Fear: Trump in the White House

Bob Woodward chronicles the first year and a half of the Trump administration. The book opens with an episode from September 2017 that Woodward presents as emblematic of the presidency: Gary Cohn, Trump's top economic adviser and former president of Goldman Sachs, discovered a draft letter on the president's Oval Office desk that would terminate the United States–South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). Cohn removed it, fearing that withdrawal would unravel a military alliance and endanger highly classified intelligence operations enabling the U.S. to detect a North Korean missile launch within seven seconds. Staff secretary Rob Porter, who managed presidential paperwork, joined Cohn in quietly derailing the president's most dangerous impulses by removing documents, stalling decisions, and citing legal restrictions. Woodward frames this as "an administrative coup d'état" by aides protecting the country from "an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader."

The narrative reaches back to 2010, when conservative activist David Bossie brought Steve Bannon, then a right-wing filmmaker, to Trump Tower to discuss a presidential run. Bannon dismissed Trump as unserious but was impressed by his populist instincts. Six years later, with the campaign collapsing, Republican mega-donor Rebekah Mercer urged Bannon to take over. He met Trump at his Bedminster golf club and laid out a three-theme strategy: Stop illegal immigration, bring back manufacturing jobs, and exit foreign wars. Trump named Bannon campaign CEO and pollster Kellyanne Conway campaign manager. Conway coined the phrase "the hidden Trump voter" to describe supporters who would not say so publicly.

The campaign nearly imploded in October when the Access Hollywood tape surfaced, a 2005 recording of Trump boasting about groping women. Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus urged Trump to drop out, with running mate Mike Pence prepared to step in. Bannon insisted on "100 percent, metaphysical certitude" that Trump would win. Trump's wife, Melania Trump, dismissed a proposed television confessional, and Trump refused to read scripted apology lines. Bannon staged a pre-debate appearance with women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, stabilizing the campaign. On election night, Trump won North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin. Bannon later reflected that Trump was "totally unprepared" for the presidency.

Woodward documents the intelligence community's findings on Russian election interference, tracing evidence from cyber intrusions in state voter registration systems in 2015 through the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails. When intelligence chiefs briefed the president-elect on January 6, 2017, FBI Director James Comey privately told Trump about an unverified dossier by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele alleging Russian efforts to compromise him. Trump denied the allegations and later told his attorney he felt "shaken down." The episode launched Trump's war with the intelligence community.

During the transition, Trump assembled his team. Retired Marine General James Mattis, known as "Mad Dog," told Trump the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group "must be a war of annihilation" and was named secretary of defense. Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson became secretary of state because Trump thought he "looked the part." Cohn accepted the directorship of the National Economic Council. Retired General Michael Flynn became national security adviser but resigned within weeks after lying about discussing Obama-era sanctions with the Russian ambassador.

The early months brought crises and internal battles. A raid in Yemen by SEAL Team Six, an elite Navy special operations unit, went badly, killing one commando and several civilians. Trump disparaged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S.-European military alliance, as obsolete before Mattis and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, persuaded him to maintain support. In April, after a sarin gas attack on Syrian civilians, Trump ordered 60 Tomahawk missiles fired at a Syrian airfield, with Mattis limiting targets to avoid civilian casualties.

On Afghanistan, Trump delivered a 25-minute dressing-down of his generals at a July National Security Council (NSC) meeting, saying enlisted soldiers "could run things much better." Mattis argued that withdrawing would recreate the conditions that produced the rise of ISIS. Trump grudgingly approved adding troops but said he believed his advisers were wrong. The strategy memo, signed by national security adviser H. R. McMaster, quietly acknowledged that "stalemate likely to persist."

Trade policy became another fault line. Trump's protectionist instincts pitted him against Cohn, who argued that trade deficits were irrelevant and that the economy had shifted to services. Peter Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist who shared Trump's views, wrote a memo complaining that Cohn had "amassed a large power base" blocking trade actions. Porter and Cohn repeatedly removed draft orders from Trump's desk to prevent withdrawals from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and KORUS. When Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue showed Trump a map indicating that NAFTA withdrawal would hit his own voter base hardest, Trump held off temporarily.

The firing of Comey in May 2017 and the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel consumed the White House. Trump erupted into what Porter called the worst day anyone had witnessed, raging that "Everybody's trying to get me." Attorney John Dowd adopted a cooperation strategy, delivering 1.4 million pages of documents and testimony from 37 witnesses. When Dowd conducted a practice session for a presidential interview, Trump could not remember key details and filled gaps with fabrications. Dowd concluded testimony would be catastrophic.

The Charlottesville crisis of August 2017, when a white nationalist drove into counterprotesters after a torch-lit march, killing one and injuring 19, became what Porter called "the breaking point." Trump's initial response condemning hatred "on many sides" drew bipartisan outrage. Staff persuaded him to deliver a second speech condemning the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and neo-Nazis, but after watching Fox News commentary, Trump told Porter it was "the biggest fucking mistake I've made" and reverted to "blame on both sides." Cohn brought a resignation letter, but Trump called the potential departure "treason" and argued it would kill the tax bill. Cohn agreed to stay through tax reform.

Tax reform, led by Cohn, became the administration's sole major legislative achievement. The bill passed the Senate 51 to 48 in December 2017, cutting the corporate rate from 35 to 21 percent and adding an estimated $1.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.

Priebus was forced out as chief of staff in July 2017, learning of his replacement by General John Kelly via presidential tweet. Kelly initially imposed order but within weeks told staff "the president's unhinged" and privately called the White House "crazytown." In January 2018, during an immigration meeting with senators, Trump asked why the U.S. accepted immigrants from "shithole countries," derailing bipartisan negotiations. Porter resigned in February after two ex-wives publicly alleged physical abuse, removing another restraining influence on the president.

The final chapters trace the escalating North Korea confrontation, in which Trump's "Rocket Man" taunts of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his nuclear button tweet alarmed the Pentagon. At a January 2018 NSC meeting, Trump demanded to know the value of maintaining troops in South Korea. Mattis responded, "We're doing this in order to prevent World War III." Dowd's negotiations with Mueller collapsed when the special counsel insisted on presidential testimony. Unable to persuade Trump not to testify, Dowd resigned, telling him, "It's either that or an orange jump suit." Woodward closes with Dowd's private assessment of Trump's "tragic flaw," the conclusion he could not bring himself to say directly: "You're a fucking liar."