Frankly, We Did Win This Election

The Inside Story of How Trump Lost

By: Michael C. Bender

Narrated by: Eric Pollins

Michael C. Bender, senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, presents a deeply reported account of the 2020 presidential campaign that details how Donald J. Trump became the first incumbent in three decades to lose reelection—and the only one whose defeat culminated in a violent insurrection.

Beginning with President Trump’s first impeachment and ending with his second, FRANKLY, WE DID WIN THIS ELECTION chronicles the inside-the-room deliberations between Trump and his campaign team as they opened 2020 with a sleek political operation built to harness a surge of momentum from a bullish economy, a unified Republican Party, and a string of domestic and foreign policy successes—only to watch everything unravel when fortunes suddenly turned.

With first-rate sourcing cultivated from five years of covering Trump in the White House and both of his campaigns, Bender brings readers inside the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and into the front row of the movement’s signature mega-rallies for the story of an epic election-year convergence of COVID, economic collapse, and civil rights upheaval—and an unorthodox president’s attempt to battle it all.

Fresh interviews with Trump, key campaign advisers, and senior administration officials are paired with an exclusive collection of internal campaign memos, emails, and text messages for scores of never-before-reported details about the campaign.

FRANKLY, WE DID WIN THIS ELECTION is the inside story of how Trump lost, and the definitive account of his final year in office that draws a straight line from the president’s repeated insistence that he would never lose to the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol that imperiled one of his most loyal lieutenants—his own vice president.

So much more than I knew

I have been glued to MSNBC, newspapers, NPR, etc. but there is more behind the scenes horror than we already knew. Reading about the repeated assaults on our government, the judicial system, common decency we’ve observed made this book’s ending more heartbreaking. This guy is golfing every day and enjoying adulation and standing ovations at dinner every evening. Nauseating. But for the constant lies, infighting and backstabbing all around him, he could have done even more damage than he did. Awful, awful man.

Quite good but not great

Bender clearly had great access and tells the sordid story well. Overall it’s a good book. However, I’m a political junkie and even I had to skip over the minutiae about polling, data, and advertising strategy. My other problem was the reader. The voice he uses to read quotes seems to intentionally make the characters sound like idiots. Granted, many were and still are but it is distracting to listen to.

Balanced handling

Three years after the events described unfolded, I am happy to read this book. The balanced treatment of Trump and all other players was much appreciated. Kudos to the author for providing an unbiased and factual recounting of Trump’s presidency.

Never thought of it like that before

Having lived through these historic times and watched closely as they happened I knew how the book was going to end. This wasn't the first or even the second book I have read covering these events and giving insights to the major players.

This telling was compelling, well written and a great trip into a messed up world that I thought I was already familiar with.

This book contained something that I heard before yet it was a perspective I had never considered and if asked I would have confidently said was totally irrelevant to the conversation. Bender talked to MAGA people, I don't know why but he did and I learned alot. I cannot claim to be a MAGA whisper but I do have a slight, the slightest understanding of their thinking. I disagree with them on every single issue every bit as much as I did before but I now have a clue of their thinking, devotion to the mad man and their reasoning behind it.

I found listening to this book enjoyable and it left me informed and thinking 'I have never thought of it like that before' and isn't that truly the mark of a good book.

The title didn’t do it justice

It’s a completed deep dive into the history of Trump. Clarifying now that he’s in his second term. He’s unchanged and lacks any guardrails so the chaos is awful. But based on this book, we should’ve seen it coming.