Tim Alberta's 'American Carnage' chronicles how the Republican Party transformed from the establishment conservatism of the Bush era to the populist nationalism that enabled Donald Trump's hostile takeover. Alberta, who covered the GOP as a journalist throughout this period, traces the cultural and ideological shifts that made Trump possible, from the Tea Party insurgency through the failure of comprehensive immigration reform to the collapse of the party establishment in 2016. The book draws on extensive interviews with party leaders, activists, and Trump himself, providing insider accounts of key moments from the government shutdown of 2013 to the Access Hollywood tape's aftermath. Alberta is particularly insightful on the disconnect between Republican elites, who assumed their voters shared their commitment to free trade and entitlement reform, and a base motivated more by cultural grievance than policy ideology. The book traces how Trump intuited what the party's voters actually wanted while its leaders were still defending positions their constituents had abandoned. Readers seeking to understand how the Republican Party of Reagan became the party of Trump will find detailed narrative history from a reporter who witnessed the transformation firsthand.