Washington Post correspondent Isaac Arnsdorf ’11 discusses new book, future of the MAGA movement
Isaac Arnsdorf visited Yale for a conversation with his former professor Jack Hitt about his recent book, “Finish What We Started.”
Drea Cabral, Contributing Photographer
On Wednesday afternoon, Washington Post correspondent Isaac Arnsdorf ’11 spoke in the Davenport College common room about his first book, “Finish What We Started,” on Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement.
At the Post, Arnsdorf covers Donald Trump, the MAGA movement and the Republican Party. Arnsdorf was interviewed by one of his former professors, Jack Hitt, delving into the writing process, specifics of his book and the future of the GOP.
“It was amazing to hear from a journalist who found the human story behind people he probably never would have interacted with if not for his book,” Makena Senzon ’28, who attended the event, said. “It is so cool how much we can learn from each other, and it was very inspiring to just be in the audience.”
The book, published in April of this year, details the MAGA movement since Jan. 6, 2021. In the interview, Arnsdorf noted that Trump has been covered extensively, and he became fascinated with the other characters acting within the movement’s background.
One of these characters is Dan Schultz, known for promoting the Precinct Strategy — the process of filling low-level governmental positions with MAGA supporters, establishing the movement from the bottom up.
“His innovation was to point out that when these positions were overlooked, that was just power that was sitting there for the taking … They could mobilize that power for Trump,” Arnsdorf said. This strategy was rooted in “giving people that sense of purpose and community,” he added.
The strategy attracted other figures like Salleigh Grubbs, who has become a rising figure in the Georgia Republican Party after posting about alleged shredded ballots in the 2020 election. Arnsdorf also discussed Steve Bannon’s role in the MAGA movement — a Trump campaign worker turned podcaster.
In the talk, Arnsdorf analyzed the use and importance of language within and outside of the MAGA movement.
“MAGA is kind of the keyword, the magic word for isolating Trump’s version of the Republican Party from what the Republican Party was before and creating a space for those stranded Republicans to align with the Democrats while not becoming Democrats,” he says.
Arnsdorf recognized that while his book is finished, the story is not and he does not know what is going to happen in November. Arnsdorf ended by saying that unlike books, life and history do not have a clear “beginning, middle and end.”
The event was hosted by Davenport College and the Yale Journalism Initiative, or YJI.
Haley Cohen Gilliland ’11, director of YJI, told the News that YJI had chosen Arnsdorf following feedback from students and professors, who had expressed excitement to hear from him.
“We ask students to tell us who they’re most excited about hearing from,” Gilliland said. “Isaac’s name came up both from students and his former professors who knew that he had a great new book out.”
Stephanie Nolen, the New York Times’ global health reporter, will visit campus on Sept. 24.