Breaking History: A White House Memoir Hardcover – 1 Sept. 2022

Really great book, helps shed light on the Trump administration from a never before seen angle.

its nice to hear jareds point of view from him and not the media

This book provides meaningful insights into how some key issues in the Trump Administration were formulated and implemented.Trump supporters will likely enjoy this book – as well as those who may agree with Mitt Romney regarding the type of role model President Trump is and was -- but nevertheless thought many of President Trump’s policies were beneficial for the country.Those antagonistic to the Trump Administration – or Trump haters more generally -- will likely focus on (i) the elements of braggadocio in this book, without acknowledging that most memoirs promote the author’s own achievements, and (ii) Kushner’s failure to acknowledge and comment upon how President Trump’s personal style may have at times prevented or delayed the Administration from achieving its objectives and how it ultimately cost President Trump re-election.This book is particularly rewarding for the account it provides of the Administration’s – and Kushner’s – role in the Middle East and the Abraham Accords. Agree or disagree with Kushner’s account, it is thought-provoking and worthwhile. For an interesting different perspective, google (Foreign Policy correspondent) Steven A. Cook’s 11 September 2022 review “Breaking History For No Good Reason” on the web.I’ve read numerous books on President Trump’s (astonishing, in my opinion) 2016 election victory and how he subsequently implemented his policies as President. Those books include:1. Chris Christi, Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics (January 2019).2. John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir (June 2020).3. William Barr, One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs Of An Attorney General (March 2022).4. Kellyanne Conway, Here’s The Deal: A Memoir (May 2022).While I found each of these books worthwhile [with William Barr’s book being exceptional – also providing perspective on his time serving as Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush and meaningful insights into what makes a society tick with his discussions on the role of education and religion], both Christie and Conway portrayed Kushner as a problematic snake whose role in the White House was solely the result of his happening to be President Trump’s son-in-law. Having thus formed a very negative impression of Kushner’s role in the Administration, when I came across this book by chance when browsing the Amazon book section, I decided I wanted to hear Kushner’s side of the story.One additional note that was particularly significant to me – Christie explained in his book the extensive work he did to prepare for a smooth and orderly transition to power in January 2017 by identifying and vetting suitable candidates to fill key positions, only to have Kushner and his team ignore that work. Given the Administration’s failure to promptly fill many key positions, I formed the opinion that Kushner’s actions inflicted major damage on the Administration. Kushner seems to address this concern on page 56 by noting (i) Steve Bannon, wanting to derail any possibility of Christie being Trump’s Chief of Staff, commented Christie “was angling to slot his closest political cronies – including anti-Trump establishment types – into the most important appointments regardless of their qualifications” and (ii) both Bannon and Steve Munchin reviewed Christie’s transition materials and believed they failed to meet proper vetting, research, and professional standards for hiring key personnel.” Readers will determine for themselves the extent to which they find this persuasive or an attempt by Kushner to avoid responsibility for actions which damaged the Administration’s ability to get off to a maximally effective start. Indeed, this is one of multiple instances in this memoir where readers will have to determine for themselves whether they are persuaded.In terms of rating – I give this 4 instead of 5 stars because (i) while I don’t expect a Memoir to meet scholarly standards for footnotes, there were multiple occasions where I wanted to know Mr. Kushner’s source for a point and there was no footnote, and (ii) Kushner, even as a son-in-law, could do a better job pointing out where President Trump could have conducted himself in a more controlled and goal-oriented approach to facilitate better achieving his objectives.

Complete whitewash and very badly written

Good quality and all the information is in details

Transparency of the author with the issues he was facing and the way he dealt with them.