Rage

by Bob Woodward

Mattis summarized, “When I was basically directed to do something that I thought went beyond stupid to felony stupid, strategically jeopardizing our place in the world and everything else, that’s when I quit.”

“now I have to bring in the people who totally disagree with this and who are going to tell him this is a bad idea. He’s going to side with them. And then we’re going to have a debate on both of them.”

Kushner saw Trump’s constant, shifting inconsistency as a challenge to be met with an ever-adapting form of managing up.

The result was a compromise that is one of the most confusing lines in the history of high-profile investigations: “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

“He was at MIT for 42 years or something. He was a great—so I understand that stuff. You know, genetically.”

It’s only going to get worse over time, though. The judiciary is going to get far more ideological. It changes the Senate. It’s just a matter of time until the Senate becomes the House”—more ideological, more partisan and focused on the short term rather than able to take a long view.

“But for me it works out good. It’s funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them. You know? Explain that to me someday, okay?”

When combined, Kushner’s four texts painted President Trump as crazy, aimless, stubborn and manipulative. I could hardly believe anyone would recommend these as ways to understand their father-in-law, much less the president they believed in and served.

It was apparently a reference to Mattis, Tillerson and former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn. All had left. “If you look at the evolution over time, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of the overconfident idiots. And now he’s got a lot more thoughtful people who kind of know their place and know what to do.”

Testing was the first of the 14 areas I wanted to cover.

the struggle to supply personal protective equipment to hospital employees and other workers.

unemployment benefits and the cash payments.”

“The fourth area is the small business loans”

“Shelter in place.”

“Sixth is the food supply,” I said. “Are you confident that the food supply is going to get out to people?”

“Seventh area, international coordination.” I asked Trump if he had seen Henry Kissinger’s recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal headlined, “The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order.”

“I do. I do. We have a secretary of state named Mike Pompeo.”

Hahahahaha

“How about the next area? What’s the definition of an essential worker? People feel it’s—everyone’s defining it the way they want to define it. Do

“Now who’s in charge of the effort—I’ve talked to some people”—again the president let out a deep sigh—“who are doing very aggressive, imaginative work on vaccines and antibodies. Who’s in charge of that?”

more recently one of the world’s leading experts on managing mammoth public health crises,

How about the intelligence agencies? How’s CIA director Gina Haspel doing?”

“You need theater commanders like you’ve got in Iraq or in Afghanistan. Somebody in charge of testing. Somebody in charge of vaccines. You need a Petraeus to regain your footing. You’ve lost the momentum. You need a surge. Testing is the biggest flaw we have.”

“Sir,” I said, “you’re going to be judged by how you handle the virus.” “I disagree,” he said. “It’ll be a part of it, but I’ve done a lot of other things too.” “It’s so monumental,” I said. “I agree,” he said. “It’s a war. It is a war. It’s like being attacked. But I’m not going to be judged entirely by that.”

Delusion. Complete inability to recognize the decisive point.

“Mr. President, all your haters would love nothing more than you make all the decisions,”

That sounded like a good description of a coin toss.

Fauci marveled at Trump, who would hopscotch from one topic to another. “His attention span is like a minus number,” Fauci said privately.

“dynamite behind the door” was in plain sight. It was Trump himself. The oversized personality. The failure to organize. The lack of discipline. The lack of trust in others he had picked, in experts. The undermining or the attempted undermining of so many American institutions. The failure to be a calming, healing voice. The unwillingness to acknowledge error. The failure to do his homework. To extend the olive branch. To listen carefully to others. To craft a plan.

A president must be willing to share the worst with the people, the bad news with the good. All presidents have a large obligation to inform, warn, protect, to define goals and the true national interest. It should be a truth-telling response to the world, especially in crisis. Trump has, instead, enshrined personal impulse as a governing principle of his presidency.