Confidence Man

Reviews

“Confidence Man [is] Maggie Haberman’s much anticipated biography of the president she followed more assiduously than any other journalist. No doubt, there are revelations aplenty here. But this is a book more notable for the quality of its observations about Trump’s character than for its newsbreaks. It will be a primary source about the most vexing president in American history for years to come.” —Joe Klein, The New York Times

“A uniquely illuminating portrait...Haberman’s contribution in Confidence Man [is] much larger than its arresting anecdotes. Later generations of historians will puzzle over Trump’s rise to national power. The best of them will have learned from Haberman’s book that none of it would have been possible but for a social, cultural, political, media and moral breakdown that overtook New York beginning in the 1970s, a fiasco of trusted institutions that, having allowed the Trumpian virus to grow, failed at every step to contain its spread, then profited from, aided and even cheered its devastation."  —Sean Wilentz, The Washington Post

“During the Trump presidency, Haberman of the New York Times established herself as the leading Trump-watcher — managing to report unsparingly on the president, while maintaining a relationship with him. Here, she delivered the definitive biography of Trump and his improbable rise from real estate mogul and television personality to president. Her deep understanding of the New York of the 1970s and 1980s helps to explain what makes Trump tick.” —Financial Times

“[A] monumental look at Donald Trump and his presidency . . . it may be first among equals.” — David Shribman, Los Angeles Times

“Haberman, the New York Times’ Trump whisperer, delivers. [Confidence Man] is much more than 600 pages of context, scoop and drama. It is a political epic, tracing Donald Trump’s journey from the streets of Queens to Manhattan’s Upper East Side, from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Elba.” —The Guardian

“Delivers eye-popping details about the Trump presidency.” —Terry Moran, Good Morning America
 
“Maggie Haberman has become the chronicler-in-chief of the Donald Trump era.” —John Dickerson, CBS Sunday Morning

 “Haberman deploys a deep sense of Trump's origins and career, including his relationships with New York’s mayors and powerful Democratic ward bosses such as Meade Esposito. Haberman helps us understand how his lifelong desire for stardom pushed him to bid for the presidency and how his unorthodox credentials and tactics enabled him to win. She has a witness’ eye for much that she relates.” —NPR.org

“An origin story plus an inside-the-room blow-by-blow—a book arguably only Haberman could have written. . . . It’s been called the book Trump fears the most—he’s ‘terrified,’ said one former aide—and that’s because Haberman is the reporter who knows him the best.” —Michael Kruse, POLITICO
 
“Chockablock with fresh anecdotes and insights.” —Frank Bruni, The New York Times
 
“Haberman stands out among journalists who have followed Mr. Trump . . . Haberman makes a particular contribution with [Confidence Man] by describing how the annealing interplay of politics and commerce in the New York of the 1970s and 1980s equipped Mr. Trump with the low expectations and cynical convictions that would carry him so far . . . Her devastating portrait of Mr. Trump’s failure should give his imitators pause.” —The Economist
 
“Maggie Haberman breaks more news than the rest of us.” —Jonathan Swan

“Maggie Haberman gets all the information.” —Jimmy Kimmel 

“No reporter has lived rent-free in Trump’s head longer than Haberman.” —POLITICO Playbook

“Haberman’s book is chockablock with scoops . . . but what singles it out from the competition is its perceptiveness about Trump’s character and the way his private vices became public menaces.” —Peter Conrad, The Guardian

“With a masterly command of her subject, Haberman carefully weighs her sources and composes a highly readable, believable account of Trump from childhood through his petulant Mar-a-Lago exile.” —Shepherd Express

"The most comprehensive portrait of the 45th president to date, one that correctly diagnoses him as a malignant, world-historical narcissist and that will be read long after he alights from the proverbial couch.” —Air Mail

"Deeply reported and immersively told, this is an essential contribution." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A damning portrait of narcissism, megalomania, and abject failure—and the price the country is paying in the bargain." —Kirkus Reviews Expand reviews