Rage
Book by Bob Woodward
DETAILS
Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Illustrated edition (September 15, 2020) Language : English Hardcover : 480 pages ISBN-10 : 198213173X ISBN-13 : 978-1982131739 Item Weight : 1.45 pounds Dimensions : 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches Best Sellers Rank: #12,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #27 in Political Commentary & Opinion #30 in United States Executive Government #37 in US Presidents , Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, is an unprecedented and intimate tour de force of new reporting on the Trump presidency facing a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House , has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans. In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months—an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind—the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the “dynamite behind every door.” At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president. Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making. Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents. Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film.” Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?” Trump told the author in July. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.” Read more
REVIEW
The book entitled “Rage” by Bob Woodward was a strikingly balanced review of Trump’s presidency. It insightfully shows many of Trumps strengths and delves into the good or some might say the great things accomplished without shying away from his failures and shortcomings. In the beginning, Woodward, the author sets the tone by stating: that his assistants “Evelyn M. Duffy … insisted that everyone in this book get the fairest treatment possible, including President Trump.” And that “Steve Reilly … insists on verification for everything; no fact or nuance goes unchecked.” The book is well documented and very scholarly as well as quite readable. This book will have appeal to Trump supporters because it showcases some of his political savvy but because it highlights some of his ugly actions, those politicians and voters who oppose Trump’s actions and behaviors as well as journalists would do well to read and study this book. Much of the book contains material that has made the news and is well known and understood but portions offer excellent examples of how his distortions win the day for him. His son-in-law gives great insight about how he operates … for example, no deal is completed until the contract is signed and show 4 characteristics that define Trump to a “T” Woodward reports: “Pottinger had lived in China seven years and been a Wall Street Journal reporter there during the SARS outbreak. A China scholar, he spoke fluent Mandarin. … Pottinger knew firsthand that the Chinese were masters at concealing trouble and covering it up.” Moreover, “The Chinese had stonewalled, refusing to cooperate and share samples of the virus as required by international agreement. … With SARS the Chinese had egregiously concealed the outbreak of a dangerous new infectious disease for three months.” And ““How concerned are you” about coronavirus? Fox’s Sean Hannity asked Trump on February 2 “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China,” Trump said.” Woodward goes on to state: “in an interview with President Trump on March 19, … “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told me. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” … “It goes through air,” Trump said. “That’s always tougher than the touch. You don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”” Woodward shares the story: “In private conversation with the president, Graham repeatedly urged Trump to let Mueller’s investigation take its course. If Trump was being honest with the country and had done nothing wrong, Graham argued, he should let the investigation go forward. “I believe you,” Graham replied. “Because you can’t work with your own government. Why should you be working with the Russian government?” Trump laughed. “Yeah, that’s true,” he said.” Woodward reports: “Redfield had 23,000 people, including contractors, working for him all over the world, compared to Fauci’s 2,000. He treated the information out of China with urgency. The CDC’s first formal report, filed the next day despite the federal holiday, is a remarkably detailed three-page document” And “On January 2, Redfield shared his concerns with the National Security Council’s biodefense directorate, which reported to Pottinger and O’Brien.” And “Redfield again spoke with Gao. He reported to O’Brien and Pottinger. The call was both troubling and bizarre. China was stonewalling.” Woodward goes on to state “The January 8 Situational Report noted that … Thailand and Vietnam had been added to the list of countries conducting border screening of people from Wuhan, …” And “On January 10, Chinese scientists published the genome of the virus online, giving international scientists their first glimpse of the new coronavirus.” The author states: “An increasing number of countries had closed their borders to visitors who had been to China. … The United States, however, was still open to Chinese travel. … So at Trump’s next PDB, January 28, O’Brien issued his declaration that the virus would be “the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” and Pottinger backed him up …” Woodward goes on to say “on February 9, Fauci, Redfield and other members of the Coronavirus Task Force took their seats at a table in a large conference … The coronavirus outbreak is going to get much, much worse before it gets better, Redfield warned. The next day, President Trump said publicly three times—once at the White House, once on TV and once at a New Hampshire rally—that the virus would go away on its own. “When it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” he said at the packed rally.” As to the effectiveness of Trump, Woodward provides some useful insight including, for example: “Jared Kushner, … expressed awe at Trump’s dominance of the media. “If the president didn’t tweet it, it didn’t happen. You send out a press release and it goes into the ether and nobody cares. He puts out a tweet and it’s on CNN one and a half minutes later.” Kushner advised reading …First, Kushner advised, go back and read a 2018 opinion column by Peggy Noonan. “He’s crazy… and it’s kind of working.” … Kushner’s second recommendation for understanding Trump was, surprisingly, the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. He paraphrased the cat: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will get you there.” The Cheshire Cat’s strategy was one of endurance and persistence, not direction. … The third text Kushner recommended for understanding the Trump presidency was Chris Whipple’s book The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency. In the book, Whipple concluded that, after the president, the chiefs of staff held the fate of the country in their hands. … “What seems clear, as of this writing and almost a year into his presidency, is that Trump will be Trump, no matter his chief of staff,” Whipple concluded. A fourth text Kushner advised was necessary to understand Trump was Scott Adams’s book… Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter. Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, explains in Win Bigly that Trump’s misstatements of fact are not regrettable errors or ethical lapses, but part of a technique called “intentional wrongness persuasion.” … Kushner said that Scott Adams’s approach could be applied to Trump’s recent February 4 State of the Union speech when he had claimed, “Our economy is the best it has ever been.” The economy was indeed in excellent shape then, but not the best in history, Kushner acknowledged. “Controversy elevates message,” Kushner said. This was his core understanding of communication strategy in the age of the internet and Trump. A controversy over the economy, Kushner argued—and how good it is—only helps Trump because it reminds voters that the economy is good. A hair-splitting, fact-checking debate in the media about whether the numbers were technically better decades ago or in the 1950s is irrelevant, he said.” Going on to explain Trump, Woodward recounts “Kushner said one of Trump’s greatest strengths was “he somehow manages to have his enemies self-destruct and make stupid mistakes. He’s just able to play the media like a fiddle, and the Democrats too. They run like dogs after a fire truck, chasing whatever he throws out there. And then he solves the problem and does the next—then they go on to the next thing.”” Moreover. “Kushner considered one of Trump’s greatest skills “figuring out how to trigger the other side by picking fights with them where he makes them take stupid positions.”” Woodward goes on “On March 13, Trump declared a national emergency, the sixth of his presidency. “I’m no expert here,” Graham told Trump, “but if these projections are anywhere near right and you ignore them, you’re going to have a unique place in history. Mr. President, if these things are remotely right and you don’t act, it would be devastating to your presidency.”” The author reminds the reader that “The president maintained his upbeat rhetoric in the early weeks of the virus had been deliberate. “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told me, as I reported earlier in this book.” Woodward states “Obama’s National Security Council had left behind a 69-page document titled “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents” that included instructions for dealing with novel influenza viruses which “would produce an estimate of between 700,000 and 1.4 billion fatalities from a pandemic of a virulent influenza virus strain.”” As to other thoughts on preparation “Complaints about a lack of preparation were universal. For two years Redfield had testified before Congress that the country was not prepared for a large health crisis. … Redfield said, “We don’t know what will threaten Americans next.”” The author goes on “. Congress had passed a $ 2 trillion stimulus package in late March that provided those on unemployment an extra $ 600 per week. … “I was totally opposed to the distribution of the money the way the Democrats wanted it,” the president said.” And then the author states “Trump later announced that he was going to discontinue funding for the World Health Organization because he felt the organization had protected China during the crisis. In a tweet on April 15, Gates blasted the decision, writing, “Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.… The world needs WHO now more than ever.”” The author states “Trump later announced that he was going to discontinue funding for the World Health Organization because he felt the organization had protected China during the crisis. In a tweet on April 15, Gates blasted the decision, writing, “Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.… The world needs WHO now more than ever.”” “This evening,” Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said, “the President of the United States stood in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, lifted up a bible, and had pictures of himself taken. In so doing, he used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes.” … Mattis broke his long-held silence, issuing a statement. “When I joined the military, some 50 years ago,” Mattis wrote, “I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander in chief, with military leadership standing alongside.… “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try,” he continued. “Instead, he tries to divide us” Woodward does share other thoughts, such as “In Fauci’s view some of Trump’s early decisions had been his finest hours—restricting travel from China (January 31) and Europe (March 11) and asking sick Americans to stay home and all to practice good hygiene with his initial “15 Days to Slow the Spread” (March 16) and then extending it for another 30 days (March 29).” Woodward breaks from his mostly impartial presentation, when he states: “But now, I’ve come to the conclusion that the “dynamite behind the door” was in plain sight. It was Trump. The lack of trust in others he had picked, in experts. The undermining or the attempted undermining of so many American institutions. The failure to be a calming, healing voice. The unwillingness to acknowledge error. The failure to do his homework. To extend the olive branch. To listen carefully to others. To craft a plan. … When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.” This reviewer highly recommends purchasing and reading Rage by Woodward, beyond being useful for Fall 2020 voters, this will be a great future historical reference book.
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