Understanding Trump

Last updated
Understanding Trump
Understanding Trump.jpg
Author Newt Gingrich
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Donald Trump
Publisher Center Street
Publication date
June 13, 2017
Media typePrint
Pages368
ISBN 978-1-4789-2308-4
Preceded by A Nation Like No Other (2011) 

Understanding Trump is a 2017 book about Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, by Newt Gingrich.

Contents

Synopsis

Newt Gingrich describes his time being with Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign. [1] The book also contains a foreword written by Trump's son, Eric Trump. [2]

Writing

Speechwriters Joe DeSantis and Louie Brogdon developed the first draft for Understanding Trump. [3]

Reception

In the first week of its release, Understanding Trump sold over 37,000 copies. [4] The book eventually topped The New York Times' Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Sellers list on July 2. [5]

Jake Nevins of The Guardian wrote that the book is "filled with Gingrichian platitudes of this sort. They don't exactly help us "understand Trump," though they do offer a look into the rhetorical acrobatics one might employ to defend the indefensible." [6] Meanwhile, Alexander Nazaryan of Newsweek noted that Gingrich used the word "elites" about 50 times, but does not explain the meaning of the word. Nazaryan also noted that Gingrich included conservatives such as George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush as part of the "elite left". [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republican Party (United States)</span> US political party

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. It has been the main political rival of the Democratic Party since the mid-1850s. Like them, the Republican Party is a big tent of competing and often opposing ideologies. Presently, the Republican Party contains prominent conservative, centrist, populist, and right-libertarian factions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Bossie</span> American political activist

David Norman Bossie is an American political activist. Since 2000, he has been president and chairman of conservative advocacy group Citizens United and in 2016, Bossie was the deputy campaign manager to the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newt Gingrich</span> American politician and author (born 1943)

Newton Leroy Gingrich is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. representative for Georgia's 6th congressional district serving north Atlanta and nearby areas from 1979 until his resignation in 1999. In 2012, Gingrich unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candace Gingrich</span> American LGBT rights activist

Candace Gingrich is an American LGBT rights activist at the Human Rights Campaign. Candace is the half-sibling of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Will</span> American political commentator (born 1941)

George Frederick Will is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator and author. He writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC. In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America", in a league with Walter Lippmann (1889–1974). He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kellyanne Conway</span> American political consultant, pollster (born 1967)

Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway is an American political consultant and pollster, who served as Senior Counselor to the President in the administration of Donald Trump from 2017 to 2020. She was previously Trump's campaign manager, having been appointed in August 2016; Conway is the first woman to have run a successful U.S. presidential campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip K. Howard</span> American lawyer and writer

Philip King Howard is an American lawyer and writer. He has written on the effects of modern law and bureaucracy on human behavior and the workings of society. He started The Common Good, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which advocates simplifying government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randy Evans</span> American lawyer

James Randolph Evans is an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from 2018 to 2021. He presented his credentials on June 19, 2018, to the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. A member of the Republican Party from Georgia, he specializes in litigation, as well as professional, legal and government ethics. Evans is a partner at the global law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Callista Gingrich</span> American businesswoman, author and diplomat

Callista Louise Gingrich is an American businesswoman, author, documentary film producer and former diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 2017 to 2021. She is married to former House Speaker and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference</span> Biennial U.S. Republican Party political conference held on Mackinac Island, Michigan

The Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, also known as the Midwest Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference is a biennial United States Republican Party political conference held on Mackinac Island, Michigan.

The Values Voter Summit is an annual political conference held in Washington, D.C. for American social conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States.

A series of political debates were held prior to and during the 2012 Republican primaries, among candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in the national election of 2012. The first debate occurred on May 5, 2011, in Greenville, South Carolina, and was hosted by Fox News, while the last debate was held February 22, 2012, in Mesa, Arizona, and was hosted by CNN.

Newt Gingrich has declared his position on many political issues through his public comments and legislative record, including as Speaker of the House. The political initiative with which he is most widely identified was the Contract With America, which outlined an economic and social agenda designed to improve the efficiency of government while reducing its burden on the American taxpayer. Passage of the Contract helped establish Gingrich's reputation as a public intellectual. His engagement of public issues has continued through to the present, in particular as the founder of American Solutions for Winning the Future.

<i>To Save America</i>

To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine is a 2010 non-fiction book by former Speaker of the House and conservative activist Newt Gingrich, offering a critical view of supposed secular and socialist influences on American liberalism and the Democratic Party. It was a New York Times bestseller.

<i>Ami Magazine</i> Orthodox Jewish magazine

Ami Magazine is an international news magazine that caters to the Orthodox Jewish community. It is published weekly in New York and Israel. The magazine was launched in November 2010 by Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter and his wife Rechy Frankfurter.

Shalabh "Shalli" Kumar is a Chicago-based Indian-American industrialist and political donor affiliated with the Republican Party. Kumar was a prominent financial backer of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in the 2016 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign</span> Successful 2016 US presidential campaign

The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump was formally launched on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, having won the most state primaries, caucuses, and delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He chose Mike Pence, the sitting governor of Indiana, as his vice presidential running mate. On November 8, 2016, Trump and Pence were elected president and vice president of the United States. Trump's populist positions in opposition to illegal immigration and various trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, earned him support especially among voters who were male, white, blue-collar, working class, and those without college degrees. Many voters in the Rust Belt, who gave Trump the electoral votes needed to win the presidency, switched from supporting Bernie Sanders to Trump after Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection</span>

This article lists candidates who were considered for the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. Businessman Donald Trump of New York, the 2016 Republican nominee for President of the United States, considered several prominent Republicans and other individuals before selecting Governor Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate on July 15, 2016. Pence formally won the vice presidential nomination on July 19, 2016, at the 2016 Republican National Convention. The Trump–Pence ticket would go on to win the 2016 election, defeating the Democratic ticket of Clinton–Kaine.

Glenn Richard Simpson is an American former journalist who worked for The Wall Street Journal until 2009, and then co-founded the Washington-based research business Fusion GPS. He was also a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life is a 2018 nonfiction book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a former options trader with a background in the mathematics of probability and statistics.

References

  1. "Book excerpt: Newt Gingrich's 'Understanding Trump'". ABC News. June 19, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  2. Stark, Liz (June 15, 2017). "Here's what we learned from Newt Gingrich's attempt at 'Understanding Trump'". CNN. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  3. 1 2 Nazaryan, Alexander (June 20, 2017). "Has any man ever admired another man as much as Newt Gingrich admires President Trump?". Newsweek. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  4. "Juvenile Categories Spur Modest Sales Increase". Publishers Weekly . June 23, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  5. "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction - July 2, 2017". The New York Times . July 2, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
  6. Nevins, Jake (June 20, 2017). "Understanding Trump: what can we learn from Newt Gingrich's new book?". The Guardian. Retrieved June 24, 2017.