This is a book review of “A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization, by Scott Jennings (2025).
Who is Scott Jennings?
Scott is now a member of the media, a “senior political commentator” (or “pundit”) for CNN. He was hired by CNN in 2017 to “serve as an emblem of the average Republican voter that largely supported” Trump. This role contrasted with another CNN hire at about that time, JD Vance, who was to be the “Never Trump” Republican voice. That certainly changed. Who would have ever guessed? In his earlier pre-CNN years, Jennings served as special assistant to President George W. Bush.
I seldom saw Scott Jennings on CNN – but I often saw him on Fox News (clips) and X/Twitter (posts), where he was normally “battling” some Democrat-leaning pundit over something that Trump said or did. Given President Trump’s propensity to do and say a lot, Scott was a busy man.
In his own words (from his book), “I came to see my job at CNN as a representative for Flyover Country, USA.” Since I live in the middle of Flyover Country, Scott Jennings is attempting to represent me.
Jennings – on the Media
So, as a member of the media, what’s Jennings take on his profession? All and all, as expressed in his book, it is quite negative. He states that the 2024 election was “an indictment of the political information complex.” … the broad, unholy alliance that had formed over the past several decades between mainstream media and the Democratic Party to create false narratives that misled the American people.” I had never heard the “political information complex” term before; it sounded as ominous as Eisenhower’s “military industrial complex.”
Jennings goes on to say that the “Biden cover-up” (by the aforementioned “political information complex”) was “the biggest scandal in modern American political history.” As to whether you or I should trust the media, he offered this: “If you can’t trust a news organization to tell the difference between a man and a woman, why would you trust them with any other basic fact on any story at all”?
Jenning then offered up “the Erickson Rule,” named after fellow pundit Erick Erickson, that: “The press focuses on policy beneficiaries when Democrats are in charge and policy victims when Republican are in charge.” I had never heard of the Erickson Rule before, but it makes a lot of sense. Many news stories are not unbiased pro-and-con comparisons of policies and laws – not stories about who benefits AND who doesn’t. The stories are typically anecdotal, often tugging at our hearts, about the downtrodden victims – with the beneficiaries (e.g., taxpayers, law-abiding citizens) largely ignored.
The good news, if there is any, is the influence of Elan Musk’s X and other similar social media platforms, which allow the populace to bypass the mainstream media – indeed that is where I often found Scott Jennings.
Jennings on Trump
So, what does Scott Jennings have to say about Donald J. Trump. Well, quite a bit; Trump is the focus of the book. I will note below four things from the book that attracted my attention.
· Jennings notes that Trump has an uncanny knack of identifying the “80-20” issues out there – the issues that eighty percent of the country agree with and the issues that the other twenty percent (e.g., liberal Democrats) are willing to “die on the hill” fighting. Jennings also noted something that I had missed. When Trump does one of his rambling rallies, he weaves from topic to topic, in a seemingly disjointed manner. But, in effect, he is using the rallies as his own “live focus groups,” identifying those “80-20” issues by the applause gathered. To quote Jennings, “Applause lines became policy.”
· Trump is a fighter who knows that he has “a finite amount of time to save the country.” Jennings quoted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as saying that President Trump “has incredible risk tolerance, but he also has an incredible survival instinct.” These factors have “transformed the Republican Party’s attitude from passive to aggressive when dealing with Democrats and the media.” Jennings states that two of Trumps actions will stand out in history; his taking on “activist judges who flex their power for political purposes,” and the repeal of the DEI policies established during the Obama and Biden administrations.
· “Donald Trump broke a lot of people.” This is a true, albeit sad, fact in my opinion. In pages 122-136 of his book, Jennings notes the broken people: the Lincoln Project; Bill Kristol; George Conway (“from conservative lawyer to liberal resistance hero”); Larry David; James Carville; David Letterman; Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel (“both of them are a street corner and a sandwich board short of the loony bin”); Tim Walz (“embodies the buffoonery of the modern Left”); Senator Chris Murphey of Connecticut; Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois; and many more. I believe that TDS is real (true) and that Trump (via his nature and personality) exacerbates the disease. The latter is the sad part.
· And lastly and somewhat related to the above bullet, Jennings placed the following epigraph (2014 quote from Trump) on page 122; “Every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection.” That is the dichotomy I see in Trump; I think that he truly loves his political opponents, but his language is so offsetting. It accelerates the TDS and gets in the way of progress. But maybe that is just me. I don’t think that Jennings would concur with me (as noted in the “passive to aggressive” point noted above).
Western Civilization
One of the reasons I like Scott Jennings is his concern about Western Civilization. The defense of Western Civilization is one of the causes I try to promote via this blog.
Jennings speaks often about fighting for the future of Western Civilization. Below are three statements from his book on Western Civilization.
· “For whatever policy quibbles any old-guard establishment Republican might have with Trump, you cannot deny that he’s fighting a much larger battle against forces that believe the American founding was somehow rotten at its core, that the speech of their political enemies should be suppressed and even censored, and that Western Civilization itself should be upended in favor of a world divided into two groups – the oppressed and the oppressors.”
· “Trump is the Republican Party’s fighter, and indeed a fighter for Westen Civilization against enemies that have only gotten crazier and more dangerous. The future of the West hangs in the balance, and Trump is leading the fight to save it, as far as I am concerned.”
· Part of the underpinnings of Western Civilization are merit, excellence, hard work, creativity, effort, and individualism. The DEI regime, and those most committed to it, were a wrecking crew against the West, which they regard as inherently evil.”
Elan Musk
Chapter Two of Jennings’ book is entitled “DOGE: The Deep State Chainsaw Massacre.” In that chapter and throughout other parts of the book, Jennings writes about Elan Musk – and his interactions with Trump before and after their spat. Jennings interviewed Musk for the book, and if Trump was the main focus of the book, Musk was second.
I was attracted to two points, Musk’s concern about my last section (Western Civilization) and his disdain for the woke culture promoted by the Democrats.
Jennings has this to say about the former point, “I believe Musk sincerely, as he told me in April, wants to save America from bankruptcy and defend Westen Civilization.” … Musk cares deeply about the future of Western Civilization, and he believes electoral outcomes today will have a profound impact on the world’s future.”
During an interview with Jennings, Musk talked about the transitioning that one of his older boys went through. Musk told Jennings; “I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys … I lost my son, essentially … they call it ‘deadnaming’ but this was someone I raised and loved.” After that experience, Musk “vowed to destroy the woke mind virus.”
Miscellaneous
There were a couple of other points that also attracted my attention because they added a different perspective to a couple of issues that have been in the news recently – a couple of issues that Trump has taken considerable heat over.
Greenland: Jennings noted that; “As far back as 1868, … Secretary of State Willard Seward, famous for acquiring Alaska, tried to acquire Iceland and Greenland from Denmark for $5 million;” … and … “In 1946, a secret plan was drawn up for the United States to acquire Greenland for about $100 million worth of gold bars.” Those facts put an historic spin on Trump’s current efforts to acquire Greenland, which are reported today as ridiculous, ludicrous, or insane by most of the political information complex.
Tariffs: Jennings noted that; “There is probably no other issue on which Trump adheres less to modern Republican Party orthodoxy than his belief in the power of tariffs.” Scott quotes Scott Bessent, the seventy-ninth United States secretary of the treasury, who said that “Alexander Hamilton was the original tariff man.” I found that statement ironic, given the Democrats opposition to tariffs (or is it just opposition to Trump), and the sainthood status they have given Hamilton, since the production of the play by the same name. Tariffs and their support (or lack of) by the narrow Republican majorities in Congress, should be of more interest in the future – given the Supreme Court’s recent decision.
Summary
I enjoyed the book; it was very readable. It provided a unique perspective from someone in the swamp – who wrestles with unfriendly alligators on a regular basis.