"A brilliant, riveting, funny, terrifying journey into the beating heart of Trumpland."   —Liza Mundy, author of  Code Girls In this daring workof immersive journalism, based on hundreds of hours of reporting, Carl Hoffman journeys deep inside Donald Trump’s rallies, seeking to understand the strangeand powerful tribe that forms the president’s base.  Hoffman, who has written about the most dangerous and remote corners of the world, pierced thisalternate society, welcomed in and initiated into its rites and upside-downbeliefs, and finally ushered to its inner sanctum. Equally freewheeling andprofound, Liar’s Circus   tracks the MAGAfaithful across five thousand miles of the American heartland during a crucial arcof the Trump presidency stretching from the impeachment saga to the dawn of thecoronavirus pandemic that ended the rallies as we know it. Trump’srallies are a singular and defining force in American history—a kind of Rosettastone to understanding the Age of Trump. Yet while much remarked upon, theyare, in fact, little examined, with the focus almost always on Trump’s latestoutrageous statement. But who are the tens of thousands of people who fill thesearenas? What do they see in Trump? And what curious alchemy—between presidentand adoring crowd—happens there that might explain Trump’s rise and powerfulhold over both his base and the GOP? Tothose on the left, the rallies are a Black Mass of American politics at whichTrump plays high priest, recklessly summoning the darkest forces within thenation. To the MAGA faithful, the rallies are a form of pilgrimage, a joyousceremony that like all rituals binds people together and makes them feel a partof something bigger than themselves. Both sides would acknowledge that thistraveling roadshow is the pressurized, combustible core of Trump’s politicalpower, a meeting of the faithful where Trump is unshackled and his rhetoricreaches its most extreme, with downstream consequences for the rest of thenation. Todate, no reporter has sought to understand the rallies as a sociologicalphenomenon examined from the bottom up. Hoffman has done just this. He hasstood in line for more than 170 hours with Trump's most ardent superfans andjoined them at the very front row; he has traveled from Minnesota to Texas,Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Hampshire immersing himself in theirculture.  Liar’s Circus  is a revelatory portrait of Trump’s America, fromone of our most intrepid journalists.