Thank You for Your Servitude

Mark Leibovich is a recipient of the National Magazine Award for profile writing. He is the author of four books, including the number one New York Times bestseller This Town, about the political culture of twenty-first-century Washington, D.C. He recently joined The Atlantic, after a ten-year stint as chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine. Before arriving at the magazine in 2012, Leibovich covered national politics in the Times' Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury News. He lives with his family in Washington, D.C.

The #1 New York Times Bestseller

He s one of the best chroniclers of politics today. Jake Tapper
This is a really funny book. Kara Swisher
His writing is so damn good. John Berman
Really fascinating...There are so many revelations. Anderson Cooper
The new must read summer book. Stephanie Ruhle

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller This Town, the eyewitness account of how the GOP collaborated with Donald Trump to transform Washington s swamp into a gold-plated hot tub and a onetime party of rugged individualists into a sycophantic personality cult.
 
In the early months of Trump s candidacy, the Republican Party s most important figures, people such as Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, were united and loud in their scorn and contempt. Even more, in their outrage: Trump was a menace and an affront to our democracy. Then, awkwardly, Trump won.

Thank You for Your Servitude is Mark Leibovich s unflinching account of the moral rout of a major American political party, tracking the transformation of Rubio, Cruz, Graham, and their ilk into the administration s chief enablers, and the swamp s lesser lights into frantic chasers of the grift. What would these politicos do to preserve their place in the sun, or at least the orbit of the spray tan? What would they do to preserve their relevance ? Almost anything, it turns out. Trump s savage bullying of everyone in his circle, along with his singular command of his political base, created a dangerous culture of submission in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, many of the most alpha of the lapdogs happily conceded to Mark Leibovich that they were in on the joke. As Lindsey Graham told the author, his supporters in South Carolina generally don t read The New York Times, and they won t read this book, either. All that cynicism, shading into nihilism, led to a country truly unhinged from reality, and to the events of January 6, 2021. It s a vista that makes the Washington of This Town seem like a comedy of manners in comparison. 
 
Thank You for Your Servitude isn t another view from the Oval Office: it s the view from the Trump Hotel. We can check out any time we want, but only time will tell if we can ever leave.

RETURN TO MEGA-BESTSELLING FORM: Mark Leibovich took a diversion with Big Game to write about the NFL, and it was a bestseller, but he is the chief political correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, and a frequent MSNBC talking head on the subject of politics, not football. There's a reason This Town was a #1 bestseller. And the stakes of this book are much, much higher.FUNNY BUT VERY HARD-HITTING: As bad as Trump was, the real outrage were all the career politicians who absolutely knew better and went along anyway. And when Trump is long gone, they'll still be the problem. "ALPHA LAPDOGS": The GOP's big fish who were Trump's key enablers are the narrative center of gravity here, and they gave ML a lot of time, and a lot of rope with which to hang them. Rubio, Cruz, Graham - the cynicism is so bald it will be news-making.EYEWITNESS VIEW: As with This Town, a lot of the amazing energy of the read comes from the scenes Leibovich witnessed first-hand, including many with Trump and the inner circle. LANDING WITH BOTH FEET IN THE 2022 MIDTERM CONVERSATION: This is the master narrative explaining the GOP of QAnon, Stop the Steal, and January 6th.