Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics

The former New Jersey governor and advisor to Donald Trump ruminates on a litany of political slights in this rancorous memoir. Christie recounts his exploits as New Jersey's Republican U. S. attorney and then governor, celebrated for his tough-talking, man-of-the-people style. ("'Go ahead,' he told Democrats when they threatened to close down state government in a dispute over taxes. 'I'll order a pizza. I'll open a beer. And I'll watch the Mets until you reopen the government.'") The book's second half chronicles the humiliations Christie endured as an advisor on longtime friend Donald Trump's presidential run: first he's denied the vice-presidential nomination, and when the Republican National Committee chairmanship is dangled and then snatched away, he explodes ("this is bullshit!"). Christie paints venomous scenes of Trump's chaotic campaign and pillories rivals in the Trump organization, including Steve Bannon ("a fraud, a nobody, and a liar") and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who, he alleges, got Christie fired from the chairmanship of the transition team in revenge for Christie's prosecution of Kushner's father for a blackmail attempt involving a prostitute and a sex tape. (Per Christie, Bannon told him, "if you want to survive around here, you've got to agree with the kid 95 percent of the time.") Energized by seething resentments, Christie's memoir is a lively, swaggering, thin-skinned portrait of Trumpian politics by an accomplished practitioner. (Jan.)