Summary

Lewis begins Part Two with a detailed biographical sketch of Ali Zaidi, an immigrant from Pakistan who grew up in suburban Pennsylvania. He and his family worked hard to move upwards into the middle class, and he originally identified as a Republican. Later, however, after experiences in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and encounters with both political parties, including the Obama administration, he started identifying as a Democrat. Along the way, he got himself into Harvard, and eventually started working for the U.S. government, ending up in the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The author then sums up the preparations staff of the USDA under Obama had made to welcome incoming staff associated with the Trump administration. Like their counterparts in the DOE, they too waited several days for representatives from that administration to arrive, and even then, encountered only one person. This was...