Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America

How could we not have seen him coming is the question humming under the surface of Sarah Kendzior’s latest book Hiding in Plain Sight: the Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America.

Take heed: this book is not for the faint of heart or those on the fence about Trump. It is an out and out dismantling of him from giant ego to false religion, from limited intellect to sycophantic supporters. Kendzior’s greatest strength is in connecting the absolute horror of the Trump presidency to the very real people of America who put him in the White House. A native Missourian, she deftly attends to the people on the margins, those living in flyover country who comprise his base and are often overlooked by pundits and pollsters. As she relates to the creation of Trump as a myth, specifically in his reality TV days, she lays out why such an utter buffoon would be appealing. And, if you love democracy, it is nothing short of heartbreaking.

Kendzior works her way through the revolutionary days that led to trumps election, including the recession and housing crisis in 2009 and 2010 and the racial unrest that still exists today but began in earnest in 2014 in Ferguson, MO. Throughout all of these examples, and with the words of the president’s own advisers and supporters as her backdrop, she explains how Trump is, without a doubt, “a threat more extensive than is widely known.”

If you want to understand how we got here, there is no better book than Hiding in Plain Sight.