A castrated Republican Party

TRUMP's presidential triumph in 2016, was no fluke but neither was it pre-ordained. But his failure during the four years of his term was expected — even predictable. Last column's speculation on Trump's Second Coming was predicated on MAGA's continued hold on the conservative right's narrative.

Today's column will shed light on these conjectures as we further delve not only into the flawed character of this man making a comeback, but a cursory review on how he progressed from a business career of bankruptcies, failures, and scams, punctuated by a 15-season run of his reality TV series "The Apprentice," parlaying this into a launching pad for his political career. Several books written during this period will be excerpted here: "The Making of Donald Trump" by a New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, (David Cay Johnston, 2016); "American Carnage" (Tim Alberta, New York Times Bestseller, 2019); and "A Very Stable Genius" (Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, Penguin Press, 2020).