Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus

by Matt Taibbi

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248	10	114,914	(4.06)	6
"Dispatches from the 2016 election that provide an eerily prescient take on our democracy's uncertain future, by the country's most perceptive and fearless political journalist. The 2016 presidential contest as told by Matt Taibbi, from its tragicomic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion, is in fact the story of Western civilization's very own train wreck. Years before the clown car of candidates was fully loaded, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism that would destroy what was left of the Kingian dream of a successful pluralistic society. Taibbi captures, with dead-on, real-time analysis, the failures of the right and the left, from the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the flawed and aimless Hillary Clinton campaign; the rise of the "dangerously bright" alt-right with its wall-loving identity politics and its rapturous view of the "Racial Holy War" to come; and the giant fail of a flailing, reactive political media that fed a ravenous news cycle not with reporting on political ideology, but with undigested propaganda served straight from the campaign bubble. At the center of it all stands Donald J. Trump, leading a historic revolt against his own party, "bloviating and farting his way" through the campaign, "saying outrageous things, acting like Hitler one minute and Andrew Dice Clay the next." For Taibbi, the stunning rise of Trump marks the apotheosis of the new postfactual movement. Taibbi frames the reporting with original essays that explore the seismic shift in how we perceive our national institutions, the democratic process, and the future of the country. Insane Clown President is not just a postmortem on the collapse and failure of American democracy. It offers the riveting, surreal, unique, and essential experience of seeing the future in hindsight"--… (more)

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Given that it was essentially a complication of material, it seemed to run together after a while, but the theme of the media critique is worth part of the time spent reading it.

Brio95 | May 31, 2023 |

Matt Taibbi covered the 2016 U.S. presidential election primaries, and his book Insane Clown President looks at this dispatches during time. While he may not have been wildly supportive of Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, he clearly was not supportive in any way of Donald Trump. To Taibbi, the entire slate of Republican candidates in the 2016 election cycle were failed candidates. The Republican Party candidates were compared to circus clowns, one after another, coming out of the tiny Volkswagen. But of all the candidates, none of them were held in lower esteem than Donald Trump. Taibbi writes in his dispatches from early in the primaries of how Trump could never earn enough support to become the G.O.P. candidate. As Trump won more and more primaries, Taibbi wrote that should he become the G.O.P. nominee, it would spell the end of the Republican Party.

All that negative reporting shouldn't disuade Conservatives from reading this book, because they clearly get the last laugh. It's not impossible to believe that some of Taibbi's fears and projections may yet end up coming true, but for now, at least, Trump supporters can smugly point out just how his early prophesies failed to pan out. (

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rsutto22 | Jul 15, 2021 |

It's safe to say that the shock of the 2016 election broke just about everyone's brains. Even though we are still drowning under a tidal wave of Trump takes, some are more vital to read than others, and since shocks have a way of distorting the memory, Taibbi's Rolling Stone columns are both crucial reporting as a history and useful insight into the crises of national unity we're going to face in the future. Right from the clever title, which alludes to the surprising Rust Belt flip that let Trump sneak in the back door to the White House, Taibbi reports on his impressions both as a professional journalist - rarely one of the most loved profession even in good times but downright vilified in 2016 - and as an ordinary American struggling to cope with one of the most astounding political and social events in recent memory. A natural comparison would be Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, but Taibbi is far less self-centered than Thompson, and more perceptive about what the forces that led to Trump's election portend for the future; it's more reminiscent of his similar 2004 campaign travelogue Spanking the Donkey. One of the biggest casualties of 2016 was the meager remains of America's already scant trust in the media, yet Taibbi shows why the likeliest alternative - the fact-free abyss of our infantile desire to live in worlds of reflexive affirmation - is no solution at all. I realize that Trump Burnout Syndrome is real, but this reporting is good enough to devour even so. (

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aaronarnold | May 11, 2021 |

I saw an interview with Mr. Taibbi in which this book was discussed, and having an unused credit in my Audible account, picked it up.

The book is primarily a collection of articles that Taibbi wrote as a journalist for Rolling Stone throughout the recent election cycle. Through their piecing together, the author provides one of the earliest attempts to make sense of the result that surprised much of America--especially those on the left.

Contempt for the failures of both parties to keep Trump out of the White House is the connecting theme throughout. Besides making some extra money off of sales, it seems that the book provided a touch of catharsis for the author (which is pretty much the reason it appealed to me). It is essentially a rant, and an opportunity to point fingers and call Trump an idiot over and over again. If that's what your looking for, here's your book.

I'm giving it 3/5 stars because in my rating system 2/5 means I didn't like it, and I didn't dislike it. That said, I can't really recommend it to anyone who's not just looking to have their ears scratched by a fellow Trump dissenter. By the time I powered through the end of the book, it was just to have it done with. (

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StephenLegg | Dec 3, 2019 |

Intended to be the history of how Trump destroyed the Republican Party, it became the history of how Trump destroyed the Republican Party and became President anyway. Democrats--please read this.

ritaer | Aug 8, 2017 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Matt Taibbi	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Juhasz, Victor	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Mollica, Greg	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Shapiro, Rob	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Turner, Susan	Designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Non-Fiction – 2017)

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Original title

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Original publication date

2017-01-17

People/Characters

Donald Trump

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Important places

Important events

Presidential election 2016

Related movies

Epigraph

I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

— Molly Ivins

Dedication

To my beautiful son Nate, born during this madness

First words

Introduction

A little over ten years ago, while writing a book and working as a correspondent for Rolling Stone, I thought I saw a new trend in American politics.

Ten years before Donald Trump, I wrote a book about Middle America's growing mistrust of government, the media, and other mainstream forces.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

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Original language

English

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▾Book descriptions

"Dispatches from the 2016 election that provide an eerily prescient take on our democracy's uncertain future, by the country's most perceptive and fearless political journalist. The 2016 presidential contest as told by Matt Taibbi, from its tragicomic beginnings to its apocalyptic conclusion, is in fact the story of Western civilization's very own train wreck. Years before the clown car of candidates was fully loaded, Taibbi grasped the essential themes of the story: the power of spectacle over substance, or even truth; the absence of a shared reality; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism that would destroy what was left of the Kingian dream of a successful pluralistic society. Taibbi captures, with dead-on, real-time analysis, the failures of the right and the left, from the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the flawed and aimless Hillary Clinton campaign; the rise of the "dangerously bright" alt-right with its wall-loving identity politics and its rapturous view of the "Racial Holy War" to come; and the giant fail of a flailing, reactive political media that fed a ravenous news cycle not with reporting on political ideology, but with undigested propaganda served straight from the campaign bubble. At the center of it all stands Donald J. Trump, leading a historic revolt against his own party, "bloviating and farting his way" through the campaign, "saying outrageous things, acting like Hitler one minute and Andrew Dice Clay the next." For Taibbi, the stunning rise of Trump marks the apotheosis of the new postfactual movement. Taibbi frames the reporting with original essays that explore the seismic shift in how we perceive our national institutions, the democratic process, and the future of the country. Insane Clown President is not just a postmortem on the collapse and failure of American democracy. It offers the riveting, surreal, unique, and essential experience of seeing the future in hindsight"--

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