How Russia Won - by David Corn (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The definitive and riveting investigation into how Vladimir Putin successfully mounted a decade-long covert war against the United States and how Donald Trump aided and abetted the operation and upended America and the world

How Russia Won tells the little-understood yet crucial story of how Vladimir Putin has waged a secret campaign to subvert and weaken the United States--and how Trump, his MAGA movement, the Republican Party, and right-wing media have served as useful idiots for the tyrannical Russian leader in his assault on America and the West.

In this gripping tale of international intrigue and political skullduggery, David Corn, bestselling author and veteran investigative journalist:

• Details the Kremlin's clandestine operations to fuel political discord in the U.S. politics and assist Trump that have been underway since 2016
• Exposes the extensive, fierce, and non-stop efforts of Trump and his supporters to deny Russia's years-long attack on the United States
• Delivers a tough truth: Trump and his allies have been complicit in Putin's war on America

This is the harrowing story of modern information warfare aimed at the U.S. by a nefarious foreign adversary and profound political betrayal at home. It is full of revelations and dramatic accounts of Russian intelligence operations targeting the United States; the Kremlin's secret schemes to spread disinformation in 2020 and 2024 to boost Trump's presidential campaigns; ties between Trump's inner circle--including his personal attorney and his campaign manager--and Putin's spies; Republican attempts to use Russian disinformation to protect Trump and smear Democrats; the bipartisan congressional investigation that blew apart Trump's claim the Russia investigation was a hoax and raised troubling questions about his own interactions with Russia; and the never-ending propaganda campaign Trump and MAGA Republicans have pursued to cover up Putin's clandestine intervention in U.S. politics.

In this fast-paced and captivating work, Corn reveals and explores the bizarre episodes of this secret war. An FBI director receiving a big payment from a pro-Putin propagandist. A fugitive ex-Florida cop who fled to Moscow running disinformation operations that mislead millions of Americans. Rudy Giuliani colluding with a Russian agent. Trump and his GOP allies spouting falsehoods and Deep State conspiracy theories cooked up and spread by Putin's spies and undercover trolls.

A compelling narrative with the verve and twists of a spy novel--yet it's all true--How Russia Won chronicles a deeply disturbing reality: Putin has succeeded in his twilight war against the United States by helping to land in the White House an agent of chaos, disruption, and authoritarianism who has exacerbated divisions within the United States, undermined American democracy, created conflict within the Western alliance, and diminished Washington's standing across the globe. It's a chilling account of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and how both have gotten away with this assault on the United States.

Here's one of the most important stories of recent decades--with tremendous and wide-ranging implications for the future of the United States and the world. How Russia Won is indispensable for fully understanding what has happened to America in the Age of Trump.

Review Quotes

"David Corn has been working to expose Vladimir Putin's shadow war on the United States since 2016, exposing the clandestine Russian operations designed to subvert American democracy, inflame social divisions and promote the career of Donald Trump. Although How Russia Won is a book about Russia, it is also an essential guide to understanding modern America." -- Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Autocracy, Inc. and Gulag: A History

"Russia has been conducting a war of unprecedented scale and aggression on America's elections for years. David Corn, in meticulous and gripping detail, explains how Vladimir Putin got away with it--and still is." -- Tom Nichols, staff writer, The Atlantic

"He said he'd make America great again. But he made America more like Russia. And David Corn lays out every damning detail of that danger, from the subversion of our intelligence to the corruption of our democracy. Trump may have escaped impeachment. But he will never escape the indictment in this instant classic of a book." -- Tim Weiner, author of The Folly of Glory and Legacy of Ashes

"The definitive account of Putin's greyzone warfare against the United States and how Trump and his loyalists have abetted that warfare for a decade. 'Russia, Russia, Russia' was never a hoax-- it has always been the central story of the Trump era. Corn's highly readable narrative is a vital step toward a long-overdue national reckoning." -- Heather Cox Richardson, author of Democracy Awakening and How the South Won the Civil War

"David Corn has written the definitive account of Donald Trump's decade of collusion with the Russian Federation and its gangster leader, Vladimir Putin. Corn takes a story that an entire media ecosystem has sought for years to obscure and makes it clear--and indisputable. If you think you know the story of Trump's relationship with Russia, read How Russia Won and let Corn convince you that you have been peeping through a keyhole at the real story, and that the collusion is far more extensive than you imagined and that it continues to this day." -- Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief, Lawfare