Hillary Clinton’s political thriller is based on Trump presidency, she admits

Former secretary of state says the US is living with an existential threat to its democracy

Hillary Clinton has made it clear that her co-authored political thriller State of Terror draws heavily on the experience of living through the Trump presidency – and on the threat to American democracy that she says her onetime rival still represents.

Speaking to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an extended interview that touched on the struggles Joe Biden faces in executing his agenda as well as the build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine, Ms Clinton conceded that her foray into fiction has a lot to do with the state of the US in real life.

“I do think our democracy is under continuing assault by the former president,” said the former presidential candidate, “who masterminded a coup in the attack on our Capitol, has continued to promote the false accusation that the election of 2020 was somehow rigged against him. I think he poses a real clear and present danger to the United States.

“And having lived through that presidency, when it came time to write a political thriller with my friend and collaborator Louise Penny, of course I would draw from the reality that we all have experienced.”

Co-written with Canadian author and friend Louise Penny, famous for her Armand Gamache mystery series, State of Terror involves a temperamental former president from Palm Beach, Florida, and has as its main characters a middle-aged female secretary of state and her close friend. It has been well-received.

Saying she had loved the positive reception the book has met, Ms Clinton reflected that the book not only riffs on the prospect that Afghanistan could again become a staging post for attacks against the West, but involves a US president facing a coup from “the former guy” – the euphemism that many in the Biden White House reportedly use for their boss’s predecessor.

“So this is fiction,” said Ms Clinton, “the characters are fictional, but I would be remiss if I were not basing it in reality. So I don’t see it as anything other than a really good thriller with a great plot – but also a cautionary tale about what we need to do to protect our democracy against those from within and without who would try to literally take it away from us.”

Ms Clinton recently said that if she were a gambler, she would bet that Mr Trump will run again in 2024, warning that the US’s shaky democracy might be badly imperiled should he win another term.

“Not too be too pointed about it, but I want people to understand that this could be a make-or-break point. If he or someone of his ilk were once again to be elected president, especially if he had a Congress that would do his bidding, you will not recognise our country.”