Rage

I expected this to cover all of Trumps mishandling of covid19 but the book does not begin to cover this until about 35% into the book and then ends with 105 days left of his presidency. The author makes it clear he has a due date for the book and well that's that. If I were one of the most well known authors of this and any generation I would have asked for an extension. There is so much more story to tell, as in we were in the middle of I hope the worst medical and financial crisis of our time! I feel even the author struggles with his epilog in trying to wrap things up when he really can't. There was so much more story needed to tell. I would recommend this book for its interesting interviews with Trump but I would not recommend it for its coverage of the health crisis. (B/D-)

Woodward's books are always very readable. There was a good bit of editorializing which isn't a bad thing, I don't guess. It covered a period of less than a year of the Trump presidency, including the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic. As the book ended, the author noted that 140,000 Americans had died from the disease. The number is now up to 1,080,000 million. The narrative indicates that Trump's main interest was money -- the economy. He thought a good economy could fix everything. There was no consideration of the planet, interactions with international allies, social problems. He liked to provoke the media and jerk them around with his nonsensical statements. They fell for it which wasn't helpful. Although I, like many people, find him to be an unlikeable and offensive character, this book clarified for me that the main issue I have with him is his political views. I am politically moderate -- I think the environment, social issues, international relationships, and the economy are all important and not mutually exclusive. So my disagreement is primarily with his politics, although I find him an extremely obnoxious and disagreeable person. He said that he has always triggered rage in people. And so he has, but don't all evil people do that? He's not unique.

I confess that I noticed Rage by Bob Woodward being referenced in the media multiple times around the time it was released and I may have even seen it featured at a store inside one of the airports I was recently at, though I do know for certain I have even seen it featured at a bookstore that is within five miles where I currently. Still, I finally decided to purchase this kindlebook Rage by Bob Woodward some time after I had seen multiple media outlets show the current president far from accepting about the 2020 election results to the point that he is far from ready to concede. It was then I realized that Bob Woodward’s Rage title might have been kind of prophetic since this kindlebook was realized some time before this year’s election results. I confess that even though my husband and I early voted for the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris I was still surprised to see that Trump was far from accepting about the results and far from gracefully conceding. I actually thought that the current president had a high level of self -confidence that would foster him diplomatically and gracefully accepting the 2020 election results. I know that I am being captain obvious about this though I wonder if he president’s far from willing behavior to succeed relates to our society’s value of men and women based on their perceived intellectual prowess and their career and money success andor prestige. I gracefully accept that men and women are going to be judged for their career and money status in addition to perceived intellectual ability for the duration of the rest of my current lifetime and beyond and most likely that is never going to change. My point however, it is common knowledge that even some of a person’s friends andor family member networks may privately andor publicly treat a person differently after their career and money status changes even when a person publicly andor privately accepts what happened gracefully and I wonder if the current president’s behavior to be far from cooperative in conceding the presidency to Joe Biden relates to any changes he anticipates (especially since multiple men and women who have previously been very publicly andor privately loyal to the outgoing president have been on the receiving end of being forced to forge new professional paths regardless of how ready they privately felt). Regardless of what transpires, the following are some of the details included in Rage by Bob Woodward: early origins of covid19 and some of the reasons why the dangers affiliated with covid19 pandemic spreading throughout the United States only becoming more public knowledge after the February 2020/March 2020 timeframe, some of the events that transpired with Mattis and Tillerson becoming a part of the administration and why one of the men’s mothers was surprised at them joining the administration, some info involving Russia, one of the men from the midwestern part of the U.S. hired by Pence in the early days after the November 2016 election, discussions about the role of the administration involving North Korea, some of the controversies that transpired after James Comey was forced to look for new employment in 2017, some events that transpired around November 8, 2018 involving a meeting with the defense minister of China and some of the elements of how this tied into the U.S. Navy , and more.

I read “Fear” when it came it out, it was a difficult read of jagged trains of thought. But I stuck with it and made it through. So on the reputation of Woodward's reporting and the fact we now more about the subject I ordered “Rage”. It turn out to be a good decision, the book follows a logical progression of the subject and the “Rage” he has brought upon this country.In the beginning, he goes through the Trump Administraton who charted their course with their new Cabinet hires, like Rex Harrison, General Mattis and Senator Dan Coates from beginning of their employment to their farewell. He takes you through how they thought they could out master the “Con Man” and “Stay the course” Pence, and Trump who was flying high with the Republicans in House and Senate.Then darkness falls, the Coronavirus is reported in China and is showing up in the Presidential brief, which we hear in the Woodward's recorded interviews with Trump. Woodward gives us a retelling of those interviews, with some observations from Woodward and others intertwined with the transcripts. Woodward then moves in on people closer to Trump, like Jared Kushner, highlighting his actions and thoughts in and around the time of the virus. Kushner explains how he sees Trump very clearly and somehow seems to conclude that he's brilliant, while at the same time saying that to understand Trump one of the books you need to read is Alice in Wonderland. Woodward gives Kushner some good marks for competency in some of the actions he's taken on the coronavirus, such as the “Task Force” and Dr Fauci. But Kushner and Trump show their callousness with the death toll and those that have fallen ill from covid, all this leaves with you one thing people have been left on their own.As the book moves on Woodward pushes Trump for specifics on how he will respond to the virus as it spreads throughout the country, but Trump falls back in to his old pattern of not actually answering questions, and instead deflects with grievances or repeated re-telling of what he views as his successes. This the same thing he repeats now at his rallies, over and over again. “The economy was going great, then the China plague came in” oh its so unfair. He repeats and repeats the same thing over and over again. He has done nothing about Covid and people are dying, the third wave is beginning to peak in the key states that he needs to win. But he keeps yelling about opening up, and his supporters yell yea. What they don't see they were Con, and they will die with the Con, because the Trump doesn't do work he just worries about what's in it for him and making money and tweeting and being important, that's it. This where Woodward takes you, the end is near for Trump but hasn't been written yet, Trump keeps asking Trump get back to me when you write that third book, really?I thoroughly enjoyed “Rage” I learned things and read things that have not been covered in the press and you also get more of the backstory.

This is my first Bob Woodward book. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, and I don’t know if it was the writing, the editing, or the subject, but I found it easy to put the book down, but it was also easy to pick it up and start again. Normally, a 500-page book wouldn’t take me very long to read – 5 days at the outside, but this book took me close to two weeks.The writing was nothing less than I would expect from a pro like Woodward, so I’m going to guess the subject matter was my problem with the book. I did like the fact that Woodward looked for and reported on the good things he found with Mr. Trump, though they were few and far between.This was also my first Trump book, and though it wasn’t anything new and surprising (it has all, or most all, been said and reported through the last few years, but the book was a good chronology of those events, with a lot of backstory.My favorite part was the early part, where Woodward talked about the early cabinet members— Mattis, Pompeo, Tillerson. Mattis is a bit of a local hero here, in Richland WA, who I’d never heard of until he went to work for Trump’s White House. Frankly, it was good to meet my neighbor, at least through this means, and now I’d like to meet him in actuality. And I was, somehow, quite pleased that Mad Dog was a name Trump gave him. His code name was in fact, Chaos, but Trump liked Mad Dog better. The same with Tillerson. These two men in particular worked hard to educate Trump, to help our country, until finally…My understanding of reportage is that a good reporter (Woodward) will look for both sides of the story and report them both as honestly as possible. I think Woodward did an admirable job of it.