Eventually, they adapted. “Trump began the year 2019 as a president unchained,” write the authors in a highly depressing, meticulously documented chronicle. He hated to be contradicted and publicly reviled those who irritated him, from personal assistants to elderly statesmen and generals, and he fired advisers with abandon. Aides quickly recognized that listening to others at conferences bored him, and he refused to read briefing materials.

Trump knows little history or geography and has no interest in learning. He admires dictators such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and expresses contempt for democratically elected European leaders. When officials explain that an order-e.g., to “shut down” the border to keep out immigrants -would force them to break the law, his response was that he would pardon them. As president, the authors amply demonstrate, he still feels his word is law. Trump made the rules, and those who didn’t measure up were berated, humiliated, and dismissed no one questioned his authority. Marching through these pages is the same loose cannon who delighted audiences on The Apprentice. However, “unflattering” does not describe this portrait of Trump “horrific” would be a better fit. Sadly, it’s entirely familiar. Bush, and Barack Obama were happy to reveal unflattering details. Two Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post journalists deliver an almost day-to-day chronicle of the first three years of the Donald Trump presidency, and it’s a wild ride.ĭisparaging accounts of presidents remain a publishing staple, and many close to Bill Clinton, George W.

A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker