Billionaire at the Barricades

Publisher's Summary

This program is read by the author.

Americans didn't just go to the polls in 2016. They joined a movement that swept the unlikeliest of candidates, Donald Trump, into the Oval Office. Can he complete his agenda? Or will his opponents in the media, protester class, and political establishment block his efforts and choke off the movement he represents?

In Billionaire at the Barricades, Laura Ingraham gives listeners a front row seat to the populist revolution as she witnessed it. She reveals the origins of this movement and its connection to the Trump presidency. She unmasks the opposition, forecasts the future of the Make America Great Again agenda and offers her own prescriptions for bringing real change to the swamp of Washington.

Unlike most of her media colleagues, Ingraham understood Trump's appeal and defied those who wrote his political obituary. Now she confronts the president's critics and responds to those who deny the importance of his America First agenda. With sharp humor and insight she traces the DNA of the populist movement: from Goldwater's 1964 campaign, to Nixon's Silent Majority, to Reagan's smashing electoral victories.

Populism fueled the insurgency campaigns of Buchanan and Perot, the election of George W. Bush, and the Tea Party rallies of the Obama presidency. But a political novice - a Manhattan billionaire - proved to be the movement's most vocal champion. This is the inside story of his victory and the fitful struggle to enact his agenda.

©2017 Laura Ingraham (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

I can’t stop listening!!

I bought the audio version of the book. I can’t stop listening! Listening to Laura narrate the book is great. The ties between Reagan & Trump are so interesting. It’s fantastic going back to the Reagan days & remembering those days as well as Trump’s road to the White House.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Great Time Line of Events

Loved being brought through the time line of events over the decades in this. Great audio.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

The unlikelist US president!

Political populism is easily and completely defined as anti-elitism. As such it is concerned with the welfare of the general population and it tends to be nationalistic and anti-establishment. Populism can be left wing, centrist, or right wing; it can occur across the political spectrum. For example, Bernie Sanders' 2015-2016 campaign for the Democrat Party nomination was clearly populist as was Donald Trump's presidential bid. Hillary Clinton's campaign was just as clearly elitist/establishment. Donald Trump was born and raised in New York City the son of a millionaire builder. He is a multi-billionaire. His university education was at the prestigious Wharton School at the University of PA. He was mostly known across the country for his TV show where he fired people and his name on buildings. His background is urban and elitist. He had NO political experience at any level. Yet he campaigned as the pro-US champion of the the dwindling working middle class and he lost the urban elitist "citizen of the world" vote as well as the establishment Republican vote by huge margins while winning the rural and suburban vote. The result was and is mind boggling. The two living Republican ex-presidents voted against him. To put it mildly the brash and egotistical New Yorker made a lot of mistakes along the way, but he ran at a time the policies that global elitists of both parties had done real economic damage to the US middle class and Hillary Clinton was going to continue on that path. He ran on sound economic and pro-US principles. The two major conservative national magazines (National Review and Weekly Standard) as well as the two best known conservative newspaper columnists (George Will and Charles Krauthammer) actively opposed him.

Author Laura Ingraham was an early Trump supporter. In this book she makes the case that Trump continues in the populist and pro-US path of Ronald Reagan. Maybe so, but Reagan was never purposely crude and vindictive as Trump often is. Reagan grew up in poverty and attended a no-name college.

Only about one-third of this book is about Trump and the 2016 presidential election. The rest is an excellent review of modern US election history. The book is superb and Ingraham's narration of her book is outstanding.

11 of 12 people found this review helpful

Revealing. Honest. Alive. Fun.

Being there with feeling. The Marine is right we don’t cut to the front of the line. But we do honor real hero’s. Find this Man. Take him to the White House. America was in the wheelchair with him on that night in Virginia. Let him represent America in meeting the President. Together we won a piece of our country back.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Feel the Excitement Again

Read Laura’s new book about the 2 years prior to the 2016 Presidential election and President Trump’s first year in office. You will feel the excitement all over again.

A blow by blow narrative walks you trough candidate Trump’s successes and the DNC’s miscalculations and blunders.

I love Laura’s guts to personally read the entire book to me. This means a lot to me whenever an author does that.

I love how she changes her voice when directly or indirectly quoting one of the books real life characters for great emphasis before shifting back to her own voice.

Laura, you and your staff did a great job reporting on air during the original events and now providing an accurate recollection.

Thank you Laura.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Incredible

Laura is being Laura - on fire! I loved listening to her tell the story. Beautifully written and narrated with lots of humor interspersed with true story.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Amazing! Be sure to get the Audible version

No one is more qualified to write about the modern conservative populist movement than Laura Ingraham. She worked for the Reagan Administration, and has commented and written on the fall and rise of it since.

Her passion and personality shine through her reading. I don't know how she found the time or energy to write this book, but it is a "must read" for anyone interested in modern political history. And the fact that she is the reader is a special gift to us.

If you enjoyed her speech at the 2016 Convention, and look forward to her new show on Fox, you will love this book! There are a few of my favorites that I have bought the hard copy as well as the Audible copy. This is one of them. The Audible version has my highest recommendation!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

I highly recommend this book. Fabulous!

Loved it. Educational and entertainin. A must read for somebody new to politics of those that want to verify their view of today's Washington DC "elite".

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Go Trump

great book Laura love listening to your radio program. I was a Donald Trump supporter from the very beginning and that was probably in my lifetime will go down as the best and most exciting election ever. I wish you would have included more details about that election night and I wish someone would make a movie on it because that was one heck of a fun night.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great Listen

Laura's book is without doubt the best political book I have ever read. The book was extremely interesting and her insights are excellent. I listened to the book twice to make sure I comprehended all the information in the book. Congratulations Laura.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great book on 'Populism' in the USA

by a respected Journalist and Conservative.
Good stuff and not blended with the usual bias and media BSB we have now sadly come to expect as "normal".