The Hill to Die On
The Battle for Congress and the Future of Trump's America

The blue wave that swept through Washington in November and returned control of the House to Democrats was by no means ordained; it was the result of both a massive effort by the left and the failure of President Trump to heed warnings from his own party that its candidates were in grave danger. The Hill to Die On is the inside story of Trump’s first two years, viewed from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle jockeyed for advantage as American politics reached a fever pitch.

There may be no institution in America more disliked than Congress, where elected officials seem incapable of producing real benefits for Americans even as they do whatever it takes to ensure their own power. Enter Donald Trump, whose promises to drain the swamp rang hollow from the start, but who may in fact have been exactly what was needed to break congressional gridlock: an ideological black hole willing to make deals with both Democrats and Republicans. The Hill to Die On is the compelling, at times maddening tale of why that never happened, and why, despite the clear preferences of most Americans on issues like taxes, immigration, and the criminal justice system, Trump’s Congress only further alienated voters. The turbulence it produced would return Nancy Pelosi to the speakership, expose the president to the possibility of impeachment, and lead to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

With inside access that takes readers from the House to the White House, Politico Playbook writers Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman trace the strategy and the impulsiveness, the dealmaking and the backstabbing, in a blow-by-blow account of the power struggle that roiled the halls of Congress. Moving from the battle between the conservative Freedom Caucus and Speaker Paul Ryan to the sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that threw the Senate into turmoil to the pitched battles across America in primaries and on Election Day, The Hill to Die On tells an unforgettable story of power and politics, where the stakes are nothing less than the future of Congress and the fate of America.