Michelle Fields - Americas Aristocracy: How Political Royalty Has Overtaken Our Government, and How to Overthrow Them

As a journalist, I tell stories. I wrote this book to tell the story of a political class that has lost its way and lost touch with the people it is supposed to serve. But as a professional, I never intended toand never thought I wouldactually become the story myself.

On March 8, 2016, all of that changed.

That evening, I was working for Breitbart News covering a Donald Trump campaign rally after the billionaire won the Republican primaries in Michigan and Mississippi. As Trump was leaving the rally, I leaned in to ask him a question about affirmative action. Before he had a chance to answer, someone whom I didnt see but was identified by a Washington Post reporter standing next to me as Trumps campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, grabbed me by the arm and jerked me aside. I lost my balance and nearly fell to the ground.

That moment started a whirlwind I didnt ask for and didnt want, and a story that took on a life of its own. Trump and Lewandowski denied the incident ever occurred, despite video and eyewitness evidence and the obvious bruises on my arm. My employer, Breitbart Newsan outlet known for being friendly to Trumpopted to offer only a tepid response. A number of people parted ways with Breitbart over the incidentincluding, eventually, me. As a journalist, I knew I couldnt work for an outlet that prized access to a particular figure over the safety of its own staff.

Eventually the furor over the story died down, and my life went somewhat back to normalor at least what passes for normal in the crazy D.C. media world. The Trump campaign rolled on (with Lewandowski still at the helm) mostly unabated. I had to find a job and get this book ready to come out in a few months. But when I had time to really consider the arm-grabbing incident, I found that it reminded me of why I wrote this book in the first place: to make the case against entitlement.

The entrenched politicians, bureaucrats, and consultants Ive written about are pulling a giant scam on the American people because they believe they are better than everyone else. They think living in D.C. entitles them to the car service, the free food, the taxpayer-funded trips, and all the other perks that they deserve for their proximity to power. And whats worsetheyre getting away with it.

Trumps running his own scam, too. He has perpetuated a campaign that actively promotes violence against people it perceives as a threatbe they protesters or journalists. Trump has even bragged that he could literally get away with murder: I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, he proclaimed in Iowa, and I wouldnt lose voters. If thats not entitlement, what is?

Trumps entitlement has been brought on by constant media coverage and his cynical demagoguery of peoples real concerns. And heres where the scam comes in: Trump was supposed to be different. He tricked many, many good people into believing that he was authentic, that he would tell it like it isand these people were so sick of the political class that they bought it. But while Trump may not have been a politician himself, he was still very much a part of the elite system thats been running Washington for far too long. The billionaire has been an active political donormostly to Democratsfor decades.

Trump didnt pick just any Average Joe to run his campaign, either. He picked Corey Lewandowski, a longtime political operative whose credentials included a stint working for former Ohio representative Bob Ney, who was jailed in connection with the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Lewandowski even wrote a letter to the judge to try to help his former boss get off easy, praising Ney as a consummate professional (professional what?) and his own surrogate father. Its hard to find a more literal example of Washington criminal corruption than Lewandowskis own surrogate father Bob Ney.

And then theres Trump himself. I wont give the whole thing away, but I begin this book with a visit to the Palace of Versailles, and some thoughts about one of historys greatest expressions of vanity made me think about the Washington, D.C., of today. When you read the descriptions in the next few pagesGold molding. Gold statues. Gold engravings. Gold shields. Gold Greek gods.Gold everywhere!who does that make you think of? All King Louis XIV was missing were some steaks, some vodka, an airlineyou get the idea.

Were Donald Trump to show up in Washington as president of the United States (with Corey Lewandowski as his chief of staff), he would fit in perfectly with the Beltway culturea culture that rewards hucksters, cynics, and egomaniacs who have long ago sold their souls for a shot at power and perks.

The Trump phenomenon is a reminder that the entitlement that drives the Beltway class is alive and well. It lives in people who call themselves liberals and in people who call themselves conservatives. It lives in people who prefer to think of themselves as the establishment as well as those who make a career of calling for the establishments downfall. Its a reminder that the disease is only getting worse, and that we need to stop it once and for all.

Michelle Fields