Read Philip Roth's merciless takedown of Trump

(Image credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

published 23 May 2018

Not all of Philip Roth's best work appeared in the pages of an award-winning novel. Roth, a celebrated author who passed away on Tuesday, once penned some devastating analysis on President Trump, calling him a "callow and callous killer capitalist."

In correspondence with The New Yorker last year, Roth drew parallels between Trump and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who features prominently in Roth's novel The Plot Against America as an isolationist president during the 1940s.

"It is easier to comprehend the election of an imaginary president like Charles Lindbergh than an actual president like Donald Trump," Roth wrote. "Lindbergh, despite his Nazi sympathies and racist proclivities, was a great aviation hero who had displayed tremendous physical courage and aeronautical genius in crossing the Atlantic in 1927. He had character and he had substance and, along with Henry Ford, was, worldwide, the most famous American of his day. Trump is just a con artist."

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Summer Meza has worked at The Week since 2018, serving as a staff writer, a news writer and currently the deputy editor. As a proud news generalist, she edits everything from political punditry and science news to personal finance advice and film reviews. Summer has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, covering national politics, transportation and the cannabis industry.

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