President Trump is shown, unsurprisingly, to be obsessed with both Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the January impeachment proceedings resulting from the Ukraine scandal. The second part of the book is primarily focused on first-hand interviews with Trump and the unravelling coronavirus crisis during 2020. The early chapters of Rage, the title of which is drawn from an acknowledgment by the President that he brings out the emotion in some, heavily feature the role of Secretary of Defense between 2017-19, Jim Mattis, as well as the administration’s early bombast towards North Korea. If Fear charted the early phrase of the Trump presidency, detailing the chaotic nature of decision making in the Oval Office, the structure of Rage is somewhat different.

Woodward makes clear his view that Trump marks a significant break from his predecessors in style and outlook.

Woodward has written several books on nine US presidents and his judgement on their performance carries a weight and significance rarely matched by other writers. He assured his place in American history with his key role in investigating the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, which helped bring down the presidency of Richard Nixon, alongside Carl Bernstein at The Washington Post. Woodward is one of the best-known political journalists and writers in the US. In fact, the book is remarkably current for a piece of political history the last interview was completed this past summer. Over the course of 17 interviews, Woodward charts Trump’s opinions on a wide range of topics, including the development of the coronavirus pandemic. Simon & Schuster.īob Woodward’s latest book on the presidency of Donald Trump, Rage, is a departure from its predecessor, Fear, in so far as it–perhaps surprisingly–was written with the cooperation of the president.

The book is an impressive piece of contemporary history, yet Robert Ledger and Peter Finn find that it is sometimes hard to fully penetrate the rambling material garnered from the interviews with Trump. Drawing from 17 interviews Woodward secured with Trump, the book ends with a discussion of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rage by Washington Post veteran Bob Woodward documents the first three-and-a-half years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Rage woodward review