The Heat: A vulnerable Trump in Woodward’s book FEAR

World
Europe

Journalist Bob Woodward, famous for his reporting on US presidents, portrayed President Donald Trump as uninformed and unprepared for the demands of his office in his new book FEAR. The president called it “total fiction” in a recent interview.

Woodward claimed that he has interviewed at least one hundred White House insiders, many of them anonymous, and pictured a presidency in crisis. Overall, the president is giving irrational orders that threaten the national or financial security of the nation.

Eric Bolling, a commentator, and bestselling author, strongly opposed to the view, especially to eye-catching words like “nervous breakdown” in the book.

“Those words will help Woodward sell a lot of copies,” he said. “But I can put my words here that Donald Trump is of sound mind and is completely succeeding on the fronts of the financial and security issues.”

The credibility of the book is also under question, given the use of many secret sources. According to Craig Shirley, a historian who's written several best-selling books on US President Ronald Reagan, anonymous leaks are “nothing new to the American politics”, but it doesn't build up the credibility of the book.

“I myself don't use anonymous sources,” he said. “That caused him questions to voracity.”

On the other hand, many expecting much about a concrete insider analysis of the president may be disappointed by getting a basket of details similar to what they already knew. Lynn Sweet, the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, is one of them.

01:01

“I am not surprised by the book, because there are no new narratives in it,” said Lynn. “What is surprising is how little true new ground it plows in the narrative that we have a president as an irresponsible fabricator.”

It also failed to alarm many people that most of the criticism comes from Republicans. According to Eric, Trump didn't have an infrastructure of political people surrounding him like other traditional politicians, and the handovers of the old groups will have every reason to attack him.

According to the book, Trump's aide John Kelly stole papers from his desk so he wouldn't sign them. Although John Kelly later denied saying that story to Woodward, it reflects some people's belief that some officials are not obeying the order of this president.

Former President Barack Obama spoke of the phenomenon in a recent speech and stated his opposition to the present administration.

“This is not a check,” he said. “This is not how our democracy supposed to be.”

Eric admitted the irrational behavior of the president but suggested that what he has achieved dramatically exceeded his flaws.

“Is he vulgar and have a rough around the edges? Yes. But if you look at the scorecard of security and economy performance, he is doing great,” he said.

Atiba Madyun, a political analyst, and president and founder of Party Politics US, questioned the actual outcome of the president's economic performance.

“The economy is doing well for a very minor number of people,” he said. “People are talking about how well the president is doing, but all these benefits helped the wealthy instead of the people on the ground, who voted for him.”

However, Trump supporters backed the president with concrete economic figures.

“We have full employment first time under 4 percent for several quarters, and we have a GDP growth rate higher than 4 percent,” Eric said. Adding more minorities "than ever are working in the US now. The economy is pumping on all cylinders for all of the people.”

Apart from the chaos caused by the president's personality, observers like Lynn Sweet worried more about his disrespect to the institutions. One of the extreme ideas opposing the present administration claimed that what Trump has achieved is “coup d'état in the west wing where top unelected officials take over running the country.”

“It's silly to venture into that,” said Craig. “Woodward should have done a better job.”

With the midterm election around the corner, this book intensified the already heated discussion on whether Trump is going to win a second time. Erica, however, said that all the attacks will only “solidify his base and get his supporters louder. “

“If the economy is going to pump out at this rate, no one is going to beat him,” said Eric.

The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.

(If you want to contribute and have a specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)