Bob Woodward’s Fear

A week before Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House (Simon & Schuster) is due to drop, the book has reached the top spot on Amazon, while creating a storm on social media and in the news. Since the Washington Post published selected excerpts from the book, even the President himself appears to have been helping book sales by slinging mud and referencing the book repeatedly on Twitter, even going so far as to Tweet statements from various members of staff. A favorite came from General John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, “The idea that I ever called the President an idiot is untrue, in fact it’s exactly the opposite.”

The statement, however, doesn’t refute Kelly saying, in the same meeting where he is reported to have called the President an idiot: “We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.” From the Washington Post:

The book’s title is derived from a remark that then-candidate Trump made in an interview with Woodward and Post political reporter Robert Costa in 2016. Trump said, “Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, ‘Fear.’ ”

A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.

Woodward describes “an administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.

Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump’s national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.

Bob Woodward is the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who, with Carl Bernstein, broke the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency.

You can read the Washington Post piece in full here. Plus it seems fairly certain there will be more raging on Twitter from the President.