This is a terrifying book and I'm shocked it didn't get more press when it was released. What kind of damage has been left in the wake of having a Russian agent in the White House for four years? Hopefully the Maxwell trial will reveal all.

It was less Trump deep dive, less look into the world of Kompromat (from the Russian side), more look at peripheral actors, who while individually important, contextually did little with regards to the last presidential term and all the nonsense it came with and/or was symptomatic of.

Thoroughly researched account of President Trump's connections with Russians, including some who are part of intelligence networks. Craig Unger is among the best investigative journalists out there on national security issues, and his understanding of how social networks influence intelligence work is apparent in this book. The prose is dense, and the pace intense. Details and quotes support main points. This effect contributes to confidence of serious readers but may turn off some casual readers attracted to the sensational aspects of this topic. On the other hand, some academic readers may object to the tone in the introductory section especially, which plays upon the emotions and sensational aspects of the Trump Russia connections. Unger does an excellent job conveying and supporting two important details often overlooked: 1) intelligence assets need not be totally aware of and complicit in their role in operations and 2) some intelligence services are willing to play a really long game on targeting and operations, which presents a serious danger to a country like ours.

I'm grateful to Penguin and #netgalley for the e-ARC I received of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Craig Unger is an investigative journalist and writer, and “American Kompromat” is a follow-up to his 2018 book, “House of Trump, House of Putin,” in which he made the case for Russian collusion. Kompromat, he explains, is the Russian term for compromising material. It formed the basis for Russian intelligence control of human assets.

This book begins in October, 2020 with an examination of the leadership of Donald Trump before looking backward in time. Unger writes:

“To most of the country, he was vulgar and vile, a misogynistic, racist firebrand, a buffoon who knew only his own pecuniary interests and prejudices and would stop at nothing to satiate them. He was clownish and repellent. But as the election approached, it became increasingly clear that he was far more dangerous than that suggested, that his buffoonery masked real demagoguery, that he was a tyrant who had mesmerized tens of millions of people, and that it didn’t matter to them what he said or did.”

And this book was written before the insurrection of January 6, 2021.

The author then goes on to present a wealth of material to establish that Donald Trump was cultivated and used by Russian intelligence to further their aims. Trump’s awareness of their efforts to control him was not necessary to the process. Unger writes:

“From the KGB’s point of view, the most appealing quality about Trump was probably that he had a personality that was ideal for a recruit - vain, narcissistic, highly susceptible to flattery, and greedy.”

“Trump was a dream for KGB officers looking to recruit an asset…. Everybody has weaknesses. But with Trump it wasn’t just weakness. Everything was excessive. His vanity, excessive. Narcissism, excessive. Greed, excessive. Ignorance, excessive.”

Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was an influx of Russian Mafia and oligarchs into the U.S. who needed to launder billions of dollars, “a need that could best be filled by a wealthy real estate developer who had loads of luxury condos to sell and was willing to look the other way when it came to the source of the money.” This was a perfect set-up for the “perpetually bankrupt Donald Trump.”

Trump, Unger suggests, was compromised through “lucrative money-laundering schemes, sycophantic flattery, pie-in-the-sky Trump Tower Moscow projects, extravagantly well-paid franchising projects, and more.”

More critically, he details, “Russian intelligence had essentially hijacked Trump’s foreign policy in plain sight and nobody noticed,” especially because there was nothing explicitly unlawful about what they did. (The author quotes journalist Michael Kinsley’s observation: “The real scandal isn’t what’s illegal; it’s what is legal.”)

The author also discusses the ways in which it appears as if Donald Trump, Jr., Rudi Giuliani, and Trump’s Attorney General William Barr had also been compromised.

As for deceased sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, he is included because he supposedly had the most kompromat of anyone, even more than the Russians. So far, however, what Epstein had or didn’t have has not been revealed, but even the threat of its existence is powerful. Epstein’s contact list was extensive, and included of course, Donald Trump.

At the very least, what this book shows us is that electing a president with Trump’s weaknesses was a foolhardy proposition - he would never even have received low-level security clearance for government work in normal circumstances.

Evaluation: This book is so disturbing and scary, even without written confirmation of its conclusions. They are based on an overwhelming compilation of circumstantial evidence and bizarre behaviors not otherwise explainable.

I felt like taking a shower after each chapter: the exposure of greed and the rapacious and evil behavior it inspired by all of the actors profiled was sickening. And yet, it is an important book and its allegations and implications of them should be something all citizens are aware of.

https://ccragg123.libsyn.com/just-how-compromised-is-45
An excellent book by a disciplined, highly professional, veteran journalist.
Compelling reading on subject matter that could not be more important than it is right now.

I actually forgot that I already had a copy of this. However I loved this book. I am actually a huge Craig Unger fan. No one has more of a grasp on history or facts than he does. This book is no exception a high on information but still interesting.