and how he proved everyone wrong by scoring a shocking victory over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
The book prioritizes structured anecdotes over an elaborate narration. On day one, Trump took out “his big black pen 42 times to unleash an avalanche of executive orders,” blanket pardoning 1,500 people who had stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and effecting dramatic shake-ups of the federal bureaucracy.
Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance fizzled out in a short span of 130 days and was brought out in an elaborate manner—how he zeroed in, how their relationship evolved, ensuing public spats, and ultimately Elon’s exit. His run-ins with the Senate confirmation and with federal judges have taken up enough space of his first year.
Sixty weeks of politicking in the corridors of power, combined with penetrating critiques of what transpired after Trump’s Greenland comments, have vividly brought out the rumblings on Capitol Hill.
The author also briefly highlights episodes of Obama humiliating Trump in 2011 and 2015. Trump’s promise to make Mexico pay for a border wall, his knack for insulting opponents, his aggressive tactics, and eccentric comments like “Lock her up” directed at his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton helped Trump capture the Republican nomination and, ultimately, presidency. The author meticulously panned out Trump’s lost bid for a second consecutive term, including how he bounced back after the Democrats changed their presidential nominee, eventually leading to his soaring success.
The first year covers NATO and Vladimir Putin abundantly, specifically focusing on the unverified Trump-Russia dossier, the 2016 campaign, and allegations of collusion with the Kremlin.
The files of “disgraced” American financier Jeffrey Epstein have been prominent for weeks. Trump’s failure to stop wars in Gaza and Ukraine, his touted 20-point peace plan, his launch of a new “Board of Peace,” and his controversial ambition to redevelop the coastal enclave into a “Riviera of the Middle East” are briefly mentioned.
India rarely finds a place but passingly when Trump suggested, “Why do we need to spend $21 million on voter turnout in India? He particularly highlights Trump’s standoff with Harvard, which involved freezing $2.26 billion in federal grants and contracts. The author has mentioned that the federal judges repeatedly “ruled against him (his executive orders) a staggering 180 times in his first 130 days.” It is factually incorrect.
His dressing-down of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukraine President Zelensky in the Oval Office, combined with his constant pressure on the US administration to act on his whims, makes an exciting read.
Though the take of the author week after week of Trump’s second coming is full of twists and turns, Trump’s temperamental outburst and outpouring are brought out well. Though the author has kept his comments mostly anecdotal, the flow of incidents was kept flowing seamlessly. One can find enough anecdotes on Trump’s obsession with ‘fake news.’
If one wants to understand how a week flies in the White House, this book gives ample evidence of what it would be like, week after week.
One aspect that shines through the book is the author’s multiple sources, which gives meat to the goings-on in the White House. The author has interspersed the inputs he received from his sources on how Trump traverses through different and difficult phases of his initial first year in office during his second term.
The e-book is an easy read, but I have some minor quibbles.
Readers who wanted to read a complete story will be disappointed to know the events end abruptly. Thus, the narration sometimes jumps back and forth, making some portions feel tiresome.
In hindsight, the well-researched note is a timely iteration of the first year. The book may appeal to some readers because of its free-flowing style, and short and weekly divisions of only three or four pages. For others, it may not be enticing, so to say. Despite all interesting episodic details, the book may look incomplete to some others, failing to cover certain incidents in full.
The other view of the reviewer is that the author should have explored fewer aspects in a little more depth to give a near-complete picture of the happenings in the Oval Office. One may not agree with the prose in the book; I presume many do not.
Not everything in the book will appeal to every reader. Every reader would find something to take away from the episodic book where the author focuses on the events he considers most important. “Who says the Donald does not listen? He does so long as it’s the sound of money!” he writes.
Vividly capturing the rambunctious and controversial Trump in full glare, the book is a useful addition.
I enjoyed reading Arun Kumar’s reflections and would not hesitate to recommend the same to scholars to know the politicking in the higher echelons of power.
The central theme of Arun Kumar’s book is Trump’s repeated blunders, which he archly points out each week, and how daily dalliance pans out in the Oval Office.
The author ends with “as a reminder that even the high and mighty king can’t escape from guerrilla artistic pot shots!” (12-ft satirical statue depicting Trump and Jeffrey Epstein was placed on the National Mall by The Secret Handshake, a shadowy collective of anonymous artists.)
Overall, Trumpiana is an important read for anyone who wants to know about the first year of Trump’s second term.
Given his gripping analysis, can we expect a similar book on the second year of the second term?
