Review of Bob Woodward's “Fear: Trump in The White House”

** spoiler alert ** When this book first came out and started making noise as the media released some of its juiciest excerpts, I thought it would not be the best use of my time to read it. Indeed media commentary made it sound too much like gossip about how bad Donald Trump really was. I was convinced that I would not learn much more than what I already knew and that it would make for a rather depressing and anxiety-generating read. This of course, completely underestimated Bob Woodward’s talent as a journalist and writer.

The book’s first pages undoubtedly set the tone for what the book turns out to be: a complex and psychoanalytically rich and detailed account of what policy and bureaucratic dynamics are like in Trump’s White House during its first year. We immediately delve into one of the aspects that had generated much noise and concerned laughter in the press: recurrent instances of what has been referred to as administrative or bureaucratic coup d’état. This is best epitomized by the debate around whether to withdraw from the KORUS trade agreement (with South Korea) and Trump’s obsession with how bad a deal it is.

The reader immediately realizes that this book will not solely be about Trump himself, but indeed about his White House and its inner dynamics. Woodward turns us into spectators observing an incredibly disorganized and cynical show about the various forces and ideologies opposing each other in influencing the President. It stars individual advisers pushing agendas, some of whom driven by the sheer lust of power and personal advancement, while others genuinely attempting to do what they believe is right. Others yet, flirting with what some would see as treason, striving to constrain Trump’s most dangerous instincts and preventing him from causing irreversible damage.

Reviewing Fear: Trump in the White House without reflecting upon what it tells us about its main character would be an oversight, however. Through interviews with Trump's large roster of advisers who have come and gone in one of the largest and fastest turnover in White House history, the author is able to provide key insights about Donald Trump’s personality and his way to approach executive power.

At various times, Woodward comes back to different versions of the same Trump statement, which not only illustrates this President’s default position in any given situation but that is also - as the reader rapidly understands - what shocks and worries the author the most: “Real power is fear. It’s all about strength. Never show weakness. You’ve always got to be strong. Don’t be bullied. There is no choice” (p. 175) and later on again in the book with regard to his approach to North Korean leader Kim: “You can never show weakness... You’ve got to project strength. Kim and others need to be convinced that I’m prepared to do anything to back up our interests” (p. 281). Ironically, for those out there who have spent time studying International Relations and Foreign Policy theories, there is nothing new about Trump’s posture. What has often been referred to as the “Madman theory” was best embodied by Richard Nixon and his approach to dealing with the Soviet Union. All the way back to 1517, Niccolò Machiavelli himself believed that in affairs of state it is at time “a very wise thing to simulate madness” (Discourses of Livy, Book 3, Chapter 2).

Yet this latter aspect is only one facet of Woodward’s overall portrayal of the 45th President of the United States, whom many senior advisers have depicted as a definitive pathological liar. Woodward’s own account is however never judgmental. The quality of his book’s narrative resides in the author’s lauded discipline toward objective reporting. Indeed, Woodward’s account builds on in-depth and cross-referenced primary data such as elite interviews. This has enabled him to get as close as possible to “facts”, a concept whose nature and actual existence have probably changed forever as a result of Trump’s era, wherein whatever information is not convenient is deemed “fake news”. Woodward’s description of Trump’s mood swings, instincts, ideas and challenges during his first year is even at times somewhat compassionate, depicting a man who is constantly and absolutely out of his depth. Ultimately, the book reveals the extent of the President’s insecurity, as though the “fear” he so readily embraces as modus operandi in his exercise of power is projecting nothing more than that which exists within.