Washington Is Burning reveals the inner workings of Trump's Washington - a grotesque carnival of corruption. Andrew Cockburn sets fire to US pieties, focusing on the spectacular greed at the heart of the nation's political system. Graft and self-interest have long typified both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Cockburn charts the connections between the American military bureaucracy and the defense industry, which have created a senseless drive for ever-greater spending on arms. After the failed adventures of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Pentagon now seeks fresh rewards through inflating the threat from China and Iran, deploying time-tested techniques to boost the budget, including the invocation of supposedly superior enemy weapons development. The American empire has reached a watershed.

With Trump back in the White House, Washington Is Burning is a must-read account of unedifying practices in the US capital.