The story begins in the 1970s, when Donald Trump made his first splash in the booming, money-drenched world of New York real estate, and ends with Trump's inauguration as president of the United States. That moment was the culmination of Vladimir Putin's long mission to undermine Western democracy, a mission that he and his hand-selected group of oligarchs and Mafia kingpins had ensnared Trump in more than twenty years ago with the massive bailout of Trump hotel and casino failures in Atlantic City. And when the Cold War ended in 1991, Trump's apartments offered the perfect vehicle for billions of dollars to leave the collapsing Soviet Union. Journalist Craig Unger traces the deep-rooted alliance between high echelon American political operatives and the biggest players in the frightening underworld of the Russian Mafia. He traces Trump's ascent from foundering real estate tycoon to leader of the free world. He traces Russia's phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the post-Cold War Soviet Union as well as its ceaseless covert efforts to retaliate against the West and reclaim its status as a global superpower. Without Trump, Russia would have lacked a key component in its attempts to return to imperial greatness. Without Russia, Trump would not be president.

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