Rage

 

Rage – by Bob Woodward

“When I was basically directed to do something that I thought went beyond stupid to felony stupid, strategically jeopardizing our place in the world and everything else, that’s when I quit.” – James Mattis, Secretary of Defense

“Last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” – Donald Trump tweet, March 9, 2020

“Let’s hope to God we don’t have a crisis” – Bob Woodward summarizing Donald Trump’s leadership, September 2018

 

How does one even begin to understand the disastrous presidency of Donald Trump? Where does one begin?  How could this country possibly end up under the leadership of such a clueless, deranged, egotistical maniac?   Well, I guess he WAS right about one thing when he ran for president in 2016 – he said Washington D.C. was a swamp and he pledged to drain it.  I think most of us would agree with his assessment there and would have liked to have seen him make some progress towards that goal.  Like many Americans, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.  I never thought anyone from the outside could do any worse than the plethora of sleazy high-profile politicians representing both sides of the fence.  How sadly I was mistaken.

I should point out that I am not, nor ever have been, a Republican-hating liberal.  I have voted Republican many times in local, statewide, and national elections.  I’m one of those rare individuals that points out mistakes that both parties make; and I never try to bury the mistakes that “my guy” makes under a proverbial rug.  Most people who are political junkies refuse to admit that their side is ever wrong about anything.  I am different.  No, I didn’t vote for Donald Trump, but I wasn’t crazy about his opponent in 2016 either.  Sure, I knew the left-wing would crucify him every day of his administration, but sadly for the nation, his gaffes during his tenure deserved condemnation from everyone.  Sadly though, that never really happened.  The fact that so many of his admirers failed to condemn the man after his actions on January 6, 2021 (about 5 months after this book was released) proves that people can be blindly loyal no matter how hopeless their case may be.  Let’s not excuse the Democrat’s either.  We heard lots of manure from THEIR mouthpieces as well over the last several years (“Bush stole the 2000 election!”, “The electoral college should be eliminated!”, “Believe all women!” etc. etc.) I only state all of this because I’m trying to convince anyone reading this review, that I strongly feel that I am an objective judge of character.  If you DO still admire this Donald Trump, I advise you to read no further. You won’t like what I have to say.

This was Bob Woodward’s second book on Donald Trump that covered his presidency. I didn’t read the first one (I think it was called “Fear”). This particular book doesn’t really seem to have any specific focus. It’s not a retrospective of his presidency, nor is it a biography. It simply seems to capture the repulsive behavior of the Commander in Chief during various times of his presidency, and how so many respectable elements of a democratic society managed to sadly wither away.  This book was released in the Fall of 2020, right before the presidential election.  About 35-40% of this book seems to be devoted to the Corona virus that crippled the world earlier that year.  It’s obvious that this book was began before those tragic events happened, and Woodward had no idea that he would be covering this tragedy for this book. Yet the events seemed to fall right in line with the author’s thesis.  In fact, I imagine that Bob Woodward, well after this book was released, could only shake his head when he watched Trump commit sedition, and had his faithful storm and break into the capital, threaten the Vice-President’s life, and manage to get five people killed in the process.

This book begins when Trump first becomes president. Woodward initially focuses on two soon-to-be cabinet members: Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.   These two realize that this election is indeed a strange one, yet they quickly become allies confirming loyalty to each other, and loyalty to President Trump.  They realize this is crucial. In a sense, they’ll be the ones really running the country; at least in terms of foreign affairs and policy.  They know the waters might get rocky, but they’re determined to help steer the ship in the right direction.  We meet others throughout the first several chapters as well. We meet future Director of Intelligence Dan Coats and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.  It soon becomes obvious to all these key figures that the new Commander in Chief is completely clueless in everything he does, and they scramble to do their best to minimize the damage.  No amount of effort, sadly, can stop Trump from going one minute to telling a cabinet member “You’re doing a great job! I need you!” to then brutally firing them via Twitter less than 24 hours later.

Woodward doesn’t really focus much on the psychology of Trump.  We never read about his past, his motivations, or any of his long-term goals for the country.  He really doesn’t HAVE any goals.  The only thing Trump wants to do is win at everything and overpower all those who oppose him no matter how ridiculous the situation. I guess this might work if you’re a real estate tycoon or a reality game show host, but it’s not any way to run the free world.  Of course, Trump is smart, and he knows just what to say to rile up his rabid followers so they can loudly march right along to his ridiculous rhetoric.  The presidency is essentially all one big game to Donald Trump.

We do focus on some key aspects of his presidency, yet other events are left completely out.  We never read about any of the supreme court nominations (including the tempestuous Kavanaugh), but we read episodes about the Russian collusion investigation, the Ukraine event that would lead to his impeachment, and quite a bit about Trump’s relationship with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un.  Then of course, the Corona virus. I’ve always maintained that had it not been for the Corona virus, Trump would have won reelection easily. After all, the economy was in pretty good shape, and when Trump ill-advisedly removes troops from Syria, it’s easy to see why many (who don’t understand foreign policy) would feel pretty good about the man.  COVID, though, turned out to be an awfully big Achilles Heel for the man.

Although the events around COVID were very fresh when this book was written, it’s quite painful to have to relive all of the initial details and unknowns again.  The first few months were one scary mystery  after another, and it didn’t help that Trump never led the country as he should have: always dismissing the seriousness of the situation.  Like the Winter flu, Trump tells us, the Corona Virus isn’t very serious and it will likely “go away” when the weather turns “warm”.  We then read an embarrassing exchange between Trump and Senator Graham where Trump whines that it’s “unfair that COVID happened to him during an election year.”  All Graham can do is give his clueless boss a cruel lesson in reality. “Well, it’s unfair to everybody. It’s part of being president. Things happen.”  You can literally sense Lindsey Graham’s exasperation as he has to educate this clueless neophyte on Politics 101.

Author Bob Woodward managed to interview President Trump an amazing 17 times for this book. Again, I doubt it was Woodward’s intention, but many of the chapters are basically transcripts of each interview. My guess is Woodward realized he didn’t really have to “write” much of anything to prove his thesis about Trump.  We read firsthand what a whiny bully that Trump is. Woodward doesn’t need to transcribe his notes for many of these interviews and turn them into anything of literary substance. All we need to do is “listen” to the man and Woodward easily makes his point.  A reoccurring theme during many of these interviews is that Trump refuses to answer questions posed by the author about any of his problems, misgivings, or failures.  Every time Trump is pressed, he hijacks the conversation and talks about something completely off topic where feels he did, in fact, succeed.   It’s a little bit like a student arguing with his math teacher because he failed a test and insists that he should have received a 100 because he can do more push-ups that any of his classmates.   Yes, it really is that bad.

I should also point out that “Rage” isn’t really meant to be a moniker for Trump’s attitude or persona. At least not within the pages of this book. As belligerent and unrealistic as the man is, he does manage to keep his cool when being interviewed by the author.  No, “Rage” is the emotion that the majority of American voters felt when they witnessed these gaffes by Trump over and over and over again during his tenure in office.  What’s ironic, is those that (for whatever reason) still fawn over Donald Trump have that same “rage” now that he’s out of office.  It’s scary how many still believe Trump’s claims that the election was stolen from him when there literally isn’t one shred of evidence that would suggest this.  This was even stated by the Attorney General of the United States at the conclusion of the election. Who needs truth when you have YouTube conspiracy videos?

Again, this book doesn’t cover Trump’s ridiculous claim of Joe Biden stealing the election.  It was released a few months prior to that.  Reading this book, though, doesn’t leave the reader surprised that such a farce could occur.  I’m sure there will be many books written about this lie in the near future.

While true that American politics has always been filled with anger and vitriolic screaming back and forth, one can’t help but fear that Donald Trump has pushed the United States of America off the tipping point.  Let’s hope things get better soon.  Real soon. 

Please God, real soon.