The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy

by Greg Miller

Overview

From two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post national security reporter Greg Miller, the truth about Vladimir Putin’s covert attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump win the presidency, its possible connections to the Trump campaign, Robert Mueller’s ensuing investigation of the president and those close to him, and the mystery of Trump’s steadfast allegiance to Putin.

It has been called the political crime of the century: a foreign government, led by a brutal authoritarian leader, secretly interfering with the American presidential election to help elect the candidate of its choice. Now two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post national security reporter Greg Miller investigates the truth about the Kremlin’s covert attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump win the presidency, Trump’s steadfast allegiance to Vladimir Putin, and Robert Mueller’s ensuing investigation of the president and those close to him.

Based on interviews with hundreds of people in Trump’s inner circle, current and former government officials, individuals with close ties to the White House, members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities, foreign officials, and confidential documents, The Apprentice offers striking new information about:

• the hacking of the Democrats by Russian intelligence;
• Russian hijacking of Facebook and Twitter;
• National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s hidden communications with the Russians;
• the attempt by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to create a secret back channel to Moscow using Russian diplomatic facilities;
• Trump’s disclosure to Russian officials of highly classified information about Israeli intelligence operations;
• Trump’s battles with the CIA and the FBI and fierce clashes within the West Wing;
• Trump’s efforts to enlist the director of national intelligence and the director of the National Security Agency to push back against the FBI’s investigation of his campaign;
• the mysterious Trump Tower meeting;
• the firing of FBI Director James Comey;
• the appointment of Mueller and the investigation that has followed;
• the tumultuous skirmishing within Trump’s legal camp;
• and Trump’s jaw-dropping behavior in Helsinki.

Deeply reported and masterfully told, The Apprentice is essential reading for anyone trying to understand Vladimir Putin’s secret operation, its catastrophic impact, and the nature of betrayal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062907639
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/16/2018
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	1,126,944
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

GREG MILLER is a national security reporter for the Washington Post. He was part of the team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their groundbreaking stories on Russia’s 2016 election interference and also part of the team awarded the 2014 Pulitzer for coverage of American surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden. 

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Part 1

1 The Hack 17

2 Putin's Trolls 33

3 Moths to the Flame 55

Part 2

4 "I Believe You Have Some Information for Us" 93

5 The Missing Emails 113

6 Crossfire Hurricane 135

7 Deep Inside the Kremlin 149

Part 3

8 Dezinformatsiya 175

9 The Russian Ambassador 193

10 Briefing the President 223

Part 4

11 You're Fired 261

12 The Special Counsel Strikes 289

Part 5

13 "I Can't Put on the Charm" 319

14 Helsinki 349

Epilogue 387

Acknowledgments 395

Notes 397

Index 413

Editorial Reviews

Lucid and startling…a scathing portrait of the commander-in-chief’s personal and political failings, compounded by the dismal inability of other politicians and institutions to get to grips with the abundant evidence of Russian meddling….The book is the clearest account yet of what Russia actually did.” — Times (UK)

“We cannot understand what happened in the 2016 election, Russia-gate or the imploding Trump presidency by reading the 24-hour digital news on our phones....Fortunately, we still have a simple technology invented nearly six centuries ago: books. Greg Miller has written a damn good one.” — Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian

From the Publisher

We cannot understand what happened in the 2016 election, Russia-gate or the imploding Trump presidency by reading the 24-hour digital news on our phones....Fortunately, we still have a simple technology invented nearly six centuries ago: books. Greg Miller has written a damn good one.

Kai Bird

Lucid and startling…a scathing portrait of the commander-in-chief’s personal and political failings, compounded by the dismal inability of other politicians and institutions to get to grips with the abundant evidence of Russian meddling….The book is the clearest account yet of what Russia actually did.

Times (UK)

Lucid and startling…a scathing portrait of the commander-in-chief’s personal and political failings, compounded by the dismal inability of other politicians and institutions to get to grips with the abundant evidence of Russian meddling….The book is the clearest account yet of what Russia actually did.

The Times (UK)

★ 10/08/2018
President Trump is but the bumbling apprentice to Vladimir Putin's master political manipulator, according to this penetrating study of Trump's Russia problem. Pulitzer-winning Washington Post national security correspondent Miller (The Interrogators) builds on his own reporting to recap, in novelistic style, Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump's campaign and administration. He covers the Russian government's hacking of Democratic National Committee computers and its pro-Trump social media propaganda, contacts between Trump campaign figures and Russian officials and operatives, Trump's hostility toward special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation, and Trump's ardent admiration (expressed in speeches, tweets, and summits) for the Russian president. Well-paced but rich in detail, Miller's narrative is one of the best of the many new books on this evolving saga. His treatment of Trump's possible obstruction of justice in trying to influence investigations by former FBI director James Comey and other intelligence officials is especially good. But on the underlying issue of collusion, there's no smoking gun here; Miller doesn't demonstrate that Russian machinations won Trump the presidency, and his incisive examination of the Trump administration's Russia policy shows that Washington politics—aka democracy—has forced Trump to accept hard-line measures against Russia. The problem that stands out in this account isn't Russian subversion, but a biased, erratic, and self-centered American president. Photos. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly