Rage review Will Bob Woodward’s tapes bring down Donald Trump
In the pages of Rage, Jared Kushner acknowledges that Donald Trump is not wedded to the truth. Rather, both men find exaggeration a potent weapon in stirring opinion. Asked about the president’s propensity to inflate his achievements, Kushner responds: “Controversy elevates message.”If so, both the president and his son-in-law should be eternally grateful to Bob Woodward, his latest book and the ensuing tumult. By the president’s own tape-recorded admission, he was acutely aware of the dangers posed by Covid-19 but elected to lie about the danger faced by the American public. The plague did not vanish, more than 190,000 are dead. When Jonathan Karl of ABC News pressed the president at a press conference about his lie, he was on very solid ground. To say otherwise is delusional – or fan fiction. Kayleigh McEnany, the latest White House spokeswoman, knows that for sure. While the president claims his sole aim was to avoid chaos, the pandemic has fused itself to the social fabric. As the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged, the effort to eradicate Covid-19 is a marathon not a sprint, and it is far from over. And yet re-election is a real possibility. Florida has shifted, no longer leaning Democratic. A Biden-Harris win in Nevada appears less certain. Trump is down, but not out. Rage arrives at what may be an inflection point, formally published seven weeks before one of the most consequential electoral contests. However you slice it, the US stands polarized, a nation divided. Unlike Nixon when Frost came calling, the president was not paid to be a witness against himselfAs expected from Woodward, those in proximity to power share their stories. James Mattis, the former defense secretary, Dan Coats, the former director of national intelligence, and Kushner all make more than cameo appearances. Coats is caught musing that Vladimir Putin must have something over the president.“How else to explain the president’s behavior?” Woodward writes. “Coats could see no other explanation.”Rage also catches the discomfort of Coats’ wife. As fate would have it, Trump dismissed Coats after unexpectedly running into the couple at one of his golf courses. But what sets Rage apart from the Pulitzer-winning author’s earlier works is that Trump consented to be taped, on the record. In other words, the book possesses more than a patina of similarity to the famous televised interviews between David Frost and Richard Nixon, the president Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought down with their reporting on Watergate nearly a half-century ago. Woodward recalls a famous Nixon quote, from more than 40 years earlier: “I gave them a sword. And they stuck it in. And they twisted it with relish. And, I guess, if I’d been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.”The response is pure Trump: “Nixon was in a corner with his thumb stuck in his mouth.”Rage makes clear that Trump’s affinity for dictators and strongmen is part of his DNA
If so, both the president and his son-in-law should be eternally grateful to Bob Woodward, his latest book and the ensuing tumult. By the president’s own tape-recorded admission, he was acutely aware of the dangers posed by Covid-19 but elected to lie about the dangerfaced by the American public.
While the president claims his sole aim was to avoid chaos, the pandemic has fused itself to the social fabric. As the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged, the effort to eradicate Covid-19 is a marathon not a sprint, and it is far from over.
And yet re-election is a real possibility. Florida has shifted, no longer leaning Democratic. A Biden-Harris win in Nevada appears less certain. Trump is down, but not out. Rage arrives at what may be an inflection point, formally published seven weeks before one of the most consequential electoral contests. However you slice it, the US stands polarized, a nation divided. To read more go to the link below:
