__karen__'s review
5.0
When I shelved this book, I thought it sounded interesting. As I began reading, I realized it ties together several threads that news stories have hinted at: How the KGB/FSB cultivates assets; Trump's involvement with Epstein, possible human trafficking, and perhaps Epstein's mysterious demise; Russian money laundering; how NATO and U.S. allies were deprioritized under Trump; the ascension of William Barr and "burrowing" of Trump sycophants into the U.S. government; and the "big lie" perpetuated by Trump and cronies that he'd won the November 2020 election. And so on...
Some books get off to a slow start. American Kompromat's first chapter is incendiary: "It had been the worst of times -- like in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, but without the hope and light," and "Fascism was in the air."
The book relies heavily upon information provided by Yuri Shvets, a former high-ranking KGB officer, along with Unger's journalism. I've long felt Trump pursued policies to help Russia (rather than the U.S.) due to his mutually beneficial financial relationships with Russian plutocrats: Wealthy Russian buys Trump properties using opaque LLC and Trump profits while the Russian may well be money laundering. A marriage of convenience.
There are two tracks in the book: 1) Russian Kompromat involving Trump and his cronies, 2) The dismantling of U.S. democracy during Trump's watch. Both tracks are fascinating and rigorously detailed by Mr. Unger.
The book ends with the November 2020 election outcome. While I found American Kompromat enlightening, I wish it could have included the author's perspective on the Jan. 6 violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
Despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump's legal problems, as well as his seeming role in encouraging the Jan 6 Capitol siege, it seems Trump and Trumpism will remain a fixture in American politics for the foreseeable future. God help us all.
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‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book
Some books get off to a slow start. American Kompromat's first chapter is incendiary: "It had been the worst of times -- like in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, but without the hope and light," and "Fascism was in the air."
The book relies heavily upon information provided by Yuri Shvets, a former high-ranking KGB officer, along with Unger's journalism. I've long felt Trump pursued policies to help Russia (rather than the U.S.) due to his mutually beneficial financial relationships with Russian plutocrats: Wealthy Russian buys Trump properties using opaque LLC and Trump profits while the Russian may well be money laundering. A marriage of convenience.
There are two tracks in the book: 1) Russian Kompromat involving Trump and his cronies, 2) The dismantling of U.S. democracy during Trump's watch. Both tracks are fascinating and rigorously detailed by Mr. Unger.
The book ends with the November 2020 election outcome. While I found American Kompromat enlightening, I wish it could have included the author's perspective on the Jan. 6 violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
Despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump's legal problems, as well as his seeming role in encouraging the Jan 6 Capitol siege, it seems Trump and Trumpism will remain a fixture in American politics for the foreseeable future. God help us all.
-----
Spoiler
The Guardian article about American Kompromat, Jan 29, 2021 -‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book
scribepub's review
For the first time a former KGB employee has gone on record to describe Donald Trump's historic relationship with the Kremlin. It's a bombshell that must be looked into.
Robert Baer, Former CIA Operative and Author of See No Evil
Trump's loyalty to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was deeper and more insidious than merely envying his wealth and power. America has removed Putin's puppet from the White House, but the KGB man who controlled him is still in the Kremlin, eager to repeat the success of his greatest operation: President Trump. Read Craig Unger to understand why the danger to American democracy is far from over.
Garry Kasparov, Chairman of The Renew Democracy Foundation and Author of Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped
By compiling decades of Trump's seedy ties, disturbing and consistent patterns of behaviour, and unexplained contacts with Russian officials and criminals, Unger makes a strong case that Trump is probably a compromised trusted contact of Kremlin interests.
John Sipher, Washington Post
Craig Unger has just published a wonderful, well-written book. The jewel in the crown is how the KGB cultivated Donald Trump. With assistance of the eminent former KGB officer Yuri Shvets, American Kompromat establishes how it really took place.
Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow of The Atlantic Council
A must-read. The gun's not quite smoking, but the barrel's plenty hot, and there are Russian shell casings all around. STARRED REVIEW
Kirkus Reviews
Unger shows how the most powerful people in the world use kompromat — Russian for compromising information — to further their political goals. Think Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, Russians and Israelis — and ask how they get this information.
Library Journal
Robert Baer, Former CIA Operative and Author of See No Evil
Trump's loyalty to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was deeper and more insidious than merely envying his wealth and power. America has removed Putin's puppet from the White House, but the KGB man who controlled him is still in the Kremlin, eager to repeat the success of his greatest operation: President Trump. Read Craig Unger to understand why the danger to American democracy is far from over.
Garry Kasparov, Chairman of The Renew Democracy Foundation and Author of Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped
By compiling decades of Trump's seedy ties, disturbing and consistent patterns of behaviour, and unexplained contacts with Russian officials and criminals, Unger makes a strong case that Trump is probably a compromised trusted contact of Kremlin interests.
John Sipher, Washington Post
Craig Unger has just published a wonderful, well-written book. The jewel in the crown is how the KGB cultivated Donald Trump. With assistance of the eminent former KGB officer Yuri Shvets, American Kompromat establishes how it really took place.
Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow of The Atlantic Council
A must-read. The gun's not quite smoking, but the barrel's plenty hot, and there are Russian shell casings all around. STARRED REVIEW
Kirkus Reviews
Unger shows how the most powerful people in the world use kompromat — Russian for compromising information — to further their political goals. Think Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, Russians and Israelis — and ask how they get this information.
Library Journal
rainbowbookworm's review
1.0
The author!s writing is amateurish. I spend enough time telling my students not to say, “In this essay I will talk about...” and Unger kept saying, “In this book I will prove...” Much like my students in their analytic essays, Unger did not prove what he set out to prove. His so-called evidence is made up of hearsay and wild conjecture.
cicimaee's review
informative
4.0
3.5 stars. a bit dry and a clear liberal bias. it tells the tale of the complicated and well spun web connecting the KGB, Epstein, Trump, and Opus Dei. I imagine in 30 years when my hypothetical teenage child comes to me and asks, "what happened with Trump?" I will silently hand them this book and walk away to stare out a window.
jayablanchard's review
2.0
This is a good book if you don't obsessively consume political news. Given that I do just that, it wasn't for me
fionak's review
4.0
Unger details the history of Trump's long-standing relationship with Russia (notably laundering money for oligarchs through real estate and parroting Russian policy in the American media) followed by all the other people in his sphere before pivoting to Opus Dei and William Barr. The Opus Dei stuff isn't as well documented, but it wouldn't be much of a secret society if it didn't diligently keep secrets. Then Jeffrey Epstein and Robert Maxwell are examined. It sounds amorphous but all these threads intersect at Donald Trump; although the author doesn't establish the sort of over-arching conspiracy favored by fiction, there's much to be disturbed by chronicled here.
vladdbad's review
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.25
There is one serious flaw in this otherwise excellent account of the unusual ties between Trump and Russian intelligence: FBI counter-intelligence chief-cum-mole Robert Hanssen. The only connection between Hanssen and any other player in the saga is shared conservative Catholic beliefs, beliefs encompassed by membership in a conservative Catholic group that has a sinister reputation and may-or-may-not have ties to William Barr and legal enablers of Trump. This inclusion of a such a weak thread where everything else in enmeshed in a nested series of webs raises doubts and eyebrows about the reasons for the inclusion, doubts that ill-serve the author. It raises questions of an anti-Catholic (or at least anti-clerical) bias, and it could easily be omitted as completely unnecessary.
The overall thesis is well-supported, and the frequency of appearance of the same names, faces, and social networks in different places and functions suggests there is fire behind the smoke, but the lengthy and narratively central digression into what in the end leads to nothing is unfortunate. That Hanssen betrayed his religion as well as his nation and vocation is a far more parsimonious conclusion.
The overall thesis is well-supported, and the frequency of appearance of the same names, faces, and social networks in different places and functions suggests there is fire behind the smoke, but the lengthy and narratively central digression into what in the end leads to nothing is unfortunate. That Hanssen betrayed his religion as well as his nation and vocation is a far more parsimonious conclusion.