'Fear: Trump in the White House' by Bob Woodward

What made me decide to read this book was the quotation from Trump which had given it the title, "Real power is - I don't even want to use the word - fear." I found this disturbing and wanted to read more. I was also influenced by the fact that Woodward was one of the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal, so I thought he would be reliable. The book paints a pretty unflattering picture of Trump, so his supporters would probably think it was 'biased' despite the meticulous documentation and footnoting throughout. Personally, I find Woodward's account convincing.

The book was written in an easy to read style and I found it interesting. Most of the issues I had previously read about in the media, but it provided an insight as to what was going on behind the scenes with issues like Charlottesville, North Korea, the Paris Accords, etc. I don't think it told me much about Trump or his administration which I hadn't already picked up from the news, but it provided detail and documentation which explained a lot of the thinking and background.

I have recently read Hugh Brogan's The Penguin History of the United States of America. One thing I reflected on while reading Woodward's book about the Trump administration was that, seen in the context of American history, Trump's popular support made more sense. To me, when Trump was elected, it came out of nowhere, and his ideas seemed very out of synch with both American and worldviews. Yet, when I looked at his key issues: immigration, tariffs, trade barriers, withdrawing from international cooperation, I was reminded that isolationism and protectionism (and the racism and sense of entitlement on which they are based) have, in fact, been threads in American political history over a very long period of time. It doesn't make me like or agree with them, but it makes their appearance as 'key issues' in the American psyche more understandable.

Woodward's book paints a picture of a President who is egotistical, unstable, racist, ignorant, irrational, and, in the alleged words of his own advisers, a 'liar' and a 'moron'. One White House staffer said: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown." A military adviser allegedly stated that the President: "...acted like - and had the understanding of - 'a fifth or sixth grader.'" Fear: Trump in the White House claims that Trump's administration constitutes: "a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world."