If you didn’t like your presidential candidate options in the 2024 election, Uncharted is the book for you. I loved Whipple’s work in Gatekeepers about the White House Chiefs of Staff, and Uncharted is equally as good. The reviews of this book are all over the map because Chris Whipple takes aim at all three candidates and both political parties. Whipple was in the middle of research for a book about campaign managers, and his publisher encouraged him to write a book on the 2024 election.

Whipple’s ability to get high level individuals on record with critical opinions is incredible. He has strong critiques of both parties from retired campaign managers/chiefs of staff. He documents Biden’s decision to run despite overwhelming sentiment (outside his advisors) that he was too old to run. Paul Manafort and the Kushner family provide wild access to the Trump campaign (2016, 2020, and 2024) and their attempts to manage Trump as a candidate. Susie Wiles (Trump’s campaign manager) is also an intriguing character, and I look forward to reading Whipple’s future book on campaign managers.

Quotes

“The next day, Biden, who still felt ill, had an idea. If he looked perplexed when Trump talked, voters would understand that Trump was an idiot. Klain replied: “Sir, when you look perplexed, people just think you’re perplexed. And this is our problem in this race.”

“They just never had a grown-up in the room who could look Joe Biden in the eye and say, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’”

“In presidential campaigns, as in military operations, victory has a thousand fathers, and defeat is an orphan.”

On Susan Wiles, “Although Trump didn’t drink, he had his own addictions—to money, power, and fame. “She is an expert in unstable, dysfunctional, famous men,” said Mac Stipanovich, a veteran Tallahassee GOP operative. “She knows when she can help, and she knows when not to try to help.”

“Wiles and LaCivita were touted in the political press as game changers. “Two of America’s most feared political operatives,” The Atlantic called them. They were portrayed as consummate campaign professionals—the antidote to the amateurs who’d run Trump’s 2016 and 2020 races.”

“The ad concluded with this damning narration: “Kamala is for they/ them. President Trump is for you.” Airing at least 30,000 times, in a $40 million ad buy targeting football games watched by undecided male voters, “They/ Them” set off alarm bells among prominent Democrats.”