Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever

by Rick Wilson

Overview

From Rick Wilson—longtime Republican strategist, political commentator, Daily Beast contributor—the #1 New York Times bestseller about the disease that is destroying the conservative movement and burning down the GOP: Trumpism.

Includes an all-new chapter analyzing Trump’s impact on the 2018 elections.

In the #1 New York Times bestselling Everything Trump Touches Dies, political campaign strategist and commentator Rick Wilson delivers “a searingly honest, bitingly funny, comprehensive answer to the question we find ourselves asking most mornings: ‘What the hell is going on?’ (Chicago Tribune). The Guardian hails Everything Trump Touches Dies, saying it gives, “more unvarnished truths about Donald Trump than anyone else in the American political establishment has offered. Wilson never holds back.” Rick mercilessly exposes the damage Trump has done to the country, to the Republican Party, and to the conservative movement that has abandoned its principles for the worst President in American history.

Wilson unblinkingly dismantles Trump’s deceptions and the illusions to which his supporters cling, shedding light on the guilty parties who empower and enable Trump in Washington and in the media. He calls out the race-war dead-enders who hitched a ride with Trump, the alt-right basement dwellers who worship him, and the social conservatives who looked the other way. Publishers Weekly calls it, “a scathing, profane, unflinching, and laugh-out-loud funny rebuke of Donald Trump and his presidency.”

No left-winger, Wilson is a lifelong conservative who delivers his withering critique of Trump from the right. A leader of the Never Trump movement, he warned from the start that Trump would destroy the lives and reputations of everyone in his orbit, and Everything Trump Touches Dies is a deft chronicle the tragicomic political story of our time. From the early campaign days through the shock of election night, to the inconceivable train-wreck of Trump’s first year. Rick Wilson provides not only an insightful analysis of the Trump administration, but also an optimistic path forward for the GOP, the conservative movement, and the country.

“Hilarious, smartly written, and usually spot-on” (Kirkus Reviews), Everything Trump Touches Dies is perfect for those on either side of the aisle who need a dose of unvarnished reality, a good laugh, a strong cocktail, and a return to sanity in American politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982103156
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	337
Sales rank:	228,571
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Rick Wilson is a seasoned Republican political strategist and infamous negative ad-maker. His regular column with The Daily Beast is a must-read in the political community. Published in The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, The Federalist, Independent Journal Review, he’s also a frequent guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, With Friends Like These, and the national networks. The author of Everything Trump Touches Dies, Rick Wilson lives in Tallahassee, Florida with his wife, four dogs, and a nameless cat. They have two grown children.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Everything Trump Touches Dies 1

Part 1 The Road To This Shitshow

What to Expect When You're Working for Trump I

1 Vichy Republicans 17

What to Expect When You're Working for Trump II

2 Furrowed Brows and Deep Concern 45

What to Expect When You're Working for Trump III

3 Running with the Devil 61

What to Expect When You're Working for Trump IV

4 That's Why You Got Trump 69

What to Expect When You're Working for Trump V

Part 2 Victims Of The Curse

Inside the Oval Office I

5 What We Lost with Trump 83

Inside the Oval Office II

6 The Media 95

Inside the Oval Office III

7 The Trump Base 101

Inside the Oval Office IV

8 Limited Government 125

Inside the Oval Office V

9 The Grown-ups All Die Too 143

Part 3 Surrounded By Villains

Top Secret Intercept I

10 Welcome to Hell 161

Top Secret Intercept II

11 The Trump Family Syndicate 175

Top Secret Intercept III

12 Team Crony 191

Top Secret Intercept IV

13 Clown Princes of the Trump Media 199

Top Secret Intercept V

14 Trump's Island of Misfit Toys 225

Top Secret Intercept VI

15 The Alt-Reich 249

Part 4 After Trump

16 But Gorsuch 261

17 Trump Is Electoral Poison 269

18 My Party After Trump 289

Epilogue: Post-Trump America 301

A Note on the Paperback Edition 313

Notes 333

Acknowledgments 347

Editorial Reviews

08/06/2018
Veteran GOP political strategist Wilson, who for decades was a top Republican attack dog and was the guy the party relied on to craft its message and strategy, offers a scathing, profane, unflinching, and laugh-out-loud funny rebuke of Donald Trump and his presidency. With the insight of an insider turned outsider in his own party, Wilson goes after every manifestation of Trumpism: the overt racism, especially the message surrounding “the Wall” (which Wilson dubs “Douche- henge”); Breitbart, Fox News, and the “diseased slurry of fake news, post-truth Trumpism, and Russkie agitprop” in the conservative media; the logic-defying embrace by Evangelical Christians of Trump (“a walking, talking, porn-star-screwing offense to their every belief”); and of course Trump’s ego-driven, “clownish” leadership. “Donald Trump is like a monster from the laboratory of a jackass mad scientist, built to represent the perfect antithesis of Washington’s example,” Wilson writes. Beyond the barbs, Wilson delivers an urgent message to traditional conservatives: take back the Republican party before it’s too late. “The old, abandoned face of politics that emphasized smarts, seriousness, and stature needs a comeback over the Trumpian politics-as-professional-wrestling model,” he writes. Trump supporters may dismiss Wilson’s vitriol as the cathartic screed of a “Never Trump” Republican dinosaur, but those who share his views will find this rewarding. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A searingly honest, bitingly funny, comprehensive answer to the question we find ourselves asking most mornings: ‘What the hell is going on?’.... A fascinating, fierce and fearless exposition of the political mess America finds itself in today.

The Chicago Tribune

Hear the sizzle? That’s the sound of Wilson, Republican strategist and now Never-Trumper, burning the president, his family, cabinet, and GOP stalwarts.

Booklist

His raw-brawling style and deftly articulated rage...have made Wilson an unexpected darling of the left, and a kind of Cassandra in steel-toed boots for his own party.... The book is a clarion call to conservatives about how ‘Kim Jong Don's’ reverse-Midas touch is ‘an Orwellian erasure of what conservatism represents’ that will define the party for generations to come.

The Week

His raw-brawling style and deftly articulated rage…have made Wilson an unexpected darling of the left, and a kind of Cassandra in steel-toed boots for his own party…. The book is a clarion call to conservatives about how ‘Kim Jong Don's’ reverse-Midas touch is ‘an Orwellian erasure of what conservatism represents’ that will define the party for generations to come.

—The Week

Hear the sizzle? That’s the sound of Wilson, Republican strategist and now Never-Trumper, burning the president, his family, cabinet, and GOP stalwarts.

—Booklist

A searingly honest, bitingly funny, comprehensive answer to the question we find ourselves asking most mornings: ‘What the hell is going on?’…. A fascinating, fierce and fearless exposition of the political mess America finds itself in today.

—The Chicago Tribune

Hear the sizzle? That’s the sound of Wilson, Republican strategist and now Never-Trumper, burning the president, his family, cabinet, and GOP stalwarts.

Booklist