Review of The Trump Files

[ThankGod Onyishi]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Trump Files" by Jack Hassard.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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The Trump Files is a forensic and academic analysis of the rise, rule, and possible resurgence of President Donald J. Trump. It seeks to provide much-needed context and clarity to the events that led up to his shocking wins at both the Republican primaries and the presidential election that followed. It aims to explain the unprecedented levels of extremism witnessed during his tenure as president, culminating in the January 6th Riots at Capitol Hill. It starts by pointing out that the sentiments expressed by Trump and his supporters are not new to America and have been spreading in specific regions and across certain demographics for a long time. It discusses the philosophical differences between the Republican Party, which Trump represented as president, and the Democratic Party, their perennial opposition. It is rather convincing in its attempts to oppose the key views and ideologies held by Trump’s supporters and serves as a clear warning against the dangers of myopic fundamentalism.

This book has a lot of positive aspects. The writer of this book, Jack Hassard, is a professor emeritus of science education. This academic background is heavily evident in this book’s wealth of knowledge and attention to detail. The Trump Files is heavily laden with supporting data and information to back each of its claims. When attacking misconceptions regarding the Critical Race Theory, Professor Hassard details the court cases and legal arguments that led to its creation and provides relevant names and dates. When demographical comparisons are made between states that historically lean towards Democratic and those that lean towards Republican, statistical data is provided to provide clarity and support for the discussion. This approach is maintained throughout the book, making it significantly more difficult to denounce or downplay the professor’s claims.

This truly beneficial quality appears to have a double-edged sword, though, as the writer, in his drive to present information to support his treatises, has neglected to provide sound logical arguments to disprove the problematic ideologies he enumerates in the book. For example, the writer makes use of ideas posited by George Parker, who claims that America is split into four factions, namely, Free America, Real America, Smart America, and Just America. It appears from the discussion that follows that the writer is supportive of the “Smart” and “Just” factions. However, no logical argument is put forward to justify this support or to denounce the ideologies of the “Real” and “Free” factions. The treatise is left open to interpretation, and conclusive statements are sparse. For readers already sharing the writer's views on America’s politics, this is not likely to be a problem, as the reader has already come to the same conclusions the writer has. But as material for changing the minds of already far-right-leaning individuals, I find this book considerably lacking.

This book is 592 pages long, containing 13 chapters, not including ancillary pages. The writer, Jack Hassard, is a professor emeritus of Georgia State University and has written this book in response to the events of January 6th at the Capitol Hill building in Washington, DC.

This book contains no religiously biased or centered material. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars, my detraction being due to the insufficient logic-driven arguments. I found a lot of errors; the book was not professionally edited. This also affected my rating of the book.

I recommend this book to everyone interested in studying America’s political dichotomy, as well as those curious about the events of January 6th.

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The Trump Files
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Liud07]

Alluring content, I would love reading the book!

[Brenda Creech]

I was curious about the contents of this book as soon as I saw it! Love or hate President Trump, if one is honest in their assessment and looks at the accomplishments made by his administration instead of looking at Trump, the man, one would have to admit he is the first president who kept his campaign promises! He accomplished more in four years than the two-term presidents before himl Thanks for the excellent review!