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.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump delivered his address days after the Supreme Court struck down the administration's tariff strategy, and amid a U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf threatening Iran.
Some MAGA loyalists have turned on Trump. Why the rest haven’t
I recently watched "A Face in the Crowd" for the umpteenth time.
I had a better reason than procrastination to rewatch Elia Kazan’s brilliant 1957 film exploring populism in the television age. It was homework. I was asked to discuss it with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz at the just-concluded TCM Film Festival in Los Angeles. As a pundit and an author, I do a lot of public speaking. But I don’t really do a lot of cool public speaking, so this was a treat.
With that not-very-humble brag out of the way, I had a depressing realization watching it this time.
"A Face in the Crowd" tells the story of a charming drifter with a dark side named Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, played brilliantly by Andy Griffith. A singer with the gift of the gab, Rhodes takes off on radio but quickly segues to the brand-new medium of television. He becomes a national sensation — and political kingmaker — by forming a deep connection with the masses, particularly among the rural and working classes. His core audience is made up of people with grievances. “Everybody that’s got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle,” as Rhodes puts it.
The film’s climax (spoiler alert) comes when Rhodes’ manager and spurned lover, Marcia, turns on the microphone while the credits rolled at the end of “Cracker Barrel,” his national TV show. Rhodes tells his entourage what he really thinks of the “morons” in his audience. “Shucks, I can take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them for caviar. I can make them eat dog food, and they’ll think it’s steak. … Good night, you stupid idiots.”
It was a canonical “hot mic” moment in American cinema. But the idea that if people could glimpse the “real person” behind the popular facade, they’d turn on them is a very old theme in literature — think Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) or Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s "The School for Scandal" (1777), in which diaries and letters do the work of microphones.
Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg were very worried about the ability of demagogues to whip up populist fervor and manipulate the masses through the power of TV, in part because everyone had already seen it happen with radio and film, by Father Coughlin in America and Hitler in Germany. But as dark as their vision was, they still clung to the idea that if the demagogue was exposed, the people would instantly turn on their leader in an “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment for the mass media age.
And that’s the source of my depressing realization. I think they were wrong. It turns out that once that organic connection is made, even a shocking revelation of the truth won’t necessarily break the spell.
In 2016, a lot of writers revisited "A Face in the Crowd" to understand the Trump phenomenon. After all, here was a guy who used a TV show — "The Apprentice" — and social media to build a massive following, going over the heads of the “establishment.” Trump’s own hot mic moment with "Access Hollywood," in which he boasted of his sexual predations, proved insufficient to undo him. That was hardly the only such moment for him. We’ve heard Trump bully the Georgia secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes.” He told Bob Woodward he deliberately “played down” COVID-19. After leaving office, he was recorded telling aides he shouldn’t be sharing classified documents with them — then doing it anyway. And so on.
Trump’s famous claim that he could “shoot somebody” on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters may have been hyperbole. But it’s not crazy to think he wouldn’t lose as many voters as he should.
In the film, Lonesome Rhodes implodes when Americans encounter his off-air persona. The key to Trump’s success is that he ran as his off-air persona. Why people love that persona is a complicated question. Among the many complementary explanations is that he comes across as authentic, and some people value authenticity more than they value good character, honesty, or competence.
This is not just a problem for Republicans. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner once had a Nazi tattoo and has said things about women as distasteful as Trump’s “grab them by (the genitals)” comments, and the Democratic establishment is rallying around him because he’s authentic — and because Democrats want to win that race.
Many prominent MAGA loyalists are turning on Trump these days. They claim — wrongly in my opinion — that he’s changed and that the Iran war is a betrayal of their cause. But if you look at the polls, voters who describe themselves as “MAGA” still overwhelmingly support Trump. In short, he still has the Fifth Avenue voters on his side.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.