Welcome to Current Affairs. My name is Nathan Robinson. I am the editor in chief of current affairs magazine. And I am joined today by Washington Post National Political Reporter Isaac Arnsdorf. He is the author of the new book, Finish What We Started, the MAGA Movements, Ground War to End Democracy.

Isaac Arndstorf, thank you for joining us on current affairs today.

Thanks so much for having me.

Okay, let's see. Where do we start?

Well, when you say, finish what we started, what is it that they started?

Well, the title reference comes from a speech that Trump made at CPAC in 2023, where he debuted

this retribution message that he basically ran on throughout the primary.

So, you know, it's about picking up where they left off on January 6th and taking back

the White House and their definition of the country.

Now, I think the most crucial word in what you just said was they, because one of the things

that is totally fascinating and different about

your book is that your book is not really a book about Trump. Your book is about the movement

behind Trump. You know, Trump enters in. He's a peripheral character. I mean, he's behind

all of this. But you went from the surface level, the level of media and image,

down to the ground level, to the bottom level, and to look at what is behind this man?

What is the MAGA movement? So let me ask you, what is it that you're focusing on here?

Yeah, I mean, I just felt like we've read books and heard stories about Trump before and

politicians and operatives and what we were missing.

Like, what people would ask me when I came back from the road is like, why do people believe

this?

And that was much more challenging and interesting of a mystery for me.

And I started doing some reporting. The reporting that became this book. That was much more challenging and interesting of a mystery for me.

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