Official Review: Illegitimate: Trump’s Election and...

Eutoc · Post by **Eutoc** » 19 Dec 2020, 10:59

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Illegitimate: Trump’s Election and Failed Presidency" by Harold J. Breaux.]

3 out of 4 stars

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The 2016 US presidential election came with a lot of unfathomable events. Harold J. Breaux considers the triumph of Donald Trump as one of the most recent historical anomalies to be witnessed. In his book Illegitimate: Trump’s Election and Failed Presidency, Harold analyses how some series of events before the 2016 election shifted the voters’ decisions in favour of Donald Trump and also the consequences that the US has faced during his presidency.

The Comey letter, Republican-driven voter suppression and fake news were the prevalent events a few months before the 2016 election. These events are what the author refers to as the “triple whammies” – which he believes provided the vote swings from Clinton to Trump. A mathematical model was developed for each of these three whammies to determine the degree of swing caused by them. Maximum Whammy Effect Ratio (MWER) was used as a metric to calculate the extent of the vote swings. The MWER determined how much the three whammies jointly led the Electoral College to hand Trump the presidentship. The second half of the book focuses on the actions, inactions and the poor decision-making of the president’s administration. The final chapter discussed how the outbreak of the current pandemic in the US made Trump’s failures obtrusive.

I found this book to be hilarious, especially when Trump’s lies were recounted. Harold pointed out that Trump had lied about tariff payments at least 108 times in 2019. Another study referenced in the book indicated that Donald Trump has made over 18,000 false claims from the day he assumed office till date. These numbers are staggering. For someone who blindly followed Trump, I find this book to be very informative and well-researched. I learnt things that I previously didn’t know about Trump; I got to know that his proclaimed self-made success in business isn’t so true. I highly appreciate the author’s shrewdness in applying mathematical modelling in studying the dealings of the 2016 election. The models seemed plausible, thereby making his presumptions about the election results more convincing. A reader needn’t have a strong mathematical background to understand these models.

While most of the claims made here are true, I wasn’t comfortable that conclusions were drawn from speculative events. One of the conclusions drawn was that the Republicans allied with the Russian government to spread fake news, on social media platforms, as a means to bias voters’ decisions. Because the conclusion on this issue is subjective, I feel it could be misleading to naive readers. Because of this, I would deduct a star and rate Illegitimate: Trump’s Election and Failed Presidency 3 out of 4 stars.

Illegitimate: Trump’s Election and Failed Presidency is best suited to readers with an interest in politics. The book is professionally edited; I found only two errors while reading through the narrative. The errors were a missing word and a missing full stop. I bet another round of proofreading would clear the errors.

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Illegitimate: Trump’s Election and Failed Presidency
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Raluca_Mihaila · Post by **Raluca_Mihaila** » 03 Jan 2021, 03:41

I appreciated your balanced and honest review! It seems like a useful book for people who want to gain a news perspective regarding the American elections. Trump is certainly a fountain of inspiration for any author

. Great job!

Tarilan · Post by **Tarilan** » 03 Jan 2021, 05:40

18,000 false claims and 108 lies about tariff payments is beyond me. Indeed politics is a dirty game. Thanks for the great review.

Josephe-Anne · Post by **Josephe-Anne** » 03 Jan 2021, 11:53

Well, I'm not really interested in politics. But your review was very detailed and informative, so thank you for that.

It was good that the author employed mathematical models to back up his case. And I agree with your opinion that he shouldn't have included speculative information.

AtienoMagero · Post by **AtienoMagero** » 03 Jan 2021, 11:59

Wonderful review! Your review has been helpful and provided me great insight about this book.

Saint Bruno · Post by **Saint Bruno** » 05 Jan 2021, 02:09

I usually stay away from books about politics but won't mind reading this one due to the hilarity you noted in it. Thank you for the detailed review and recommendation.

Nqobile771 · Post by **Nqobile771** » 05 Jan 2021, 02:54

It sounds like the author did his research on the man. Your review is well put together. Great job.

Reviewer100 · Post by **Reviewer100** » 06 Jan 2021, 09:04

One of the issues I don't want to delve into is the political state of America. But there is a point this book promises to delve into.

Dee_Robert · Post by **Dee_Robert** » 06 Jan 2021, 09:17

Wow, Even the name sounds political. Thank you for your honest and balanced review

Dman_1996 · Post by **Dman_1996** » 12 Jan 2021, 17:01

I'm not usually fond of political books but this review has gotten me interested in reading this book. I heard many theories of what could have happened during the 2016 Presidential election, but this review discusses things that I've not yet heard about. Congrats on creating a great, in-depth review!

_geothereader_ · Post by **_geothereader_** » 07 Feb 2021, 07:42

The first part about the mathematical base of Trump's win in 2016 elections sounds interesting. I've already read an opinion of the other side, Hillary Clinton's memoirs which are highly personal and emotional. But I think the main reason of Trump's victory lies in expectation of change that he would bring.

Anyway, thank you for the thorough review that made me want to read the book.