A Very Stable Genius
Donald J. Trump's Testing of America
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A Very Stable Genius
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Narrated by:
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Hillary Huber
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Carol Leonnig
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Philip Rucker
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Written by:
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Philip Rucker
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Carol Leonnig
About this listen
The instant number-one best seller.
“This taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date." (Dwight Garner, The New York Times)
Washington Post national investigative reporter Carol Leonnig and White House bureau chief Philip Rucker, both Pulitzer Prize winners, provide the definitive insider narrative of Donald Trump’s presidency
“I alone can fix it.” So proclaimed Donald J. Trump on July 21, 2016, accepting the Republican presidential nomination and promising to restore what he described as a fallen nation. Yet as he undertook the actual work of the commander in chief, it became nearly impossible to see beyond the daily chaos of scandal, investigation, and constant bluster. In fact, there were patterns to his behavior and that of his associates. The universal value of the Trump administration was loyalty - not to the country but to the president himself - and Trump’s north star was always the perpetuation of his own power.
With deep and unmatched sources throughout Washington, DC, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker reveal the 45th president up close. Here, for the first time, certain officials who felt honor-bound not to divulge what they witnessed in positions of trust tell the truth for the benefit of history.
A peerless and gripping narrative, A Very Stable Genius not only reveals President Trump at his most unvarnished but shows how he tested the strength of America’s democracy and its common heart as a nation.
©2020 Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig (P)2020 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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In Mr. Trump’s campaign against what he calls “Fake News”, CNN Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta, is public enemy number one. From the moment Mr. Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, he has attacked the media, calling journalists “the enemy of the people”. Acosta presents a damning examination of bureaucratic dysfunction, deception, and the unprecedented threat the rhetoric Mr. Trump is directing has on our democracy. When the leader of the free world incites hate and violence, Acosta doesn’t back down, and he urges his fellow citizens to do the same.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thoroughly Enjoyable!
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What the critics say
"[Rucker and Leonnig] are meticulous journalists, and this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date.... Their newspaper’s ominous, love-it-or-hate-it motto is ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’ A Very Stable Genius flicks the lights on from its first pages." (Dwight Garner, New York Times)
"Richly sourced and highly readable... It is not just another Trump tell-all or third-party confessional. It is unsettling, not salacious." (Lloyd Green, The Guardian)
"Imagine, for a moment, a high-octane courtroom prosecutor summing up for the jury a case built on the vivid testimony of multiple eye-witnesses.... You could scarcely ask for more capable advocates. Leonnig won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the U.S. Secret Service in 2015, then joined Rucker and others on a team awarded the Pulitzer for stories on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Their new, collaborative account...walks readers step by step through the first 30 months or so of a presidency like no other. They leave little doubt that they and many of their sources regard that presidency as an unmitigated and deepening disaster - a threat to American government as we have known it. Whatever may happen to that impeachment effort in the weeks and months ahead, it creates a moment of intermission in the Trump saga and a chance to consider how the landscape has already been altered by this president. A Very Stable Genius offers a harrowing companion narrative to be read during intermission." (Ron Elving, NPR)
What listeners say about A Very Stable Genius
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
A Part Two in the Nightmare We All Call Trump
Stable Genius is a great follow-up to Bob Woodward's book on Trump, FEAR, and between the two, a complete image is painted of the self-conscious, mentally unstable and quite ill-educated brute from Queens who as a rotten apple doesn't fall very far from the Fred Trump tree.
The book gets into the granular moments inside the Trump presidency, frightfully demonstrating how the world is literally on a knife's edge with this guy.
Plainly, the United States, to my knowledge, hasn't had a more ill-equipped human being in the White House, proving that money and corruption and an uneducated public filled with fear is an eternal recipe for disaster in political leadership.
I only hope those who vote for this man-child will see the error in their ways and quietly swing back to reason in November's voting booth, but the question remains: will the people who voted for Trump have the moral courage to read Stable Genius and FEAR, look themselves in the mirror and see the cracks?
Those who voted for Nixon wised up and saw the error. Read Stable Genius, Trumpers, and do the same.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Keith
- 2020-02-25
Would be funny if it wasn't true. Sad.
Well presented and narrated the story moves along apace. Insights into the incompetence of the incumbent administration and it's c-in-c highlight what may become (and I sincerely hope so) the death knell for Trumpism.
Falling shortt of the Impeachment process you can see where the story has gone since the last page was written, and reel in horror wirh acquittal, revenge and pardons for my "bff's"
The authors should now consider a serialisation as 2020 elections loom and the lunatic in chief gains further strength. The story does not end here but the authors did a magnificent job to provide those details thus far. They need to be careful though......
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alison
- 2020-03-11
Just awful narration by Hillary Huber
Fairly good but nothing new, heard it all before. The narration actually made me want to stop listening. This has only happened a couple of times before with Audible but this was the worst yet. Thought at first it was a machine. Dreadful.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dog crazy
- 2020-04-16
The narrator sounds like a computer generated voice...
How weird is that?
The book itself is great (I’m very fond of these journalists’s writing). I got it to have company in the car. But I have to say that I’m thinking of tossing it for the printed version. It’s hard to tell but I think that Hillary Huber is the reader. OMG, at first I thought that the narration was computer generated. Now, I fully realise that they didn’t want someone who would read it in an over-the-top way but this has gone way to far in the other direction. Carol and Philip’s bit was fine; I can only wish that they had done the whole thing.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Ginger
- 2020-03-20
Hard to take
Had to put it aside for long stretches because it just left me feeling angry, hopeless and seriously shook up any belief in a ‘just world’.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- era
- 2020-08-24
Gloriously Interesting and Well-Presented
The most compelling book about the current US administration that I am aware of. My only complaint is that it didnt keep going. I can only hope for a follow-up sometime in the future.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jared A Wolf
- 2020-02-26
Please, No More Trump Books
The author sounds similar to Alexa's monotony. The inflections, impersonations, betray bias, and bad impressions too.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rebekka
- 2020-01-30
Good reporting. Too bad about the narrator.
I was looking forward to Rucker and Leonnig's take on the Trump gong show, but whatever flow their writing might have on paper is lost in this stilted, robotic narration by Hillary Huber. Her delivery is choppy and abrupt, and rather than enhancing the authors' work, it creates a frustrating barrier to it. I haven't finished listening yet, but I may just bail on it and pick up the paper copy. Too bad.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kevin
- 2020-01-29
"He's a loathsome, offensive misfit"
I was rapt by the sheer inability Trump has when it comes to being a leader. The authors tell the story of a man who just can't learn from his mistakes. Stranger still, he really doesn't want to. I really loved how the authors were able to convey their thesis in simple prose. The narration is really great, too.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 🇨🇦Jordan 🇨🇦
- 2020-01-30
A very good read.
Take a look at what's been going on to bring America to the point of Impeachment.
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