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Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 5,913 ratings

The #1 New York Times bestseller.

“This is the book Trump fears most.” —Axios

“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.” —Sean Wilentz,
The Washington Post

“[A] monumental look at Donald Trump and his presidency.” —David Shribman, Los Angeles Times

From the Pulitzer-Prize-winning
New York Times reporter who has defined Donald J. Trump's presidency like no other journalist, Confidence Man is a magnificent and disturbing reckoning that chronicles his life and its meaning from his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency.

Few journalists working today have covered Donald Trump more extensively than Maggie Haberman. And few understand him and his motivations better. Now, demonstrating her majestic command of this story, Haberman reveals in full the depth of her understanding of the 45th president himself, and of what the Trump phenomenon means.

Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes. Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.

The through-line of Trump’s life and his presidency is the enduring question of what is in it for him or what he needs to say to survive short increments of time in the pursuit of his own interests.

Confidence Man is also, inevitably, about the world thatproduced such a singular character, giving rise to his career and becoming his first stage. It is also about a series of relentlessly transactional relationships. The ones that shaped him most were with girlfriends and wives, with Roy Cohn, with George Steinbrenner, with Mike Tyson and Don King and Roger Stone, with city and state politicians like Robert Morgenthau and Rudy Giuliani, with business partners, with prosecutors, with the media, and with the employees who toiled inside what they commonly called amongst themselves the “Trump Disorganization.”

That world informed the one that Trump tried to recreate while in the White House. All of Trump’s behavior as President had echoes in what came before. In this revelatory and newsmaking book, Haberman brings together the events of his life into a single mesmerizing work. It is the definitive account of one of the most norms-shattering and consequential eras in American political history.

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
5,913 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book interesting, insightful, and well-researched. They describe the writing as well-written, easy to read, and comprehensive. Readers also describe the book as amazing, captivating, and excellent. However, some find the book boring, repetitive, and trivial. Opinions differ on the length and pacing, with some finding it crisp and fast-paced, while others say it's too long and sentences are unnecessarily long.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

94 customers mention "Information quality"73 positive21 negative

Customers find the book's information quality interesting, insightful, and well-researched. They appreciate the detailed and thorough recounting of history.

"First, Maggie is brilliant, laser focused/detailed, sometimes breezy/quippy, and just an overall irresistible writer...." Read more

"...Overall, this book does provide a good deal of information about Trump’s early life and influences, it just does so with the standard modern..." Read more

"...Miss Haberman does a wonderful job of presenting detail without overwhelming the reader...." Read more

"...It is told chronologically in as dispassionate and factual non-opinionated manner as I suspect is possible...." Read more

80 customers mention "Writing quality"63 positive17 negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book well-written, detailed, and comprehensive. They also say it's easy reading, with an accurate narration. Readers mention the author writes in an easy, understandable style.

"...focused/detailed, sometimes breezy/quippy, and just an overall irresistible writer...." Read more

"Ms. Haberman is an excellent writer...." Read more

"...Peter Baker and Susan Glasser have just published an elegantly-written book, “The Divider,” that covers the period between Trump’s 2015 run for the..." Read more

"...Miss writes in an easy, understandable style...." Read more

55 customers mention "Value for money"47 positive8 negative

Customers find the book amazing, captivating, and enjoyable. They say the writing is first-rate, well-crafted, and believable. Readers also describe the book as engaging and enlightening.

"...A fantastic book by a journalist with every single chop about a subject we will live with for a long time." Read more

"...All told, it is a worthwhile and valuable read." Read more

"...Observing her and DJT sparring over the facts is interesting and enjoyable...." Read more

"...Well worth the read." Read more

5 customers mention "Professionalism"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book professional, well-written, and excellent. They also say it's a professional transaction.

"...On the positive side Haberman is a thorough and well-qualified professional who has done many excellent pieces on Trump...." Read more

"...However, quite wordy yet well done!" Read more

"Ms. Haberman is an excellent reporter, but I hate to say-and I've just read about 25% of the book-it is boring...." Read more

"...Haberman is the consummate, professional." Read more

13 customers mention "Length"5 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the length of the book. Some mention it's crisp and fast-paced, while others say it's too long and the sentences are unnecessarily long.

"...Sentences are unnecessarily long and may have long dependent clauses in the middle, so you can easily lose the train of thought while you try to..." Read more

"This is the best single-volume history of the Trump administration to date...." Read more

"The book is extremely long and too repetitive for my taste...." Read more

"Great book! My only issue is that it is very large and weighs four pounds, so is difficult to hold and read. However, it is worth the trouble...." Read more

8 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some mention it's an excellent history of Trump's rise to power, while others say the sentences are awkward and incompletely explained. They also mention the chronology gets confusing and abrupt.

"...No need to suffer the awkward sentences, incompletely-explained events that make reading the Haberman book a chore...." Read more

"...interviewing hundreds of associates makes this an invaluable document of a divisive presidency...." Read more

"...The chronology gets somewhat confusing but if you knew The Don in the 80s as I did, you can follow rather comfortably...." Read more

"...These incidents seem abrupt, and self serving. Many insights, however, make this an important read." Read more

12 customers mention "Boredom"0 positive12 negative

Customers find the book depressing and boring. They say it's too repetitive and trivial. Readers also mention the subject matter is disturbing, but it makes Trump seem boring.

"...Honestly, I found the book so uninteresting -- boring in fact -- that I started skimming pretty heavily about half way through, and skipped much of..." Read more

"...in its diagnosis of Trump as, above all else, and exceptionally sick, sad, and lonely man...." Read more

"The book is extremely long and too repetitive for my taste...." Read more

"...I highly recommend the book, although the subject matter is disturbing." Read more

6 customers mention "Page count"0 positive6 negative

Customers are dissatisfied with the page count of the book. They mention that there are pages missing.

"...Unfortunately, there are a number of pages missing from the book.Pages 348-353 and 366-368...." Read more

"I ordered the papeback edition, and was shocked to see all the pages were blank!..." Read more

"The book was BLANK! A blank book scam. See photo. The replacement was BLANK also!..." Read more

"The book arrived with over 100-blank pages! No joke! Who would waste time and money to produce a printed book with no print?..." Read more

Thorough & fascinating look at a complex man
5 out of 5 stars
Thorough & fascinating look at a complex man
Haberman goes into such depth that you really come away from reading the book with a detailed look at a complex man. This isn't an "ax-grinding" book designed to trash the former president, but a balanced look at what drives Trump to do some of the things he does.One word of advice for those with baby-boomer eyesight: do yourself a favor and read this on Kindle. The font in the hardcover is about the size of newspaper type (maybe smaller).
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2022
First, Maggie is brilliant, laser focused/detailed, sometimes breezy/quippy, and just an overall irresistible writer. Her reporting doesn't pull punches; and, while she does not humor foolishness, there is a functional levity and restrained smile in her work, too. She is a journalist equal to her best subject.

Second, her subject is fascinating. No matter what we may think of Donald Trump and his merits, he is an incredibly interesting player- and undoubtedly a seminal one.

I first came across Trump while in college in Boston. It was the short days of The Tour de Trump. He was entertaining to my roommates and me- and we had to pilgrimage to Trump Tower to make sure it was as pink as he said.

A fantastic book by a journalist with every single chop about a subject we will live with for a long time.
12 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2022
*Note – As always, I do not let political opinions influence my book reviews. I am only reviewing this book as a biography and discussing the content; not whether I agree with the politics of the author or the subject.

This book is divided into 32 chapters and an Epilogue, with a total of about 507 pages. After the Epilogue there is a Photos section, with 73 different pictures of Trump and his family/friends/associates, with captions explaining the photos. Within this section there are also seven pages of questions about the reporting in this book, that Trump HIMSELF responded to by handwriting short responses on the pages (Many of these short responses include “Fake news”, “False”, “Not True”; but some responses are about a sentence long, refuting some of the points, or underlining and addressing specific details.)

Haberman starts the book with a Prologue explaining that her goal is not to just focus on Trump’s time as President, but to write a biography that shows his early influences that shaped him into the person he became. She will describe his early years, family relationships, mentors and advisors, social connections and business deals, in order to shed light on some of the factors that shaped his personality and tactics.

In the first few chapters Haberman covers Trump’s family, including Trump’s grandfather arriving in the US from Germany in 1885, and eventually dying during the 1918 flu pandemic. She details events in the life of Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father, both before and after Donald was born. She describes Trump’s early years in school, friendships and feuds. She covers Trump’s rivalry with his brother Fred Jr., and his receiving advice from Roy Cohn. Haberman recounts the details of the HUD lawsuit against Trump for discrimination, Trump’s navigation of the political landscape as he attempted to create a real estate empire, and his meeting and eventually marrying his first wife Ivana. She also discusses journalist Wayne Barrett, Roger Stone, the construction of Trump Tower, and relationship with Ed Koch. She mentions connections to Don King, Al Sharpton, and Rudy Giuliani. There are also multiple chapters discussing Trump’s relationship with Marla Maples.

Haberman goes on to cover many pivotal events in Trump’s life. She describes his experiences with the casino industry, meeting Melania, early political aspirations, response to 9/11, TV deals including The Apprentice and working with WWE’s Vince McMahon, and criticism of Obama. She goes into detail about his 2016 campaign, battles for the Republican nomination, and political strategies. She covers interactions with Putin and Russia, Trump’s winning the election, and a chaotic transition. Much of the next several chapters are dedicated to Trump’s time in office, and situations that are already fair well publicized and documented; I would imagine that most of the information in these chapters will already be familiar to the general public.

The last few chapters deal with the end of Trump’s term; the pandemic response, 2020 election, appointment of Justice Barrett, battling covid, disputing the election results, and the events of January 6th.

Overall, this book does provide a good deal of information about Trump’s early life and influences, it just does so with the standard modern political bias that seems to be prevalent in most books nowadays. The author actually doesn’t vilify Trump as much as some other writers though, so maybe this is as close to neutral as you get from someone that clearly disagrees with Trump. Of course, many people won’t read the entire book, and will just give it 1 star or 5 stars depending on what side of the political spectrum they are on; but if you are actually interested in the history, relationships/connections/influences, achievements, mistakes and lessons learned, this book does have some interesting historical information. Just consider the source and come to your own conclusions, you can still learn things from a book whether or not you agree with the author’s opinions. 3.5 / 5
274 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2022
Ms. Haberman is an excellent writer. It was gratifying that the opinion I had of Trump from following his political and litigation antics in the news was reinforced with her indepth interviews and research. Unfortunately, I was hoping to find out that the destructive and often cuel things he did and continue to do are because he's mentally unstable. Habeman's writing showed however, that while he certainly has some emotional instability due to a tender ego that needs continual reinforcing, he's just a simple narcissist who grew up with an inflated sense of entitlement and conned his way to acquiring too much power. This power, she shows, comes from his ability to con a certain segment of voters and investors into thinking he's much more than he really is. What she slowly builds, layer upon layer, is that he's a very able con man with an ability to bilk a suseptible group of people who are all too ready to believe his self serving alternate view of facts.
20 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2024
I have followed Maggie Haberman for years and she is as professional as a reporter can get. She gives Trump credit for his accomplishments and determination. Most importantly, she chronicles his behavior, the results of his actions and opinions of those who worked for and around him. While Haberman did not intend for this, the book is basically a how-to-guide on the type of leadership that can almost bring a country down. While, of course, Trump is responsible for his actions, the people to blame for the chaos he continues to bring to the US lies with those who enable him.
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2024
This is a tome. Its message is terrifying really. I had a tough time reading it, because I felt saturated in "The Donald's" strange, dangerous mind and, over and over, I had to stop for a while.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2022
One Amazon reviewer summed up my reaction to this inelegantly-written book:

“ Fair read, but nothing not already reported over the years.

“I was put off by the many run-on sentences throughout the book which resulted in many re-reads to totally understand was was being said.”

Peter Baker and Susan Glasser have just published an elegantly-written book, “The Divider,” that covers the period between Trump’s 2015 run for the presidency and January 6 and its aftermath. No need to suffer the awkward sentences, incompletely-explained events that make reading the Haberman book a chore. And all of significance that you’ll miss in reading “The Divider” is The Confidence Man’s business cons. All his many political ones are there, and they are the ones that are currently destroying our democracy.

Two stars only because of the poor writing and the availability of a far better book that covers the most important events of the Trump presidency better and is a pleasure to read.
21 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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John
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read.
Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2024
Recommend it. Interesting insight into Trump.
Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy detallado y objetivo
Reviewed in Spain on July 25, 2024
Es una extensa y detallada narración de Trump, desde sus inicios hasta que pierde las elecciones con BIden. Los primeros capítulos son mucho más interesantes que los de la ultima parte del libro, con detalles y anécdotas que reflejan muy bien, y bastante objetivamente, su personalidad. Quizás, porque llega a hacerse algo repetitivo. Esta bien escrito, muy bien editado, con fotografías poco conocidas. Para mí, el mejor libro sobre Trump
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2023
This has to be the best political ‘memoir’ I’ve ever read. I have to be honest, I dislike Trump with a passion and suspected this book would feed my dislike. It was an absolute feast!!
hy
5.0 out of 5 stars Beeindruckend
Reviewed in Germany on December 19, 2022
, Die Autorin beschreibt in beeindruckender Weise den Charakter Trumps. Es ist erschreckend, welche Untiefen sich da auftun. Der Mann ist weiter eine große Gefahr nicht nur für die USA, sondern die ganze Welt.
Japan Lover
3.0 out of 5 stars Bulging with facts glued together dryly
Reviewed in Japan on October 28, 2023
There’s no doubt that this is an excellent compilation of all the facts surrounding Donald Trump’s emergence to fame and path to the presidency. Bravo Maggie for all your diligent research. But for me, I found it was a very dry read like swimming through gravy: one news article botched onto the next, and the next, and so on. To be fair, I’m not a voracious reader, but I much prefer the style of Bob Woodward or (even Ken Auletta) where the script somehow seems to engage the reader so much better. Ultimately, with Confidence Man, I felt like I was reading an intense academic history book. This should be on the shelves of university libraries.