2024

How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America

De: Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, Isaac Arnsdorf

Narrado por: Edoardo Ballerini

In 2024, award-winning reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf bring us the definitive, inside story of the most tumultuous and consequential presidential campaign in our history.

“The whole world was against me, and I won,” said Donald Trump in an exclusive interview, ten days before his second inauguration. Nearly four years after Trump’s first turbulent presidency concluded in a violent attempt to overturn the election, he made a political comeback on a scale that stunned the nation. How did the first U.S. president to become a convicted felon regain control of the White House? And at what cost? 2024 is the explosive account of how Trump and his advisers overcame a dozen primary challengers, four indictments, two assassination attempts, and his own past mistakes to defeat the Democrats, and pave the way for a second term that would be far more aggressive and ruthless than the first.

Drawing on extraordinary access to the Trump, Biden, and Harris teams, 2024 takes listeners beyond the speeches, rallies, and debates to reveal the innermost workings of the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns. Beginning in August 2022 with the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents, and Trump’s subsequent decision to run once again for president, Dawsey, Pager, and Arnsdorf chart how Trump stifled the rise of Republican opponents, including Ron DeSantis, and how his campaign, led by Susie Wiles, landed on a winning strategy. They reveal in unrivaled detail how Joe Biden and his team brushed off concerns about his age, ignored polling numbers, and held off the next generation of eager Democratic hopefuls—even as Biden was dealing with his own special counsel investigation and the trial of his son Hunter. After his disastrous debate performance forced him to withdraw, Biden anointed Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate and tasked her with running the shortest presidential campaign in modern U.S. history. With only 107 days to distinguish herself from the past four years, Harris lacked the time or space to outrun Biden’s shadow—a challenge in and of itself, but one which Biden would make even more difficult. On November 5th, 2024, Trump was elected the nation’s forty-seventh president, and would return to power vindicated, emboldened, unrestrained, and burning for revenge.

Gripping, revelatory, and deeply reported, 2024 is the shocking inside story of the election that tested American democracy and would go on to shape the future of the free world.

©2025 Penguin Publishing Group (P)2025 Penguin Audio

More of same

I have opened my spring and summer reading with “Fight”, “Original Sin” and now “2024”. 2024 wears a decidedly more anti Trump pallor to it. Original Sin was told by a leftist CNN pundit but correctly assessed the situation. 2024 tells more of the same with fewer surprises Hoping for more inside baseball scoop What we knew then was Biden’s policies were failure We could see Biden could barely get around on his own prior to the debate debacle and Word Salad Harris couldn’t string sentences together that were coherent and competent and she was Biden 2.0. Sometimes it’s not what you vote for but what you vote against. Interesting read. As a history junkie and student it does spin a great story.

Great but bias

I really liked the book. It was super well-written and covered a ton of stuff. I found it really engaging and interesting. There were some things I didn't know. Politics is a tough game, not for the faint of heart. If I had one issue with the book, it's that the writers are clearly anti-Trump. They go easy on Biden and Harris, like they're these perfect people who only mess up by accident, never on purpose. With Trump, he's the bad guy, a liar who never means what he says. Even when he's telling the truth, they don't let up on him. If you can get past that, the book is good, and it's not like it's everywhere, but you can definitely see their bias in certain parts, and it's totally anti-Trump.

Trump is a pig.

everyone working for trump, are likewise......pigs, huge porcine mounds of just a little too much gall and blather.

Biased

Highly biased. Whitewashes democrats and ignores their terrible policies. Trump failings are highlighted in worst possible light while glossing over Democrat failings.

Incredible

Great listen. MAGA all the way. The author hates Trump but tells the truth. And that truth is Trump beat Biden and Harris

Some Interesting Info but Weirdly Gullible Authors

The authors seem to take their interviewee's word for things uncritically, even when it should set off your BS alarms. This is true for both Dems and Republicans, but they're especially bad about trusting Dems.

For instance, at one point Trump says he never considered running for President again until the documents indictment. Really? Not even a thought of running again? Even though tons of people were urging him to run again? Don't bother looking into the outside facts or conflicting quotes, they said so therefore it must be true.

Worst of all is when they breeze past Joe Biden's disasterous debate performance by saying "Every one [of his aides] agree that nothing nearly that bad had ever happened before." Really? You're just going to take their word for it? You're not going to mention all the public appearances where he was noticably getting worse? Not going to mention how this statement conflicts with all the on-the-record and off-the-record comments about Biden's slow decline in Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson?

Like I said, the whole book is weirdly gullible when it comes to quoting people, and their credulous coverage of Biden's decline is just bizarre in how much stock it puts in Dem's word for things. But I guess that's what the Washington Post has been reduced to these days. Read Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson instead.

Incredible insight!

Fascinating and incredible insight into the most fascinating and incredible president election to ever happen in America.

Wondering how true the narrative is.

It is difficult to assess how much is true and how much is embellished. It is clear that the authors have a less-than-favorable view of President Trump, and that comes out in the narrative. Similarly, while the authors paint an unflattering picture of President Biden’s administration, the critique is more muted and less damming. As for VP Harris, the story turns on time. In essence, time ran out; the machinery required to turn out a successful Presidential campaign never fully materialized. Failure is laid at the feet of a divided leadership team — Obama’s team that stayed on in the Biden administration, the team that surrounded Biden, and the team that supported Harris never coalesced around a common message. Add to the team dynamics, the sense that Biden handcuffed Harris with his “handoff” and subsequent support.

A compelling story

Since Game Change is apparently over this is the closest we have to it.
Very good. Some surprises and a lot of explanations for the seemingly, at the time, odd decisions of the candidates.

I did not like the narration at all.

There are much better books out there regarding the campaign. I just can't recommend this one