OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD RUNAWAY #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SENSATIONAL #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Explosive.”–The Washington Post “Devastating.”–The New Yorker “Unprecedented.”–CNN “Great reporting…astute.”–Hugh Hewitt THE INSIDE STORY ON PRESIDENT TRUMP, AS ONLY BOB WOODWARD CAN TELL IT With authoritative reporting honed through nine presidencies, author Bob Woodward reveals … PRESIDENT TRUMP, AS ONLY BOB WOODWARD CAN TELL IT
With authoritative reporting honed through nine presidencies, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies.
Fear is the most intimate portrait of a sitting president ever published during the president’s first years in office. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.
Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. Often with day-by-day details, dialogue and documentation, Fear tracks key foreign issues from North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East, NATO, China and Russia. It reports in-depth on Trump’s key domestic issues particularly trade and tariff disputes, immigration, tax legislation, the Paris Climate Accord and the racial violence in Charlottesville in 2017.
Fear presents vivid details of the negotiations between Trump’s attorneys and Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, laying out for the first time the meeting-by-meeting discussions and strategies. It discloses how senior Trump White House officials joined together to steal draft orders from the president’s Oval Office desk so he would not issue directives that would jeopardize top secret intelligence operations.
“It was no less than an administrative coup d’état,” Woodward writes, “a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.”
more
Exactly what I expected from Woodward. Detailed reporting. Yes, there are a lot of unnamed sources but that doesn’t detract from the narrative. I’ve been around long enough to take most political reportage with a huge grain of salt, but Woodward is fairly trustworthy and careful. Disturbing read.
This is not an easy read. Many details about relationships within government, some surprising explanation of programs and policies. All in all, I found it a frustrating and tragic commentary on the current political situation.
If you want a look inside the Trump Whitehouse from someone with no ax to grind, someone well known for his investigative reporting, this is your book. Woodard doesn’t take sides here, he reports on the interviews he conducted with the people closest to the President.
The cons? The book jumps around a bit as different viewpoints come into play and as events unfold. A chapter may start with one thread, drop it mid-way for another and then circle back later to the original discussion.
The pros? A portrait of Trump as a man with a very specific mindset and temperament emerges from this. Everyone with an interest in American politics would do well to read this. We cannot manage what we do not understand.
Reading this, I can see that Trump has had some good ideas – get the U.S. out of Afghanistan, for example. He has no idea how to execute the good ideas he has and he listens to none of his advisors about their thoughts on the matter. He has ill-conceived ideas on trade deficits that are leading him to policies that will hurt the U.S. more than help it, in the long run, and again, no opinions on the matters count but his own. Finally, it’s scary the way his own staff must work around him and behind his back to keep him from his own worst tendencies, sometimes unsuccessfully.
SPOILER ALERT: Did he collude with Russia? Did he obstruct justice? The book isn’t conclusive in these matters. It does how ever paint quite the picture from his former lawyer John Doud’s point of view. END SPOILER
I’m a bit late on getting to read “Fear”, but I’m glad I decided to give it a try. It’s engrossing, terrifying, and really insightful as to how far people who crave power will go to get it.
As usual, Bob Woodward does a great job giving us the inside scoop of the latest inhabitants of the White House with style and grace and as much insider perspective as we can handle.
This is a great book. Everyone from both sides of the aisle should read it.
Thinkinh woodword wood be a fairly even player in telling me about trumpets stupidity. I took as the real truth teller. Nothing shocked me but many th*ngs gave me pause. It was baically a nasty picture of a evil man. That did scare me a bit but what a ______ up place and how trump s att. Span is that of a nat. If the book is truly the way it isf then GOD HELP US. I PRAY JESUS TAKES ME CAUSE I DON’T WANT TO WATCH WHAT HAPPS. EASY TO READ AND HARD TO PUT DOWN.IM OUT. NOTHING GOOD TO SAY AOUT THE TRUMPETEER. MAY WE OVER COME THIS JACKASS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.’
close up and informative! Very current!
Thoroughly researched and a bit plodding. The unfortunate thing is that Woodward held back publishing until his scoops were no longer newsworthy
Total garbage
I recommend you read this before you cast your vote this November. It will give you great insight into the man who has masquerading as “for the people.”
Utter tripe. Just garbage.
The best horror story I ever read.
This was very well-written, but it only covered Trump’s first couple of years, and most of it has already been published in newspapers and other books. It didn’t tell me much that I didn’t already know. Trump has probably been written about more than any other living man. This was just better-told than most.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Fear: Trump in the White House makes you really angry. Not because the book is not good or anything, but because it exposes and highlights the corrupt American politicians. To many this is not a new thing, but what has changed? The answer is Trump. Many consider that with Trump coming to the White House he has exposed the corruption of those politicians and policies. Now he says it all in a plain clear way what those politicians used to say behind the doors and what they used to deal under the tables.
What disgust many is the greed and the degree of racism involved. The hunger for money, wars, and power while claiming that they are supporting human rights which is a big fat lie. I am talking here about the whole system be it Democrats or Republicans. They are all alike and they do not care about the normal American citizen or anybody around the world. This is all like a chess game where they use human rights and other tools on their oppositions while when it comes to them or their allies they keep a blind eye and do whatever they wish. The war crimes that these corrupt politicians have committed in the name of America and its nation are huge. With the recent one being the war in Yemen. Many think that the US is just a partner in that war with the Saudis but that is a big lie. The USA is the one who wanted this war and ordered it because it is a good way for it to sell those arms and test them on the ground. America is the main reason this war started and is still happening.
Trump is just a stupid puppet in the hands of the money hungry 1% who are controlling the nation and country policies. He just exposes what they want from him in a plain way. Others were following the orders and keeping the dirt under the tables. If American people won’t do something about this corrupt system then it is going to take them down very soon. The United States now is like a big Titanic ship that is slowly sinking. A whole nation is under the mercy and in the hands of a bunch of money hungry idiots represented by a clown named Donald Trump.
This book reads easily. Although in terms of information and reveals it does not have a lot to expose, it inlines with other books and information I have read about the political system in the US and with Trump and his characteristics and narcissism. It will just take you a few speeches from Trump to listen to to realize that everything that is being told about him is true!
Bob Woodward is a biased idiot of the deep state.
Typical Woodward, is you talk to him he treats you well. Not worth the time.
Gives the reader great insight into the way our current president conducts himself.
Woodward’s account of how decisions are made by President Trump, usually in ignorance or defiance of more level headed members of his administration, will frighten anyone who is not a committed supporter.
Bob Woodward opens the door on what has to be the scariest, most inept, least prepared, broadly corrupt and anti-American administration EVER. If any Trump supporter reads this and can continue to support the Trump presidency, it boggles the mind.
Scary information