Fear : Trump in the White House {REVIEW}

Bob Woodward has worked for the Washington Post since 1971 and as an investigative US journalist wrote the book “Fear: Trump in the White House”, in 2018, which (as you may have guessed) focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.

Among the more serious topics covered in the book, I was particularly interested in Trump’s recklessness as president in regards to his constant need to pull out of long standing treaties and trade agreements, which were then swiftly avoided by his staff simply removing the paperwork he needed to sign from his desk. Trump’s irresponsible tweets also became a key factor throughout his campaign and his presidency and also made for interesting comparisons to UK politics as his communication style was considerably untameable (trust me many people have tried).

Overall, this book covered a wide array of issues which ranged from Trump’s informal and leadership style (both publicly and behind closed doors) all the way to the most important policy proposals of his presidency, regarding migration, trade and US influences within the Middle East. The book also touches upon some areas of scandal (which happen to appeal to me most), such as Trump’s Ex campaign chairman (who is now in Prison for tax fraud ) whom followed a midtown bondage and Swingers club on twitter, unknowing it to be a public forum. In addition to this there are multiple references to Ivanka Trump’s meddling in White House affairs and the confrontation often brought between herself and Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon (who is now in prison over fraud regarding Trump’s wall).

As for the writing of the book, it felt rather difficult to read, mainly because it followed a chronological order, and only focused on one topic at a time, whilst not finishing it entirely and coming back to it later in the book, which left me constantly skimming back to earlier chapters to recap some of the details and especially names (which were in abundance). Saying this, the chapters only have numbers and lacked any clear headings or even a contents, which is considerably confusing and inconvenient, especially in a non-fiction book where you’d be expected to look back and re-read certain topics covered. This overall left the feeling of having just read a bunch of short, uncoordinated news articles that had difficulty leading form one to another. The ending here, was also non-existent and no firm conclusion was really drawn from any discussion brought up in the book.

{Here are some honourable quote mentions that baffled me}

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” // Trump’s “reasoning” for pulling out of the Paris agreement regarding the threat of climate change.

“If that’s the standard, let me go get some pictures of Sub-Saharan Africa. Okay? let me get some of whats happening down in Guatemala and Nicaragua. If this is the standard for a f*cking missile strike, lets go everywhere. Let’s do everything.” // Bannon’s response for Trump’s need to bomb the Middle-East every chance he gets.

“On many sides. On many sides.” – “There is no upside to directly condemn Neo-Nazis and those that are motivated by racial animus” – ‘David Duke, the well know former Ku Klux Khlan leader, tweeted “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville” // Trump’s response and comments to the Charlottesville ‘Unite the right’ rally, as well as one of the most disgusting ally’s to have on board.