Rage by Bob Woodward
Book Report by Bobby Everett Smith
Spoiler Alert
September 30, 2020
Copyright © 2020 Bobby Everett Smith
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Executive Summary
Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States granted to Pulitzer winning author, Bob Woodward, a total of 17 on-the-record interviews in a seven-month period of 2020. These interviews are the basis of this book, Rage, Woodward’s second book about this president.
On his Intelligence Briefing, January 28, 2020, Trump was informed about the Corona Virus Covid 19 potential threat. Intelligence officers and health officials played down the threat but Robert O Bryan and his assistant, Matt Pottinger, agreed that it was the biggest problem the president would face in his presidency
Richard Burr of the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that there was no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election. Trump was cleared by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
On April 3, Trump seemed to be at war against the rules established by the health professionals in the U.S. “This is voluntary,” Trump said, “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it, “referring to the wearing of facemasks.”
During the first couple of years in Trump’s administration, Mattis and Tillerson, Sec Def and Sec State, developed a good personal relationship although they did not agree on every point. Meeting weekly when they were both in Washington, they reviewed issues and their relationship with Trump.
On May 9, 2017Trump fired Comey because of his involvement in the Russian investigation of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election.
Trump appointed Andrew McCabe as the new FBI director.
Trump took on North Korea early in his term of office. At first relationships with the North Korean dictator were strained and seemed to be heading inexorably to nuclear war. Trump started dealing with Kim Jung Um directly, met with him personally three times in Singapore, Vietnam and the boundary between North and South Korea.
It was difficult to have a discussion with him. He frequently changed the subject in mid-stream to the topic at hand. Facts would be dismissed, and Trump would head down one of those threads that may have been suggested by Fox News earlier in the day. It was hard and time-consuming to get back on subject.
In the Trump administration, there seemed to be dynamite behind every door. On analysis, Woodward concluded that the dynamite was Trump himself—the oversized personality, the failure to organize, the lack of discipline, the lack of trust in others he had picked and in experts, the undermining of American institutions, and unwillingness of acknowledge errors, and failure to do his homework.
The media was fake news and accomplished leaders like Mattis, Tillerson, and Coats each departed from their posts on Trump’s staff with bitter words from their leader.
According to Kushner, understanding Trump meant understanding Alice in Wonderland.
Trump talks a lot, almost incessantly. Anything can happen in the Trump presidency, anything.
“I alone can fix it,” was a typical attitude about almost any issue that Trump considered.
Trump has installed personal impulse as a governing principle of his presidency. Trump is the wrong man for the job.
As of September 24, 2020, the United States had 202,000 deaths and 6.96 million cases.
Characters
John Bolton, National Security Advisor under President Trump. Author of Whitehouse Memoir “The Room Where it Happened”
Rex Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) served as the 69th United States Secretary of State from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Tillerson was chief executive officer of ExxonMobil, holding that position from 2006 until 2017
Michael Flynn (born December 24, 1958) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th National Security Advisor[1] until his forced resignation. Flynn’s military career included. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the Middle East wars.
H. R. McMaster (born July 24, 1962) is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the 26th United States National Security Advisor under Donald Trump.
Reinhold “Reince” Priebus[2] (born March 18, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from January 20, 2017, until July 31, 2017. He also served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2011 to 201.
John Kelly (born May 11, 1950) is a retired U.S. Marine Corps general who served as the White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump from July 31, 2017, to January 2, 2019. He had previously served as Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump administration.
“Ivanka” Trump (born October 30, 1981) serves President Trump since 2017 as advisor. The daughter and second child of President Trump and his first wife, Ivana, she is the first Jewish member of a first family, having converted before marrying her husband, Jared Kushner.
Lawrence Kudlow (born August 20, 1947) is the Director of the United States National Economic Council. He assumed that role in 2018 after previous employment as a financial analyst and a television financial news host.
Gina Haspel is an American intelligence officer serving as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2018. She is the first woman to hold the post on a permanent basis and was previously the Deputy Director under Mike Pompeo.
Steven Mnuchin[2] (born December 21, 1962) is an American investment banker, movie producer, and public official who is serving as the 77th United States secretary of the treasury as part of the Cabinet of Donald Trump.
Michael Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 48th vice president of the United States, since 2017. He previously was the governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017 and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013
Daniel Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician and former diplomat. From 2017 to 2019, he served as the Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration. He served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017. He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989. Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.
Angela Merkel (born 17 July 1954) is a German politician who has been Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as the Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and by some commentators as the “leader of the free world”.
Kim Jong-un (born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician serving as Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers’ Party of Korea since 2012. He is the second child of Kim Jong-il (1941–2011), who was North Korea’s second Supreme Leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui (1952–2004.
Barack Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004
Moon Jae-In (born January 24, 1953) is the current President of South Korea, having taken office in 2017. He previously served as chief of staff to then-president Roh Moo-hyun (2007–2008), leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (2015–2016) and a member of the 19th National Assembly (2012–2016).
Peter Navarro (born July 15, 1949) is an American economist and author. He serves in the Trump administration as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator.
James Mattis (born September 8, 1950) is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the 26th US secretary of defense from January 2017 through January 2019. During his 44 years in the Marine Corps, he commanded forces in the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan, and the Iraq War.
Mark Milley (born June 18, 1958) is a United States Army general and the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Chairman, he is the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the United States Armed Forces. He previously served as 39th Chief of Staff of the Army.
Recep Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current President of Turkey. He previously served as Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Coming from an Islamist political background and as a self-described conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and populist policies during his administration.
Stephen Miller (born August 23, 1985) is an American government official who serves as a senior advisor for policy to President Donald Trump. His politics have been described as far-right and anti-immigration. He was previously the communications director for then-Senator Jeff Sessions.
John “Mick” Mulvaney (born July 21, 1967) is an American politician who served in President Donald Trump’s cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as acting White House Chief of Staff until 202. He previously served as the acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from November 2017 to December 2018..
Stephanie Grisham[1] ( born July 23, 1976) is an American White House official who served as the 30th White House press secretary and as White House communications director from July 2019[3] to April 2020. During her time as the White House Press Secretary she did not hold a briefing. She has served as Chief of Staff and Press Secretary for the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump since 2020, and previously as Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019.
Nicolás Maduro (born 23 November 1962), known internationally as Nicolás Maduro, is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019.
Robert Lighthizer (born October 11, 1947) is an American attorney and government official who is the current United States Trade Representative
Michael Cohen (born August 25, 1966) is an American disbarred lawyer who served as an attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump from 2006–2018. Cohen was a vice-president of The Trump Organization, and the personal counsel to Trump, and was often described by media as Trump’s “fixer” He served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and was a board member of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children’s health charity. From 2017 to 2018, Cohen was deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Joseph Dunford Jr. (born December 23, 1955) is a retired United States Marine Corps general, who served as the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2015 until September 30, 2019. He was the 36th Commandant of the Marine Corps. He has commanded several units, including the 5th Marine Regiment during the 2003 invasion of Iraq
Mark Esper (born April 26, 1964)[1][2] is the 27th and current United States secretary of defense, and a former U.S. Army officer and defense contractor lobbyist. He previously served as the 23rd United States secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019.
Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as Kentucky’s senior United States senator and as Senate Majority Leader. McConnell is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate, the longest-serving U.S. senator for Kentucky in history, and the longest-serving leader of U.S. Senate Republicans in history.
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician serving as Prime Minister of Israel since 2009, and previously from 1996 to 1999. Netanyahu is also the Chairman of the Likud – National Liberal Movement. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history and the first to be born in Israel after the establishment of the state
Rudolph Giuliani (born May 28, 1944), is an American attorney and politician. He led the 1980s federal prosecution of New York City mafia bosses and led the city’s civic cleanup as its mayor from 1994 to 2001. In 2017, Donald Trump appointed him cybersecurity advisor. In 2018, he joined Trump’s personal legal team, Giuliani has been a Republican since the 1980s, the US Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983, he was the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.
Randal Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American politician and physician serving as the junior United States Senator from Kentucky since 2011. He is a son of former U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas who was a presidential candidate in 1988, 2008, and 2012.
Thomas Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015, and has served as the junior United States Senator from Arkansas since 2015.
Edward Cruz (born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator for Texas since 2013. He was the runner-up for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 election
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who is the 38th president of Brazil. Elected in 2018 as a member of the conservative Social Liberal Party before cutting ties with them, he has been in office since 1 January 2019. He previously served in the country’s Chamber of Deputies, representing the state of Rio de Janeiro between 1991 and 2018.
Kamala Devi Harris (born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from California since 2017. She is the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee in the 2020 election
Summary
Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States granted to Pulitzer winning author, Bob Woodward, a total of 17 on-the-record interviews in a seven-month period of 2020. These interviews are the basis of this book, Rage, Woodward’s second book about this president.
Woodward documented every interview with recordings delving into what makes Trump tick, how he runs the government, deals with his sub-ordinates and takes on the massive requirements of managing the Corona Virus pandemic which as of September 2020 had killed nearly 200,000 Americans.
On his Intelligence Briefing, January 28, 2020, Trump was informed about the Corona Virus Covid 19 potential threat. Intelligence officers and health officials played down the potential threat but Robert O Bryan and his assistant, Matt Pottinger, agreed that it was the biggest problem the president would face in his presidency. This virus could evolve into a Pandemic of the scale of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 which killed 675,000 Americans and 50 million people worldwide. It was a virus that could be transmitted through the air and by people who were not showing any symptoms. Trump was in touch with Xi, the President of China but cooperation between the two national powers was not going too well.
Pottinger reported that China had quarantined the city of Wuhan, a city with a population of 11 million that was larger than any U.S. city. What to do with the pandemic in the U.S. was the big question.
Trump confirmed that he knew that Covid 19 was contagious through the air, was a deadly disease that could be developed by people worldwide. While Trump knew it was a deadly disease in February 2020, he decided to play down the public threat. Trump denigrated the importance of masks and refused to wear one himself, making the wearing of masks a political issue in the United States. Social distancing became another issue with Health Scientists recommending that citizens allow six feet distance from the next person. Trump typically supported the distancing issue as long as it did not interfere with his campaigning or social needs. He agreed that everyone needed to wash their hands for 20 seconds several times per day.
Trump was elected to be the 45th president on November 6, 2016. Mike Pence, vice president elect, played a key role in helping the president recruit his new Cabinet and staff. Jared Kushner, husband of Ivanka Trump, was selected to be a Senior Advisor to the president and over the next three years, he would be given major assignments, like developing peace in the Middle East and integrating our relationship with Saudi Arabia.
John Mattis, a four-star Marine General, Retired, was selected to be the next Secretary of Defense. Mattis and the president quickly developed divergent opinions about major issues such as the value of NATO to the United States, and the use of torture to get information from prisoners of war or terrorists in American custody.
Mattis supported NATO and opposed the use of torture. Trump gave Mattis the nickname Mad Dog Mattis.
Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exon Mobile, was selected to be the next Secretary of State based on his business relationship with Putin of Russia and his knowledge of many foreign countries including Syria, Libya, and Saudi Arabia.
During the first couple of years in Trumps administration, Mattis and Tillerson developed a good personal relationship although they did not agree on every point. Meeting weekly when they were both in Washington, they reviewed issues and their relationship with Trump. They agreed to develop a common position on issues before they took them to Trump for resolution.
Dan Coats and his wife Marsha were friends with the Pence family in Indiana where they both were strong evangelicals. Pence proposed Coats as the next Director of National Intelligence. Coats, somewhat reluctantly, accepted the position when the president offered it, but he believed even initially that Trump was not a nice man, lacking in any moral code, and was difficult to work for. Coats stated that he never knew which Trump he would find on any given issue or topic, the good-mood Trump or the Trump who lashed out abusively to anyone who disagreed with him. Coats began to think that Trump was impervious to facts, he had his own facts. Nearly everyone was an idiot, Trump thought, and almost every country was ripping off the United States. “Trump was on a different page from practically everything that I believe in,” Coats said.
Coats reported to his wife, Marsha, who was stunned about the president’s arrogance.
Mike Pompeo, West Point graduate, was appointed Director of the CIA. Andy Kim became the CIA. assistant director of the CIA’s Korea Mission Center, where he helped secure the foundation for the Trump-Kim summit of June 2018. Kim told Pompeo when he was appointed to be the Mission Director to the CIA for North Korea that it was a big job requiring hundreds of people to support it properly. Pompeo agreed to support him, and Kim accepted the assignment.
In the early days of his administration, Trump asked James Comey, Director of the FBI to join him for dinner. Trump asked Comey for his loyalty and the two separated for the evening with questions about their future. Comey was not forthcoming about his loyalty to the president and the president was obsessed with the need for an FBI director who would pledge unquestioned loyal to the president. On May 9, 2017Trump fired Comey because of his involvement in the Russian investigation of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election.
Trump appointed Andrew McCabe as the new FBI director.
On May 17, 2017, Rob Rosenstein, deputy Attorney General, appointed Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to lead an independent investigation of Trump’s relationship with Russia in the 2016 election. Trump was enraged with the investigation and especially with the recusal of Jeff Sessions from the Investigation. Sessions was then the Attorney General of the United States. The Special Counsel would report to Rob Rosenstein.
When informed about the investigation, Trump replied, “this is the end of my presidency. I am fucked. This investigation is the single greatest witch hunt for a politician in American history.”
May 18 was Trump’s worst day of his administration. His anger was uncontrollable. Trump stormed around the White House between the Oval Office and the Dining Room.
From the beginning, Trump used his personal tweets as a means to communicate with his staff and the public. Mattis stated that Trump does not read and does not have a mental framework for policies and issues that the president was responsible for.
Mattis told his staff, “nobody believes in him, even the people who support him have a way of not believing in him. This is real and tangible. This is degradation of the American experiment. Truth is no longer governing the White House statements.
Trump took on North Korea early in his term of office. At first relationships with the North Korean dictator were strained and seemed to be heading inexorably to nuclear war. Trump started dealing with Kim Jung Um directly, met with him personally three times in Singapore, Vietnam and the boundary between North and South Korea. During these early negotiations with North Korea, Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State seemed to be at odds with the president over ways to deal with North Korea. Trump wanted talks with North Korea to be between him and Kim Jong Um, the N. Korean dictator.
Trump fired Tillerson as Secretary of State and replaced him with Mike Pompeo.
In July 2018, Trump met for two hours with Vladimir Putin of Russia, just the two of them except for the translators. John Brennan, ex-CIA Director for President Obama stated that Trump’s performance in Helsinki with Putin was nothing short of impeachment material—exceeding the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors. Trump’s comments were imbecilic, and Trump was totally in the pocket of Putin.
Coats believed that Trump’s meeting with Putin was a threat to national security and that his performance highlighted any kind of process that went through the experts that normally would prepare and advise how to handle meetings with a foreign power. “I don’t need these people,” Trump said. “I don’t need the National Security Council. I just need myself.”
Knowing how Trump worked allowed foreign leaders like, Xi of China, Erdogan of Turkey and Putin of Russia, to play Trump skillfully. Coats felt like he had never cracked the code with Trump. One day, he thought he had it and the next day it was something completely different. Coats head was often spinning. Coats found that Trump was becoming more and more frustrated and lonely.
Mattis, later, described what it was like to attend a meeting with the president. It was difficult to have a discussion with him. He frequently changed the subject in mid-stream to the topic at hand. Facts would be dismissed, and Trump would head down one of those threads that may have been suggested by Fox News earlier in the day. It was hard and time-consuming to get back on subject.
Mattis met with leaders of thirteen nations to discuss the defeat of ISIS in Syria. They ended the meeting in agreement and Mattis was delighted with the results. When Trump was informed of the outcome, he released a notice that he was withdrawing American troops from Syria. Trump made the video announcing victory and withdrawal without consulting Mattis.
Mattis explained to the president that the enemy, ISIS, had been defeated but they had not gone away and that U.S. troops in the area were still needed to clean up the final deletion of ISIS. The president disagreed. “You people will have us there forever,” he said.
Mattis handed his letter of resignation to Trump. resignation was effective end of February and Trump accepted that at first and then changed the termination date to January 1, 2019. Trump later called Mattis the “world’s most overrated general. Mattis is just a PR guys,” he said.”
Mattis said he quit when he was asked to do something stupid that strategically jeopardized our place in the world.
Kushner enjoyed a special relationship with the president, and he was given many significant projects to manage. The intelligence community did not approve of the unorthodox way that Kushner operated and with his access to the president. He was denied normal Top-Secret Security clearances but the president ordered that he be cleared of any classified material required to complete the projects that had been assigned to him.
John Kelly was rankled by the treatment that Kushner received from the president. He resigned as Chief of Staff in early 2019 and Kirshner was relieved. “Crazytown,” Kelly said, about the administration.
On January 29, Coats gave an assessment of the Worldwide Threat Assessment publicly to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Coats had identified Climate Threat as a danger to our national security. He also said that Russia’s relationship with China was stronger than it had been in many years. North Korea was unlikely to give up its entire nuclear capability. Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.
Lou Dobbs and Fred Fleitz recommended that Coats be fired. Trump believed Fox News not the Intelligence community. Trump suggested that Intelligence should go back to school. They are wrong, he said.
Richard Burr of the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that there was no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia in the 2016 election. Trump was cleared by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Trump celebrated on twitter and he asked Coats, as head of the DNI, to support the Senate findings. “Mr. President, that’s not part of my job. It is not something that I can do,” Coats replied. “I have no relationship with the FBI on their criminal investigation side of the FBIs responsibility.”
The Washington Post reported that Trump was frustrated, enraged and disenchanted with Coats and was considering getting rid of him.
Coats delivered his resignation letter to the president in person. Trump read it and asked him to stay on. Bad Timing. Coats left with his resignation letter in his hand. The president encouraged him to resign when it looked more like he was not being fired. Pence supported Coats retention in the job to a time that was more politically correct. Coats resigned officially on
William Pelham Barr was sworn in as Attorney General on February 14, 2019. On May 17, 2017, Robert Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters. He submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr on March 22, 2019 less than a month after Barr’s appointment as Attorney General. Even though it was called the Mueller Report, it was really the Rosenstein Report and when it was completed, Mueller submitted the report to Rob Rosenstein who in turn submitted it to the new Attorney General, Bill Barr.
As the Mueller Report approached conclusion, Mueller decided not to subpoena the president for testimony concerning collusion with the Russians in the 2016 presidential election.
The report is a 448-page document which Mueller summarized by stating, “while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Barr summarized the report in a four page document which he released to the president and the public, after two years of investigation, Barr summarized that Mueller had found no collusion and he reported that Mueller had not reached a conclusion over the issue of obstruction of justice.
For the president and his followers, this was cause for serious celebration, no collusion and no obstruction of justice—no evidence of working with the Russians. For practical purposes the Mueller investigation was over, and the president was ecstatic.
Trump claimed total exoneration, but Barr stated that the Mueller Report did not totally exonerate the president.
Barr failed to disclose to the public that the reason Mueller did not make a prosecutorial judgment was because of the belief within the Justice Department that a sitting president could not be charged with a federal crime.
Mueller testified before the House Judiciary Committee on July 24 2019 giving an uneven performance of fumbling, incomplete answers. He appeared at times, according to Woodward, to lack familiarity with the Report. Trump emerged from the Mueller investigation unscathed. And in doing so dealt a fatal blow to his political enemies.
Trump came out of the investigation stronger than ever and definitely more emboldened.
Trump announced by tweet, while on the golf course, that Coats was being replaced by John Ratcliffe of Texas as the Director of Naval Intelligence. About the same time, Trump began to look at ways to defeat Joe Biden, should he become the Democratic nominee to oppose Trump in the 2020 election. Trump discovered that Joe’s son Hunter worked in the Ukraine and that he could possibly get help in investigation of wrongdoing by Hunter in the Ukraine. Trump threatened to withhold $400 million of military aid to the Ukraine if they did not help in digging up some dirt on Hunter Biden.
Investigation of this set of events eventually led to the impeachment of Donald Trump by the House of Representatives. Trump was acquitted by the Senate which under the Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell did not even listen to evidence ready to be presented by the impeachment managers from the House.
On December 5, 2019, Woodward and Trump met in the first of 17 meetings, mostly conducted in the Oval Office of the White House. The recorded documentation of those meetings has become the substance that has led to this book, Rage.
Woodward was stuck by Trump’s lack of strategy for the country. Even in 2020, Trump did not seem to be able to articulate a plan or strategy. Woodward was surprised that Trump would approach the 2020 election without a clearer strategy to move ahead.
In January 2020, Trump was briefed on the Corona Virus disease which was initially discovered in Wuhan, China, a city of over 11 million people, larger than New York City. Trump did not believe that this was a major risk for the United States. On March 11, WHO, the World Health Organization declared Covid 19 a worldwide pandemic. Trump announced that he was cancelling travel from China an d later from Europe, but he assured the people of the U.S. that there was a low risk for major infections in our country.
Lindsay Graham informed the president that there was a potential for 2.8 million deaths in the U.S. from this pandemic. Trump met with leaders from the Center for Disease Control and other health organizations to announce a shutdown of businesses, schools and churches and sports events in the U. S. Citizens were warned to socially distance themselves from others by at least six feet, wash your hands for 20 seconds 20 times per day and when around others to wear a mask. Trump made those recommendations somewhat voluntary and he announced that he would not be wearing a mask himself.
Trump originally stated that he did not think any or at least many deaths would happen in the U.S. but by April the talk of low cases and deaths began to subside.
The U.S. economy took a nosedive with more than 10 million unemployment claims hitting the States in April. Trump blamed China, Obama, and refused to accept any responsibility for the health or economic issues.
Trump claimed he played down the potential danger of Covid 19 to avoid panic amongst the people. Trump recommended a drug that had not been tested and even told the American public that he was taking hydroxychloroquine himself. Dr. Fauci and other health professionals disagreed with the president about the safety and efficacy of taking this drug as a treatment for Covid 19.
By March 22, Trump was fighting regularly with health officials about the reopening of businesses, sports events, churches, and schools. Trump declared that he did not want the treatment to be worse than the disease.
PPE, ventilators and other supplies needed by hospitals throughout America were in short supply. New York state alone needed 40,000 ventilators. By March 27, there was a full-blown shortage of facemasks for patients and hospital staff. This, according to Woodward, was a full-blown crisis. Fauci predicted that we might have 100,000 deaths in this country.
On April 3, Trump seemed to be at war against the rules established by the health professionals in the U.S. “This is voluntary,” Trump said, “I don’t think I’m going to be doing it, “referring to the wearing of facemasks.
Trump pushed problems off to the States, allowing the governors to take responsibility for the pandemic results and fighting for their own level of supplies and equipment.
Trump created Operation Warpspeed to invent and distribute a vaccine for the disease in the shorte4st amount of time. Several pharmaceutical companies worldwide began accelerated efforts to produce a vaccine as soon as possible. They predicted it would be the end of 2020 before a reliable drug could be widely available to the public.
Epilogue
In the Trump administration, there seemed to be dynamite behind every door. On analysis, Woodward concluded that the dynamite was Trump himself—the oversized personality, the failure to organize, the lack of discipline, the lack of trust in others he had picked and in experts, the undermining of American institutions, and unwillingness of acknowledge errors, and failure to do his homework. To extend the olive branch, and to draft a plan.
The media was fake news and accomplished leaders like Mattis, Tillerson, and Coats each departed from their posts on Trump’s staff with bitter words from their leader.
According to Kushner, understanding Trump meant understanding Alice in Wonderland.
Trump talks a lot, almost incessantly. Anything can happen in the Trump presidency, anything.
“I alone can fix it,” was a typical attitude about almost any issue that Trump considered.
Trump has installed personal impulse as a governing principle of his presidency. Trump is the wrong man for the job.
As of September 24, 2020, the United States had 202,000 deaths and 6.96 million cases.
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