Running Against the Devil cover art

Running Against the Devil

A Plot to Save America from Trump--and Democrats from Themselves

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Running Against the Devil

By: Rick Wilson
Narrated by: Rick Wilson
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One of the founders of The Lincoln Project, the bestselling author of Everything Trump Touches Dies is back with a guidebook for beating Trump’s tricks, traps, and tweets in 2020.

“If you believe America’s future depends on Donald Trump’s political machine being crushed at the polls next year, then Rick Wilson’s Running Against the Devil is a must-read.”—Joe Scarborough, MSNBC

Donald Trump is exactly the disaster we feared for America. Hated by a majority of Americans, Trump’s administration is rocked by daily scandals, and he’s embarrassed us at home and abroad.

Trump can’t win in 2020, right?

Wrong. As 2016 proved, Trump can’t win, but the Democrats can sure as hell lose. Only one thing can save Trump, and that’s a Democratic candidate who runs the race Trump wants them to run instead of the campaign they must run to win in 2020.

Wilson combines decades of national political experience and insight in his take-no-prisoners analysis, hammering Trump’s destructive and dangerous first term in a case-by-case takedown of the worst president in history and describing the terrifying prospect of four more years of Trump.

Like no one else can, Wilson blows the lid off Trump’s 2020 Republican war machine, showing the exact strategies and tactics they’ll use against the Democratic nominee . . . and how the Democrats can avoid the catastrophe waiting for them if they fall into Trump’s trap.

Running Against the Devil is sharply funny, brutally honest, and infused with Wilson’s biting commentary. It’s a vital indictment of Trump, a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred road map to saving America, and the guide to making Donald Trump a one-term president.

The stakes are too high to do anything less. Corruption & Misconduct Elections & Political Process Politics & Government Democrat Funny

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Everything Trump Touches Dies cover art
Tired of Winning cover art
Enough cover art
The Divider cover art
Unthinkable cover art
Midnight in Washington cover art
Firebrand: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the MAGA Revolution cover art
Thank You for Your Servitude cover art
The Big Cheat cover art
Insurgency cover art
The Message cover art
Why We Did It cover art
Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine cover art
Profiles in Ignorance cover art
The Decade in Tory cover art
Come On, Man! cover art

Critic reviews

“Rick Wilson is one of the best political strategists of our times. He knows the calculus of how to win better than a mathematician. This book is going to give some old-school Democrats a little heartburn. But if we want to win in 2020, Wilson’s analysis is a full stop. Period. Read and get to work.”—Donna Brazile, former interim chair, Democratic National Committee

“‘Florida Man Chooses Country Over Party!’ It appears that the Democratic Party’s 2020 election briefing book has been written by a lifelong Republican strategist, and you’re looking at it.”—Brian Williams, MSNBC

“No one understands the nature of Trumpism better than Rick Wilson. He also knows how the Democrats can blow this election. This may be a hard book for some of them to read, but it is a message they absolutely need to hear if they want to beat Donald Trump. In this passionate, witty, insightful, and often hilarious book, Wilson brings tough love and sharp elbows to his urgent warning about the difficulty of defeating a man with no bottom, no shame, and no limits.”—Charles Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind

“Wilson brilliantly explains how Democrats could lose to Trump’s ‘racist and blisteringly stupid’ campaign message yet again unless they change course now. Drawing upon Wilson’s insights, Americans can take back their government and send the reality-TV host back to Mar-a-Lago once and for all.”—Joe Scarborough, MSNBC

“Readers who enjoyed [Rick] Wilson’s first book, Everything Trump Touches Dies, will be pleased to know that he is in hilarious form. [The] manuscript is packed with the same punchy, straight-to-the-jugular humour that has made him a sought-after television guest and columnist in the Trump era. . . . It’s a step-by-step guidebook to defeating Donald Trump, written by ‘a Republican who knows how and why the Democrats often lose big elections they should win.’ And Wilson explains it all. Chapter by chapter, he debunks the myths, wishes, and pipe dreams which have led previous Democratic presidential nominees down the garden path to the runner-up’s position. . . . Any Democrat looking to beat Donald Trump—or really, any Democrat looking to beat any Republican—or anyone who enjoys reading and learning more about how politics really works would do well to crack the spine of Wilson’s sophomore effort.” —The Independent

“Running Against the Devil is pugnacious and profane . . . blunt and funny . . . relentlessly irreverent and breathtakingly brutal.” —The Guardian

“Snappy, breezy, entertaining, passionate . . . The book delivers sobering insights that must be heeded.”—Foreign Affairs
All stars
Most relevant
Great fun to listen to. Excellent narration. Well worth the purchase price. Recommended to anyone interested in US politics.

excellent deconstruction of the 2020 election

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This guy has a deep understanding of the psychology of political communications. His insight into Trump’s grandiose narcissism, compulsive lying and lust for power has all been proven true. Excellent advice for anybody working in opposition to the growing fascism of the Republican Party.

Superb insight

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great points, very important, but a few too many contradictions in what he says to give more than 4

Incredibly important but some logic is flawed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Rick Wilson does little to hide his disdain for Donald Trump and his obvious corruption, and because he is also the narrator for the Audible version you benefit from being able to hear his tone while reading the text. However, there is much a political junky can learn from this book about the realities of political strategy from someone who has worked on the inside of political campaigns at all levels. An excellent book

Humorous and insightful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
For sheer expertise and qualified insider knowledge, 'Running Against The Devil' is second only to Mary Trump's book about her uncle's formative years in a wildly dysfunctional family. It is, in turns, hilarious, profane and terrifying. Rick Wilson is an experienced Republican election strategist, a Never-Trumper and a founder of The Lincoln Project, which runs devastating anti-Trump TV ads every day. Wilson gives the Democrats a perfect playbook, sharing tactics (sometimes clean, sometimes not so much), timing and speechmaking, exploding Michelle Obama's noble but useless maxim: 'When they go low, we go high'. He advocates that the Biden election campaign fights dirty and hard, using 'chainsaw tactics' to counter the many dirty tricks currently reported to be employed by the opposition. He injects pockets of humour into the serious stuff - a fictional White House diary from Melania, some insane focus group meetings, and the personal jottings of a teenage boy, being rapidly promoted up the administration ladder to fill the void left by departing/fired senior members of the White House cabinet. These accounts neatly balance the first-class ranting in the book, of which Mr Wilson is a master. As I began reading, it became clear that Wilson had been overtaken by events - the George Floyd murder and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests. Coronavirus has barely begun its rampage, the nationwide lockdown, the tanking economy, the unemployment of millions, that 'losers and suckers' disaster. If Rick Wilson could get out an updated version before polling day, he'd be hailed as a hero - but sadly that can't happen. I will certainly give it a second listen. But, before I do that, I'm going to send Senator Biden a copy; it might ensure a peaceful and sane journey to the White House in November.

A must-read for Biden

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews