The Opperman Report'

A Rosetta Stone for understanding Donald Trump's style, mindset, and every action, made up of over one hundred interviews with his closest associates and adversaries over the last 15 years.

To his critics, Donald Trump is an impulsive, undisciplined crackpot who accidentally lucked into the presidency. But in The Method to the Madness, reporters Allen Salkin and Aaron Short reveal that nothing could be further from the truth. This objective, nonpartisan oral history shows that Trump had carefully planned his bid for the presidency since he launched what many considered to be a joke candidacy in 1999.

Between 2000 and 2015, when he announced his candidacy in the lobby of Trump Tower, he was able to identify an unserved political constituency, hone a persuasive message that appealed to their needs, and deliver it effectively, despite intense media opposition.

Through candid conversations with more than 100 subjects close to the President, Salkin and Short make the case that Donald Trump’s ostensibly erratic approach to politics is consistent with his carefully honed personal and professional style of information gathering, opinion seed-planting, and conclusion sharing. His business, media, and political dealings from this era serve as a guide for understanding the man, his mindset, and his every action.

The Method to the Madness is an accessible and unbiased oral history that brings readers into the private rooms where decisions are made, confidences are broken, strong words fly, and not all eye-witnesses see the same scene in quite the same way. Full of scoops both large and small, this is the first book to bring Trump, the politician, into focus.

The Gravel Institute is a progressive think tank that aims to counteract American conservative think tanks in general and PragerU in particular. The Gravel Institute is named for its founder Mike Gravel, a former United States senator from Alaska and two-time U.S. presidential candidate

Mae Magnin Brussell (1922 -1988) was an American conspiracy researcher and radio personality, and host of Dialogue: Conspiracy (aka World Watchers International). Her career spanned 25 years, first with an in-depth cross-reference of the Warren Report that revealed inconsistencies in the official JFK assassination story, and eventually broadcasting her findings on radio, publishing articles, teaching, and lecturing around the country. John Lennon donated money so Paul Krassner could afford to print Mae Brussell's work in his magazine The Realist.
Mae Brussell’s research library contains extensive handwritten cross-references and analysis by Mae on such topics as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, as well as the Watergate scandal, Charles Manson, mind control, bio-warfare, and the developing dominance of the military industrial complex. There are thousands of documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence and notes totaling 39 file cabinets, along with hundreds of books (many rare and out-of-print) and two copies of the Warren Report.
It is very likely that Mae documented the early activities of current political figures who were just beginning their rise to the positions of power they hold today.
The mission of The Mae Brussell Project is to digitize this vast archive and make the materials available online. We are currently seeking:
1. 1000+ square feet of secure warehouse, home or office space, near Monterey (two year minimum)
2. Transportation, 40-foot trailer or comparable alternative, plus labor, for initial relocation
3. Equipment, software and personnel for scanning, archiving, and publishing the library digitally