American resistance : the inside story of how the deep state saved the nation

It could have been so much worse: a deeply reported, insider story of how a handful of Washington officials staged a daring resistance to an unprecedented presidency and prevented chaos overwhelming the government and the nation. Each federal employee takes an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic,” but none had imagined that enemy might be the Commander-in-Chief. With the presidency of Donald Trump, a fault line between the president and vital forces within his government was established. Those who honored their oath of office, their obligation to the Constitution, were wary of the president and they in turn were not trusted and occasionally fired and replaced with loyalists. American Resistance is the first book to chronicle the unprecedented role so many in the government were forced to play and the consequences of their actions during the Trump administration. From Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother Yevgeny, to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, to Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, and the official who first called himself “Anonymous”—Miles Taylor, among others, Rothkopf examines the resistance movement that slowly built in Washington. Drawing from first hand testimonies, deep background and research, American Resistance shows how when the President threatened to run amok, a few key figures rose in defiance. It reveals the conflict within the Department of Justice over actively seeking instances of election fraud and abuse to help the president illegally retain power, and multiple battles within the White House over the influence of Jared and Ivanka, and in particular the extraordinary efforts to get them security clearances even after they were denied to them. David Rothkopf chronicles how each person came to realize that they were working for an administration that threatened to wreak havoc – one Defense Secretary was told by his mother to resign before it was too late – in an intense drama in which a few good men and women stood up to the tyrant in their midst. "It could have been so much worse. The Trump years were truly bad ones. But what nearly happened would have been so much worse. American Resistance reveals just how close reveals just how close the USA came to wars, abuses of power, cruelty, and dysfunction at the highest levels of our government. These looming disasters were forestalled by a small number of men and women, many from the top ranks of the Trump administration, life-long Republicans, who risked everything to honor their oaths to the Constitution. David Rothkopf has had access to exclusive interviews both on the record and on background with over seventy-five top officials. Through their revelations and first-person accounts, the book shows that during the unprecedented Trump era our government ultimately worked as it should: many of the worst and most dangerous ideas of a rogue president were defeated by the very people he put in positions of trust. Many, including members of the president's cabinet, said they fear Trump's re-election precisely because with another four years in power he could use what he had learned to gut the protections against authoritarian rule in the U.S. This book celebrates a vital victory but offers a bleak warning for the future." --Dust jacket "American Resistance is the first book to chronicle the unprecedented role so many in the government were forced to play and the consequences of their actions during the Trump administration. From Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother Yevgeny, to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, to Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, and the official who first called himself “Anonymous”—Miles Taylor, among others, Rothkopf examines the resistance movement that slowly built in Washington. Drawing from first hand testimonies, deep background and research, American Resistance shows how when the President threatened to run amok, a few key figures rose in defiance. It reveals the conflict within the Department of Justice over actively seeking instances of election fraud and abuse to help the president illegally retain power, and multiple battles within the White House over the influence of Jared and Ivanka, and in particular the extraordinary efforts to get them security clearances even after they were denied to them."-- Résumé de l'éditeur This deeply reported insider story shows how a small group of Washington officials such as Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, and Fiona Hill forged a resistance movement against the unprecedented Trump presidency