Book Review: Don Surber’s “Trump the Establishment”

Trump the EstablishmentI just finished reading Don Surber’s Trump the Establishment: The Elitists Never Learned in 2016, and I recommend it highly. It can be viewed as a follow-up to Don’s earlier book, Trump the Press: Don Surber’s take on how the pundits blew the 2016 Republican race, which was a light-hearted romp through everything the media (both MSM and conservative) got wrong when it came to Donald Trump and his seemingly quixotic presidential campaign. Trump the Establishment, however, is a more serious book that examines, not just how the establishment erred, but how desperately, dishonestly, and viciously the establishment (again, both Left and Right) did its level best to undermine Donald Trump.

Given that the same establishment that attacked Trump during and immediately after the campaign (especially from the Left) has now doubled-down to destroy his presidency, Don’s book could scarcely be more timely. In one well-documented chapter after another, he looks at the forces out to destroy Trump, from the establishment pollsters; to the monied (and, for conservatives) ineffective cadre of well-paid campaign advisers, none of whom Trump consulted; to the race hustlers; to the media (and a subset of the media, the women defending Hillary); to the Bush family; to the feminists and genderists and Hispani-cists; and to all the other establishment figures and institutions that understood that Trump wasn’t going to stop with rocking the boat — he was going to tip it over and sink it. Reading Don’s book, you’ll be amazed at the panoply of forces across the political spectrum whose vested interests lay, not in the best candidate for America, but in the best candidate for their own needs.

Immediately after I finished reading Trump the Establishment, I happened across a speech by Marine Le Pen, who positions herself in France as a centrist conservative, rather than an open racist as her father was. I don’t follow French politics closely, so I have no opinion about Le Pen’s honesty in this regard. I do, however, have an opinion about this speech recent speech and, most especially, about the quote from Nietzsche with which she opened the speech:

Whenever I hear the Left speak, I am reminded of the old adage: “If your cause relies on fighting a particular enemy, it’s not in your interest to let that enemy die.”

From that starting point, Le Pen aggressively attacks the hypocrisy that sees French feminists, like their American sisters,, focus obsessively (and regressively) on past battles, circa 1968, long since won, while ignoring the current problems facing women — everything from a horrible economy to the rise of sex crimes in the wake of increased Muslim immigration. It’s a superb speech and, if that was the only thing I knew about Le Pen, I would be inclined to vote for her.

The reason I bring up Le Pen’s speech here is because it is such a perfect microcosm of the forces that Don exposes in Trump the Establishment: What you see in chapter after chapter are retrograde forces in America, from all sides of the political spectrum, that are intent upon maintaining certain set piece enemies. For the Left, the enemies are racism, sexism, homophobia, capitalism, crony capitalism, hostility to unions, etc.  Sentient Americans have noticed that the Left, while complaining about these issues, invariably puts into place policies that exacerbate them.

Establishment forces on the Right are just as guilty. If Trump actually fixes the economy, Americans will no longer need sage experts and articles explaining all the tweaks needed to give us an economy that’s essentially Leftism light . . . good, but never good enough for those experts to go away. Even those conservatives who truly do wish America well, and who understand what needs to be done, recognized from the state that Trump’s outsider status would render them impotent. After all, in Trump’s view, considering how long these experts have been kicking around without effect, they’ve been weighed and found wanting.

What stands out in Trump the Establishment is Trump’s wonderful spirit. He is a happy warrior who, rather than shying away from the fight, relishes it — and, as often as not, uses initial feints that not only make his opposition careless, but also leaves them exposing themselves in the worst ways to America’s gaze. (If you’ve been following Scott Adams’ posts about persuasion techniques, you will again be awed at Trump’s mastery).

Where every other conservative will back down in the face of onslaughts from the opposition and from Fifth Columnists within the conservative party, Trump doubles down. Occasionally he misfires, picking unnecessary fights, but the quality of his cabinet picks shows that Trump has enough wisdom to surround himself with people who will provide ballast for his occasional martial excesses.

Trump’s titanium backbone, which Don reveals so beautifully in Trump the Establishment is precisely what we need. Trump’s been in office three weeks and the opposition is already talking about (a) impeaching him; (b) having him declared insane; (c) assassinating him; (d) initiating a military coup; and (e) opposing him at every turn no matter what he does. And, of course, the usual so-called Republicans in and out of Congress continue to be the quislings they were all during the Bush years. They’re already trying to reverse Trump’s promise to repeal ObamaCare, to stall the wall (which Congress authorized and theoretically funded years ago), to bow to extremists who insist that Muslim are harmless, to yield to teacher’s union money, and generally to block the people’s will.

Given the quislings on the conservative side of the aisle, I was feeling a bit down-hearted these past few days. The matched set of Progressive hysteria and violence, on the one hand, and Republican spaghetti spine, on the other hand, left me concerned that, Trump’s election notwithstanding, we’re in for more of the “same old, same old” that got us into this weak, tattered, vulnerable situation in the first place.

After reading Trump the Establishment, however, I’m more sanguine. If Trump can maintain the ingenuity, intelligence, persuasiveness, and strong principles that got him into the White House in the first place, he stands a darn good chance of erasing the anomalous Obama years (and the wishy-washy conservativism of the Bush years). He may be our Winston Churchill, the unexpected and often reviled figure who nevertheless stepped up to save the nation. I can see him returning America to a country with strong national security; a sound, market-based economy; and a constitutional underpinning throughout all branches of the state and federal governments.

If you want to be cheered up by a reminder that President Trump does not back done, no matter the forces arrayed against him, get yourself a copy of Don Surber’s Trump the Establishment: The Elitists Never Learned in 2016. You’ll enjoy reading Surber’s sprightly, face-paced, periodically sardonic writing, and you’ll end up feeling that you did the right thing when you voted for the Donald (or, if you didn’t vote for him, you might be pleased in any event that this fighter for America is in the White House).

UPDATE: If you use this link to buy the book, Don will make more money — and we want that.