22 September 2018

Fear

I finished Bob Woodward's new book Fear: Trump in the White House earlier in the week and wanted to share my thoughts about it here. I definitely recommend reading the book, but don't buy it -- borrow it from the library or a friend or glom a copy at a torrent or file-sharing site.

The work has strengths and weaknesses. The strengths are the original reporting not seen elsewhere before. The book stumbles at time for lack of clarity, focus, and organization, a problem frequently seen in Woodward's previous tomes. Like many newspaper reporters, Woodward has always had difficulty organizing and structuring a book-length manuscript.

The big takeaway for me from the book is the way it shows, at length and with many examples, how grossly incompetent Donald Trump is and how he's utterly unfit for office. He's a chaotic, neurotic mess. The book does humanize him some, but also shows how he's in far over his head.

Fear also thoroughly documents Trump's grossly corrupt nature. He thinks almost exclusively only about himself and will do or say anything to protect and better himself. The book also well documents Trump's complete contempt and disregard for the rule of law. He simply doesn't care about the law. Laws are for other people.

Trump and his people have tried to claim that Woodward fabricated quotes and facts described in the book. Considering that Woodward has hundreds of house of recorded interviews, reality comes down in the author's favor. No one has sued him for defamation because of what he wrote in the book.

All in all, Fear does feel a bit thin. Woodward may have wanted to get in early on the Trump book rush. He undoubtedly is working on another book about Trump, given he has a history of writing several books about a presidency. So it will be interesting to see his future take on what came after the first year of the Trump White House, which is his primary focus in Fear.

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