A Very Stable Genius

A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Philip Rucker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Trump administration provides a headline a day. Sometimes, it provides many headlines a day. No doubt, Donald J. Trump, who is a mercurial and divisive president who demands the public’s attention through Twitter and massive rallies, also has an innate knack for owning the news cycle. For the purpose of this book, Washington Post reporters Rucker and Leoning choose to slow it down and take a snapshot of his time in office so far.

Starting from the election in 2016 and ending at the end of 2019, Ruck and Leoning, through extensive interviews and primary source material, provide a chronicle of all the greatest hits of a term in office. From inauguration, to investigations, the Mueller report, firings, missteps, impetuous decisions, and many, many firings and comings and goings of staffers, we see a picture of a president who has shown time and again that he will always go his own way, even when it contradicts with the advice of people with greater knowledge or experience.

The pattern of most of these chapters becomes familiar. Someone comes into the Trump orbit (or someone who was already there), has ideas about how something should be done, and believes that he/she has the solution and can make Trump see things his/her way. Soon, Mr. Trump sees a slight, an insult, or otherwise shuts his mind off to the person, begins a helter skelter campaign to insult and berate or belittle the person, on Twitter or to the press, or to his followers and fans at rallies. And sooner or later, that person is out. See: Mattis, Kelly, Nielsen, McGahn, Tillerson, etc. etc…
Trump wants to go it alone. He doesn’t like taking advice. He cannot be convinced to change his mind about anything. Even when people all around him are trying to serve his often-confusing direction, he never seems to see much beyond the moment. And as we see from the twin failures of the Mueller Report and the Impeachment (which takes place as the result of his actions with the Ukrainian President, an episode referenced in the epilogue), Donald Trump usually lands on his feet.

America is being tested by an unusual leader. Loved by many, hated by many others, Trump is a dividing line between Americans. One day, 20, 50, 100 years from now, legal scholars will point to some incident in the Trump administration to use as a precedent in a future Presidential case. Students will pore over the details of a (for better or worse) unusual presidency. People who care about history will have (hopefully less-heated) discussions about what is going on in America circa 2020. It remains to be seen what will become the definitive work of the Trump Administration. This book might be a good place to start.







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