Bøger af Mark Leibovich

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eye-witness account of how Washington's "swamp", far from being drained, was turned into a gold-plated hot tub by Trump, with the connivance of the GOP political class, out of opportunism and cowardice - because how bad could it get?In the early months of Trump's candidacy, the GOP's most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united - and loud - in their scorn and contempt. Even more, their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won. Trump Town is Mark Leibovich's unflinching account of the utter moral rout of one of America's two major political parties, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham and their ilk into the administration's enablers and alpha lapdogs, and the swamp's lesser lights into chasers of the grift. What will these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What will they do to preserve their "relevance"? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump is the most unconstrained bully ever to hold the office, and his savage bullying of everyone in his circle, and his singular control of his political base, created a cult of submission, of toeing the Trump line, however obviously untrue. Many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were in on the joke, so secure were they in the impermeability of the filter bubble. As Lindsey Graham told the author, his people in South Carolina don't read the New York Times, and they won't read this book. Where all that cynicism, even nihilism, led was to a country truly deranged from reality, and to January 6th. It's a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like Utopia in comparison. Trump Town isn't another tick-tock view from the Oval Office; it's the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.

TheNew York Timesbestseller!From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town, an equally merciless probing of America's biggest cultural force, pro football, at a moment of peak success and high anxietyLike millions of Americans, Mark Leibovich has spent more of his life tuned into pro football than he'd care to admit. Being a lifelong New England Patriots fan meant growing up on a steady diet of lovable loserdom. That is, until the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era made the Pats the most ruthlessly efficient and polarizing sports dynasty of the modern NFL, and its fans the most irritating in all of Pigskin America. Leibovich kept his obsession quiet, making a nice career for himself covering that other playground for rich and overgrown children, American politics. Still, every now and then Leibovich would reach out to Tom Brady to gauge his willingness to subject himself to a profile. He figured that the chances of Brady agreeing were a Hail Mary at best, but Brady returned Mark's call in summer 2014 and kept on returning his calls through epic Patriots Super Bowl victory and defeat, and a scandal involving Brady--Deflategate--whose grip on sports media was as profound as its true significance was ridiculous. So began a four-year odyssey that took Mark Leibovich deeper inside the NFL than anyone has gone before. From the owners' meeting to the draft to the sidelines of crucial games, he takes in the show at the elbow of everyone from Brady to big-name owners to the cordially despised NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell. Ultimately, BIG GAME is a chronicle of "e;peak football"e;--the high point of the sport's economic success and cultural dominance, but also the time when the dark side began to show. It is an era of explosive revenue growth, but also one of creeping existential fear. Players have long joked that NFL stands for "e;not for long,"e; but as the true impact of concussions becomes inescapable background noise, it's increasingly difficult to enjoy the simple glory of football without the buzz-kill of its obvious consequences.And that was before Donald Trump. In 2016, Mark's day job caught up with him, and the NFL slammed headlong into America's culture wars. BIG GAME is a journey through an epic storm. Through it all, Leibovich always keeps one eye on Tom Brady and his beloved Patriots, through to the 2018 Super Bowl. Pro football, this hilarious and enthralling book proves, may not be the sport America needs, but it is most definitely the sport we deserve.