But this just plunged him back into the moment and a Supreme Court—his Supreme Court—that did not protect him, such that he seemed to be suggesting that the Supreme Court would never help him, so all elections would be stolen from him. “I wanted to go in as president, and I was told by twenty out of twenty lawyers, I had no standing. Think of it, you’ve just had a rigged election, caught them in a rigged election, and have no standing to go before the Court. But Texas, and the reason that all happened [the Supreme Court throwing out the Texas lawsuit against Pennsylvania] is standing, and they had perfect legal standing, if almost twenty states don’t have standing, and they lost those cases on standing and process. They didn’t lose them on the facts; they never got to hear the facts—because the judges didn’t have the guts to make the right decisions. Wouldn’t it be ironic if they packed the court?”

“Do you have any regrets?” I asked, sensing the interview coming to an end.

“Of what?”

“About things you’ve done or not done?”

“I gave up this life”—that is, apparently, the Palm Beach life—“for a life dealing with fine people but also absolute scum and treachery and fake witch hunts. People said, ‘The greatest life; look what you’ve given up.’ But I’ve also done a thousand things that nobody has done. Nobody’s done what I’ve done.”

Then we headed into dinner, Melania now at his side, with the Mar-a-Lago diners, all chiffon and blazers, rising and offering a round of deep and heartfelt applause. He was home. But would he stay there?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is the third volume in little more than three years in my endeavor to tell the story of the Trump White House from inside its walls and to tell it in an account as contemporaneous with events as practically possible. This has required a publishing effort of great dedication and nimbleness, with many publishers around the world working in real time rather than traditional book publishing time. Henry Holt in the United States has led this undertaking. Landslide was begun in late January and delivered to the printer in early June. This was accomplished with the good humor, great discipline, inventive solutions, and unflagging support of the Holt team, Don Weisberg, Amy Einhorn, Sarah Crichton, Pat Eisemann, Maggie Richards, Marian Brown, Eric Rayman, and Natalia Ruiz. Charlie King and Tim Whiting at Little, Brown in the U.K., Moritz Schuller and Nora Gottschalk at Rowholt in Germany, and Job Lisman at Prometheus in the Netherlands have been among the stellar international partners.

Andrew Wylie, Jeffrey Pasternak, and James Pullen at the Wylie Agency have supported every aspect of this project. They are the pillars of my professional life.