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    Fear: Trump in the White House
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    Fear: Trump in the White House
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    Fear: Trump in the White House
    Ebook667 pages9 hours

    Fear: Trump in the White House

    By Bob Woodward

    4/5

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    THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER
    THE OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR

    THE INSIDE STORY ON PRESIDENT TRUMP, AS ONLY BOB WOODWARD CAN TELL IT.

    ‘Fear is a meticulously researched account of a White House and a president in financial, legal and personal disorder…essential reading…’ Daily Mail

    'I think you’ve always been fair.' — President Donald J. Trump, in a call to Bob Woodward, August 14, 2018

    'The sheer weight of anecdotes depicts a man with no empathy and a pathological capacity for lying.' - The Financial Times

    'Fuelling his narrative is an astonishing cast of rogues, ideologues, self-made millionaires and men in uniform who have spent the past two years in and out of Trump's administration.' - The Sunday Times

    'Woodward’s meticulous account of office intrigues, the president’s men don’t seem to be trembling with fright.  What they mostly feel is contempt for Trump or pity for his ignorance and the “teenage logic” of his obsessively vented grievances.' - The Observer

    'Horribly fascinating. Strongly recommended. If you can bear it.' Richard Dawkins

    'To me the standout message from the book...is that the president is a bit clueless, a bit vain, a bit dangerous even; but his people are utterly at sea…’ - Justin Webb, The Times

    'He is the master and I'd trust him over politicians of either party any day of the week.' —Peter Baker, New York Times
     
    'His work has been factually unassailable . . . In an age of ‘alternative facts’ and corrosive tweets about ‘fake news,’ Woodward is truth’s gold standard.' - Jill Abramson, The Washington Post

    'Fear depicts a White House awash in dysfunction, where the Lord of the Flies is the closest thing to an owner's manual.' The Guardian

    'I wonder how many journalists have arrived in Washington over the years dreaming of becoming the next Bob Woodward . . . Though his books are often sensational, he is the opposite of sensationalist. He’s diligent, rigorous, fastidious about the facts, and studiously ethical. There’s something almost monastic about his method . . . He’s Washington's chronicler in chief.' —  Nick Bryant, BBC

    'I’ve been on the receiving end of a Bob Woodward book. There were quotes in it I didn’t like. But never once—never—did I think Woodward made it up. Anonymous sources have looser lips and may take liberties. But Woodward always plays is straight. Someone told it to him.' — Ari Fleisher, White House Press Secretary for George W. Bush

    With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, 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. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. 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.

    Fear is the most intimate portrait of a sitting president ever published during the president’s first years in office.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster UK
    Release dateSep 11, 2018
    ISBN9781471181313
    Author

    Bob Woodward

    Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post, where he has worked for more than 50 years. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his Watergate coverage and the other for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has authored 21 bestselling books, 15 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers.

    Read more from Bob Woodward

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    Reviews for Fear

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      I thought an interesting book to listen too, Not sure if this book was meant to bash Trump but for his base I'm sure it had the opposite effect. The final words in the book was no great revelation, Trump is an Effing Liar. No news here. Enjoyed the banter between the political players.
    • 3/5
      This is a book read with horrified fascination. Mr. Woodward is a reporter who works by accumulating a number of details and then letting the subject reveal itself in short snippets, presenting short scenes and encounters that gradually build up a picture of the circumstance he wishes to describe. He does it well, and this bok is a worthy addition to his other political works. Woodward dwells on the difficulty of trying to create a coherent polcy from a set of wildly shifting prononcements from a man who came to the conclusion that the basis of all leadership is the constant conflict of advisors who are kept in a state of near panic by the inconsistencies of their boss. I am not going to describe Donald Trump as a leader, for his manner and talents do not lie in the field of bringing out the best in his subordinates but instead, in using them to set up dramatic scenarios which allow him to appear as as "Decider" who swoops down from his superior perch and blesses or damns the hopeful aspirants who surround him. The matter of the scenarios does not matter to Trump as much as the dramatic playlets he can create for his personal theatre. It is no way to run a presidential administration.The book deals almost entirely with the very domestic management of the President and his White House team, and the public relations staff, as well as his corps of lawyers. There is practically nothing about the foreign policy of the USA, nor with the domestic manipulation of the Congress except as it functions as the matter of the playlets. A chilling and very narrow focus is maintained, creating a portrait of a man who, not having very much real self confidence, has substituted the creation of fear by his serious inconsistencies, rather than by any organized program. Mr. Woodward has not chosen to follow what may appear to be the president's gradual loss of focussed energies, as that was probably not as pronounced by the time of preparation and publication, finishing in summer 2018, compared to the events of the winter and spring of 2018-2019.
    • 4/5
      Bob Woodward's portrait of Trump and account of the first year or so of his presidency starts out kind of disjointed and a little dry. But by the end, like Trump himself, it compels a certain trainwreck fascination. Nothing in it is particularly surprising, though. Woodward's portrait of Trump reveals him as exactly the person he appears to be (and god help us all). And even though I go through long periods where I cannot stomach keeping up with the news, I can't say there was very much in here that was new to me, other than some insights into Trump's ill-informed and intractable ideas on the economy and free trade. Which sort of makes me wonder why I put myself through reading it. (Which is a commentary not on Woodward, but on his subject matter.)I suppose it could be appreciated as an interesting historical look at a truly weird time in American history, if only we didn't have to live through it all.
    • 4/5
      Bob Woodward's scathing portrait of the Trump presidency is unlikely to change many minds. Trump opponents will believe every scurrilous detail; Trump supporters will dismiss it whole cloth. And since, if there's anyone out there who is actually attempting to judge this president with unbiased intent, his/her voice is not being heard, one questions why Woodward felt it necessary to produce this 300+ page indictment.Money, of course. That's a big one. Since it sold 750,000 copies on its first day of release, Woodward is in line for an immense paycheck. Journalistic pride, for another. He obviously believes that five years from now, he will be able to point and say "See? Was I right?" Which of course will thrust his journalistic reputation even higher. And maybe -- just maybe -- he really believes the American public needs to understand just what a wacko they placed at the helm of their nation.To say that Trump does not come off well in this book is like saying Hurricane Katrina caused some flooding. Woodward paints him as a pathological liar, a pathetic bully, a racist, and a man with all the emotional stability of a 14-year-old and the reasoning ability of someone half that age. Over and over again, Woodward reports attempts by Trump's staff to guide him away from his own worst impulses, often without success. He presents uncounted instances where the President made a public statement, accurately reported, and then denies having said any such thing. He outlines hair-raising incidents, particularly in Trump's dealings with South Korea's Kim Jong Un, that have brought us -- and are continuing to bring us -- to the brink of nuclear war.There must have been times when, researching this work, Woodward felt like he was playing Whack-a-Mole. Problems thought resolved pop up again, and as soon as a journalist (or staffer's) attention was diverted to Problem A, Problem B popped up again.The book's biggest weakness lies in its very attempt to be comprehensive. There are simply so any characters coming and going through the book, just as they have come and gone through Trump's staff, that it's virtually impossible for the reader to identify any through-flow narrative. Woodward would have done everyone a favor by including a huge fold-out graphic naming each name, telling when and to what purpose they joined Trump's camp, what the major areas of conflict where, when and how they left, and who replaced them. The palace intrigue here is worthy of ancient Rome, and the body count approaches that of Mario Puzo's "Godfather" saga.Reading this thing is like watching a slo-mo train wreck, and it's impossible to turn away, even though you realize that as you've read the last page of the book, cars are still leaping off the rails, tumbling through the air, and smashing down to crush bodies and landscapes in an unending cataclysm.
    • 4/5
      I read Bob Woodward's book "Fear: Trump in the White House." Lots of thoughts. But I'll just put a few brief observations here to start.

      First, you should read it. A book does so much more justice to history than tweets, news stories, commentator hot takes, and social media rants. Do yourself a favor, and take the time to read the book.

      Second, I didn't pick up "fear" as a very good theme for the book. "Unhinged," or "Liar," or "Unprecedented," or "Wowsahs" all might be better titles. But "fear" just didn't seem to fit. I'm not saying that Trump hasn't used fear at any point to get what he wants or that it isn't a theme in his administration--nor am I say that it is--just that Woodward doesn't really seem to draw that theme so much as drop it in at a couple random points. (But then, "Liar" might have provoked a lawsuit for slander, and would red goes better with fear, and if we're all about selling books, "Fear" on a red cover goes better, right? Good thing we're not judging books by their cover...)

      Third: there are both heroes and villains in this story. And that's just inside the White House. Unfortunately, the heroes can't consistently manage, and the President seems to lack an internal compass. Enter the villains...

      And last: As one friend pointed out (at book club, and you know who you are), he finished reading the book and, oddly, his opinion of Trump actually went up. I don't know if that's because his opinion was so low before that it could only increase, or if Trump really is better than we give him credit...nah, it's not that. But it made me think about how complex the modern White House is and the difficulty of governing in the polarized environment of constant media scrutiny. Sure, Trump is largely where he is because of that situation, but he's also an ongoing victim of it.

      Or maybe we are victims of it?

      It's a republic if we can keep it, and 24-hour news consumption is not helping us keep it. Go read a book. This one, even.

      Bonus thought: the Democrats are not helping themselves. They're ensuring that Trump wins reelection, transforms the judiciary, and remakes foreign policy in a way no one has been able to do in a decade. All is not lost, nor is it all bad news.

    • 4/5
      It's a compelling subject, chronicled by a masterful journalist. Unfortunately, as some other reviewers have lamented, virtually all of the "meat" contained in the book is old news for any readers who were exposed to Woodward's exhaustive book tour. I get the need to promote books by showcasing strong content. I've been a small-press publisher for 35 years. But I can honestly say there wasn't a single "punch line" in Woodward's work that I hadn't ready seen, heard or read about --- multiple times -- during his book promotion blitz. There oughta be a law... Having said all that, I do think "Fear" is an important book that meticulously (sometimes to a tedious extreme) documents numerous critical chapters in American history.
    • 5/5
      This is a very well-written terrifying look at the process of making Trump president in very manipulative and frightening ways. Frightening because it shows how easy it was for nefarious people to manipulate American voters into voting for the inept, unqualified man that is now president. It is terrifying to believe that such an incompetent man is now the leader of our nation all because he was marketed to the lowest common denominator and got him elected.
    • 4/5
      Woodward's book confirms what we already knew - Trump really IS a moron. He's an arrogant, ignorant, reckless, dangerous, malignant man, and we should all be afraid, especially if he gets re-elected.
    • 4/5
      Fascinatingly detailed account - with actual conversations on essential topics of government policy, all reflecting Trump's questionable knowledge of any subject related to governing and his impatient and immature reactions to his advisers - not that we didn't know all this already, but at the same time, another poignant proof, in much, much detail. If it were not for such a credible journalist as Bob Woodward I would be skeptical about how such detailed conversations could have been obtained. I listened to the audio version - very well narrated by Robert Petkoff.
    • 4/5
      To be honest, there is nothing that can shock me about the ineptitude, corruption, silliness and stupidity by Trump or anyone else in his administration. How anyone with any self-respect or intelligence could work for an individual of limited abilities and unlimited faults, is beyond me. Woodward describes a president who won't read briefing books but gets his information watching cable TV, especially FOX News.

      20 or 30 years from now, some student or historian will read Woodward's book and wonder how the hell the presidency had gotten to that point. As much as they will wonder about Trump, they will also wonder about the people who worked for him and why they put up with Trump's insults and incompetency...

      I skimmed through much of the book as there were sections that were just too painful and upsetting to read. Obviously Woodward did a great job in researching the book and contacting members of the administration and getting their perspective.

      Again, if you are a Trump supporter, you will have no interest in reading this book – – you will label it as fake news just as any other criticism of Trump is considered.
    • 4/5
      Extremely well-documented and frightening account of life in the Trump White House. Irrespective of party affiliation, Woodward's book does little to build confidence in our current administration.

    • 3/5
      Fear: Trump In The White HouseBy Bob Woodward2018Simon & Schuster3.5 / 5'Fear' is not a tell- all book. You will probably not learn anything new about Trump or his " administration". Most of this book is a re- hash of conversations about or with Trump since taking office. What these conversations reveal is a much clearer and concise picture of how Trump acts, reacts and makes " decisions". He is erratic, impulsive and explosive in nature. His self-serving manipulations and actions, his inability to listen or learn, make him seemingly incapable of keeping his word or promises. He is even not capable of keeping his word or promise to his own senior staff and his own family. The 'Fear' increases as you realize if this how he treats those closest to him, how very vulnerable he is with foreign entities and what he could have or already has said or done so those countries will notice him. Noticing him is really his bottom line. Not our Democracy. Not this country. Not the citizens of this country. Noticing him....negatively or positively does not matter....just that he is noticed. ( I should be noticed. I should be recognized. I'm smart. I think I'm better. I win) Being completely unaware and ignorant of the history of this country of its political history and agreements make him a unable to be an effective or respected leader. This goes straight to his lack of character, his lack of empathy, his lack of capable skills to do his job, his basic ignorance of even basic fact and a decided unwillingness to mature and grow beyond himself. A cowardly man who is willing to destroy the very foundations our country was build on, our democracy. Just to avoid being seen for what he truly isA con, a cheat, a liar.A creepy dictator in sheepskin.A seal in a now bankrupt circus, who still cant balance a ball on his nose. Let's learn from our mistakes, America and never let this happen again.Recommended reading along with a few others that expose what is being done to our once great country.
    • 5/5
      Typical of Bob Woodward: fully researched and reported, impeccable sources, thoroughly damning to Trump. Special counsel Robert Mueller probably used this book as evidence in his investigation of Trump. Woodward brought down Nixon. Now he is going to bring down Trump.
    • 5/5
      Where do I start with this one? Rather than focusing on the topic, can I just say that Bob Woodward's writing is just good. I found myself thinking that being an investigative journalist would be like attempting a ridiculously large puzzle while only being given a small card table to put it all together on. So in other words, I don't know how they do it, but I admire and appreciate their using their talents to help shed light on our world, its events and people.
    • 4/5
      This well-researched book gives background on events both before and after the 2016 presidential election. Many of the players from early in Trump's presidency have already left the stage, but I'd still recommend the book to anyone who'd like to understand a bit more about how we've gotten to this point.
    • 3/5
      I has already heard many parts of this book due to the coverage on the news, however it was interesting to read through the whole passages on my own. I found the writing a bit disjointed and was surprised at how Woodward jumped from one topic to another without transition - this was surprising to me (thought Woodward's writing style would be more sophisticated). Scary to think this is our president and our current administration!
    • 3/5
      FEAR, by Bob Woodward, is an excellent rough draft of history, this history being the rise of President Donald Trump and his first year in office. It would be an easy book for Trump’s acolytes and sycophants to dismiss as “fake news,” and call it a smear job, except that to read but a few pages is to know that Woodward brought all of his reporter’s skill to bear, and got people – especially people close to Trump – to talk about what they saw and heard. Conversations are recounted verbatim, and details are recalled that could only have come from people in the room. And some common threads emerge, threads that knit a portrait of man as ignorant as he is supremely self-confident, as self absorbed as he is devoid of any motivation other than self interest of the moment, lacking any moral center; in its place, a savage cunning, a keen eye for opportunity, and a finely honed ability to spot weakness. This proved to be enough to elect Donald Trump President in 2016, and make possible what came after.Woodward’s book, which comes in at just over 350 pages in hardback, is presented in a series of anecdotes that touch on the greatest hits of the early Trump era: the Access Hollywood tape, the capitulation of the Republican establishment, the Muslim travel ban, the firing of James Comey, the border wall, Charlottesville, North Korea, illegal immigration, tariffs, Syria, NATO, and tax cuts. And time and again, we see one high ranking member of the administration after another utterly fail to reign in the President, who rules by whim, impulse, and tweet. But hanging over it all, is the shadow of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and the question of collusion. Toward the end of the book, the spotlight is increasingly on lawyers and the special prosecutor, as serious questions are raised as to the possibility that the President of the United States conspired with a hostile foreign power to gain the office. Of course, Woodward cannot give us any definitive answer, but the one thing he does definitively prove is that Trump is a liar, one who is quite capable of committing any of things he is alleged to have done.Behind Trump is many a name from the news: Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway, John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster, Michael Flynn, John Dowd, Rob Porter, Hope Hicks, Jeff Seissons; along with Trump’s children and son on law, Jared Kushner. All of them in some way come to grief in their dealings with their President, some much more than others. But I must admit that I gained some grudging admiration for Steve Bannon, for though his politics are abhorrent, he read the political landscape in 2016 better than anyone else, and almost alone except for the candidate, saw the road to victory over Hillary Clinton when everyone else had given the Republican candidate up for dead. Most of these people were sources for Woodward, clearly determined to get their side of events out before the public as fast as possible. Sadly, FEAR, is already dated, as the events it covers have faded into the past, and most of the participants who are still part of the administration at the end, have left since publication. But have no fear, there will no doubt be sequels, and sequels to the sequels before the Age of Trump ends.
    • 4/5
      Scary. Confirms through research what we hear nightly on many news outlets.
    • 4/5
      An in-depth look at the Trump administration from a reporter known for his sources. While much of this book felt like reliving the years 2016 to 2018, depth and behind-the-scenes knowledge was new. Woodward does a good job digging up those stories and sorting through the different versions. He also puts forward a more complex image of Trump than one would get from watching the nightly news. There's plenty in the book and the final story isn't one that quite fits either the Republican or Democratic narrative of the presidency.
    • 4/5
      There was so much about this book in the news when it came out that I wondered how much was left for me to discover. Well, a lot. My husband was reading this on vacation and wanted me to read it quickly so that we could talk about it together. One thing my husband brought up is how Rob Porter is portrayed in the book - almost as a hero. He figures prominently for about 200 pages of the book, ostensibly one of the only people trying to hold Trump back from his worst behavior; when he resigns, it garners about half a page - I was a bit disappointed about the light treatment of him in the end - I mean he resigned because of accusations of domestic abuse from his two previous ex-wives, and they had photos.And actually that's a point about the book - there's no salacious stuff. It doesn't even mention the relationship between Hope Hicks and Porter, for example.Also, I found that Woodward jumped around a lot in the book, without transitions - I was like, oh, OK, we're going to talk about that now...The book starts in 2010 when Steve Bannon firsts meets Trump and ends when Trump's attorney Dowd resigns because Trump was planning on testifying to Mueller, against Dowd's advice. The detailed part of the book starts in August 2016 and goes through March 2018. I wasn't that surprised with a lot of the stuff in the book because I've seen Trump behave the way the book describes, because of all the leaking out of his administration and finally because of all the press this book got when it came out. What I guess was surprising is how denigrating he was of people in his administration, how badly he treated people; also, he didn't care about any facts that were presented to him, if they were not supporting his already developed opinion, which he would never change. Facts be damned - of course, this shouldn't really be surprising as this president lies more than any other (reference politifact.com). I think Bob Woodward was trying to be as balanced as he could be - he seemed to be giving Trump a lot of credit for how charming he was when he would call the families of fallen military; what's weird is some stuff that was covered in the news about how Trump bickered with the widow of La David Johnson who was left behind to die in Niger, wasn't in the book. So, I was surprised about that.Anyway, with everything that keeps coming out after more and more people are making plea deals with Mueller, I kept running across stuff in the book that led to a lot of 'a-ha' moments, and "it's all making sense now."It's definitely worth a read.
    • 4/5
      I didn't expect to sit down and read this from cover to cover, but I did. (Full disclosure: I was snowed in.)Woodward is such a damn good reporter (no surprise here). Many reviewers here said it was a good read but they didn't really learn anything new. Although I'm a faithful news reader and watcher, I learned a lot--about how Trump thinks, how he interacts with the staff trying to help him, and the way he makes decisions.None of which was reassuring.
    • 4/5
      An important book for all Americans to read, no matter to which side of the aisle your allegiance runs. It gave me a better understanding of the day-to-day headlines and news tags that can cause so much angst among the public. It is not a quick and easy read and one must have the desire to really understand the current White House in order to finish the book, but it is a worthwhile endeavor. Don't sell yourself short by acquiescing to any of the many "short-hand" books that purport to give you the entire picture of this book.
    • 5/5
      For those of us who have watched our government go about an incredible attack by the person in charge at the moment, Woodward provides an up close view that steps inside the doors of the White House with the people closest to Trump. We see him with his actual words and people's actual descriptions --- it's been out there in the news but this gives a better framework and timeline at the same time it provides a somewhat better understanding of how people think who try and work with Trump. Unfortunately, the book is being read by those who already agree that he should never have been put in this position and it is not being read by those who would learn, perhaps, but once again, not believe, the "truth" about "their president."
    • 4/5
      5596. Fear Trump in the White House, by Bob Woodward (read 18 Nov 2018) This is the 9th book which Bob Woodward authored or co-authored which I have read. It covers the first portion of the Trump time in the White House, up to about mid-year in 2018. It tells many things about discord and infighting in the Trump Administration. I think it is probably accurate, though one is surprised that Woodward would be told some of the things he sets out. But nothing we know about Trump makes anything in the book unlikely. In other words the things the book says appear to be what Trump and the people around him would do and say. But the book is so episodic that we have to guess at what occurred after what we are told. And sometimes the telling is not of anything really interesting. But overall one does fear for our country with such a person as Trump as president. These are dangerous times and one hopes the country can survive them without catastrophe
    • 5/5
      Damn! There is so much more I wish he had written about. But s very easy read...and an interesting profile of some of the WH staffers. Nice to put faces to the names. On the other hand, it is a sad book. For a sad time. I hope we survive.
    • 3/5
      I suppose this is the book of the summer, although there is really nothing here that we haven't heard before from Michael Wolff, the New York Times, The New Yorker, or even Omorosa. What is different is that we're reading from Bob Woodward's immaculately sourced pen, and so an added layer of veracity is added to what are now familiar tales.
    • 5/5
      Bob Woodward is the master when it comes to covering the White House and its occupants. In this book on the Trump White House we are gifted with an extremely well-written and meticulously researched book that provides us with the truth about what is happening there. However, while Trump will certainly go down in history as one of the worst presidents ever, if not the worst, a Pence presidency is also one that must be avoided. This is a fast-paced thriller I simply could not put down. The master has done it again!
    • 4/5
      Reading this, I often felt: what a glutton for punishment I am! Not because it isn't an excellent book (it is), but because it adds more and more facts about what we already know about this man and what he is doing to our democracy. It seems like Woodward has talked with everyone and, even more impressive, has induced everyone to talk to him. Sometimes I felt the organization could have been tighter, but all in all, excellent.
    • 5/5
      Woodward provides what the previous tell-all White House books lack, serious reporting and documentation. The story hasn’t changed, it shows the US president as a person lacking the skills necessary to be president.
    • 5/5
      I was surprised at how policy-driven this book was. Unlike Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury, where Bannon seemed just about the only source, many former insiders obviously talked to Woodward - sources who were in the most critical meetings. Not clunkily written, as I had feared; it was just an excellent piece of journalism. Just amazing that this cruel, weak, lazy narcissist still commands such power. Terrifying.