317
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #77,785 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★☆
How US Democracy Barely Survived Trump
Bob Woodward (with Robert Costa) gives readers his third and final book about the Trump Presidency. As with all of these books, there are many surprising, sometimes shocking, revelations based on interviews with DC insiders. This book begins with an eye opening flashforward, describing how General Milley (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) on Jan 8, 2021 tried to assure Chinese officials that Trump was not going to launch an attack against them. Nancy Pelosi and others had talked to Milley about their concerns that Trump was dangerously unstable mentally. The first third of the book, however, focuses on the last year of Trump's Presidency, as well as Joe Biden's campaign for the Democratic nomination and later his race against Trump. I found this part of the book rather superficial, but Woodward does at times provide yet more disturbing evidence of Trump's erratic behavior. For example, Trump tries to bully the FDA Director to rush approval of a COVID vaccine regardless of the safety risks. The second part of the book I found the most interesting, as Woodward describes in detail Trump's relentless and insidious efforts to overturn the election results. Perhaps this was predictable, but it is shocking to read about the numerous Republicans who supported Trump's attempt to undermine the Constitution. Even more shocking is how close they came, much closer than I suspect most Americans realize. The last part of the book covers Biden's initial six months of his Presidency, especially his efforts to combat COVID, pass a relief funding bill through Congress, and withdraw from Afghanistan. Overall, I found this book to be often fascinating reading, even though I think that the authors tried to cover too much ground. It is unfortunate that some readers (and reviewers) see this book as a partisan attack on Trump. The primary message of this book for me concerns the dangerous future US society faces when those in power create a cascade of lies in order to undermine elections, the cornerstone of democracy.
