Upon the release of Bob Woodward’s second book about the Presidential administration of Donald Trump, much of the focus was initially upon the release of tapes which revealed that even at the beginning of the coronavirus, he had made the decision not to be truthful with American public about the extent of the danger of the virus. In Trump’s mind, his decision to downplay the full potential of the deadliness of the virus was an attempt to avoid creating a panic. The result, of course, was hundreds of thousands of Americans dying unnecessarily, the creation of an inexplicable politicization over the very simple act of wearing a mask over one’s face to protect themselves and others, and, perhaps most bizarre of all, transforming the very country which Trump’s campaign promised to make “great” into the epicenter of death and devastation in the world.
That was the detonation which was first unleashed by the arrival of Woodward’s book. As that whirlwind died down—as has proven to be the usual course of action for outrageous examples of Trump’s incompetence or ineptitude—another aspect of Woodward’s book began to loom larger and larger. This peculiarity did not receive quite the attention as his lying to the American public about the danger posed by the coming threat, but in the end it may well prove to be the single most definitive element of Trump’s personality revealed by the book.
Why on earth did he ever agree to be tape-recorded by Bob Woodward. Woodward, of course, earned his reputation as one of the most famous journalists in American history by virtue of being one-half of the “Woodstein” team which helped to bring down the Presidency of Richard Nixon. Along with colleague Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward’s investigation into the Watergate scandal transformed the very idea of being a reporter into a sexy career. Since then, however, Woodward has come under the shadow of those who see journalist as enemies of the people. One of those people being Donald J. Trump. So why would Trump—who had already been castigated in Woodward’s first book about his administration—sit for a follow-up to Fear that became Rage?
One answer, of course, is that Trump must be an idiot. Another, more complex answer has to do with his well-demonstrated narcissism. Turns out, however, that the reason is even more complex than those two obvious answers. In an article in The Atlantic, former speechwriter for George W. Bush and right-wing pundit (who, it must be admitted, has an axe to grind with Woodward over the portrayal of the Bush administration across three separate books) provides illuminating insight
His answer to the question which looms like the coronavirus threat itself over Rage is that Woodward has long had a strategy in place to get all the biggest players in Washington to speak to him and that Trump made a gamble he could take advantage of that strategy to work it for himself. The strategy is easy enough explained here: if the public is with you, the book will paint a positive portrait, but if the public is against you, expect crucifixion. The reason that Trump did not see through to what was an outcome obvious to nearly everyone else in the world brings us back to Trump’s lack of understanding about his narcissism.
Donald Trump really does believe that polls suggesting the majority of the American public disapprove of him are fake or manipulated or, most likely, simply worth ignoring. He is a President who consistently makes clear through both Fear and Rage that he is serving the interest of those who voted for him and that those who did not are worthy of being ignored. Anyone who sees pervasive polling of America painting a portrait of a majority who view Trump as out of touch at best and a danger at worst could have predicted that Woodward would follow the strategy that Frum outlines. In fact, there may really be only one person of consequence who could not see that and, unfortunately him relative to the way he is portrayed by Woodward on every single page of the book, that person is the subject of Woodward’s tome about an unpopular public figure.
