A Savage Memoir from Mike Pompeo

Tim Weiner reviews Never Give an Inch by Mike Pompeo, noting it “is not like most books by nakedly ambitious people preparing to run for president.”

“It’s more interesting and more vicious. It’s a master class in the performative anger poisoning American politics.”

“If Pompeo indeed runs for president, he may want to modulate the tone he has chosen in this tome. It’s like being locked in a room and forced to listen to 20 hours of Tucker Carlson reruns at top volume. But it’s certainly more entertaining and substantial than most campaign books. On the evidence of Never Give an Inch, Pompeo is a good husband, a good father, a good Christian and a great patriot. But no reader can fail to appreciate — as Trump did — that he really is a mean son of a bitch.”