David Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
Miles Taylor is best known for writing a 2018 New York Times op-ed titled “ I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” At the time, it was authored anonymously and was followed by The New York Times best-selling book Anonymous, which offered an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the senior Trump official whose first words of warning about the president rocked the nation's capital.
Taylor continues with what he considers to be an urgent message to America with the release of a new book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump. Publishing in July of this year, the book sounds the alarm about how a deeply divided nation is setting the stage for the resurgence of Trumpism.
Taylor’s analysis is about what will likely happen inside the White House of “Trump 2.0” or a corrupt copycat, described by reviewers as a book that “reads like a thriller and hits you like a tornado siren.”
The formerly “Anonymous” former Trump official is back with more insider revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor has interviewed dozens of ex-Trump aides and government leaders, who reveal the policies that are being prepared for a second Trump term, or the White House of a more competent and formidable copycat. Trump’s recent call for a purge of the DOJ by anyone involved with investigating him is only the beginning.
As Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation unfolds, we continue to hear a drip of information that lends credence to Taylor’s account. What sounds like a fictional thriller—from shadowy presidential powers and CIA betrayals to angry henchmen and assassination plots—has become in many ways America’s political reality. Taylor shares untold stories to shed light on the ex-President’s unfulfilled plans and shines a light on the dark forces haunting our civic lives. He also advises us on how we can thwart the rise of extremism in the United States. Blowback is also a surprisingly emotional and self-critical portrait of a dissenter, whose own unmasking provides a vivid warning about what happens when we hide the truth from others and, most importantly, ourselves. We should all be self-reflective as citizens to do what is needed in the coming election cycle and beyond.
Taylor’s feeling about the apologists for Trump were made clear in 2018 at the time of writing Anonymous when he said:
“They have more to add, if they'll find the courage. But even those who've dared to say something still feel deep down that it's not enough. Because it's not. No one is immune. Anyone aiding the Trump administration is, or was, one of his Apologists. They've all waited too long to speak out and haven't spoken forcefully enough. Myself included.”
From that time until the present, Taylor and like-minded Republicans have been dedicated to establishing a principled Republican alternative to the twice impeached and court beleaguered Donald Trump. He is speaking forcefully now, warning Americans of the danger that lies before us, now.
In June 2021, Taylor and former presidential candidate, Evan McMullin, launched a new organization, the Renew America Movement (RAM). The organization's stated goal was to recruit candidates in the 2022 elections to challenge candidates who continue to support Trump believing that principle-based conservatism needed a voice. They were a part of the broad coalition of Republicans who were successful in ensuring that many Trump-endorsed candidates did not get re-elected in the 2022 midterms.
Taylor, along with Republicans Mindy Finn and Evan McMullin, founders of Stand Up Republic, organized a gathering entitled “The New Conservatives Summit.” Attendees represented a wide array of conservative thought: former members of Congress and former governors, prominent academics and pundits, disillusioned Trump aides and staunch Never Trumpers, even officials from the Bush and Reagan administrations.
McMullin and Taylor said they had a simple purpose. A swath of conservatives helped remove Trump from office two months previous, and organizations like McMullin’s Stand Up Republic and Taylor’s RePAIR ( The Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform) were instrumental in that movement. But that groundswell of principle-based conservatism had to be harnessed. Common-sense conservatives needed a home, and McMullin and Taylor wanted to create one.
Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump will be published on July 18, 2023 but is now available for preorder on Amazon.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.