There are any number of books you can read about the unsuitability of the present occupant of the White House for his job. It really doesn’t matter if you read Mary Trump, Bob Woodward, this one written by a pair of investigative journalists at the Washington Post, or some of the others. And I know I may lose some readers over this—but I feel that for people who care about the issues I write about regularly—the environment, the business case for sustainability, ethics as a success driver, the value of competence and of science, and more—it would be immoral for me not to discuss the greatest threat to the climate and to American democracy. It would be a crime against my values not to urge a vote for Biden.
What matters is that we all recognize every American eligible to vote has a clear picture of the incompetent and corrupt liar who inhabits 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This man is a would-be dictator who cozies up to dictators and thugs around the world, who in turn see him correctly as easily manipulated: stroke his ego, tell him what he wants to hear, and he’ll sell the country down the tube for you. Tell him a painful truth, and you get thrown under the bus. He has no sense of how to govern, no sense of constitutional limits on his power, no regard for what might actually be good for the country or this world, and only cares about how it benefits him and his cronies, and how it looks on TV. The most recent example: he put the lives of two Secret Service men and a driver at risk to take a joyride near the grounds of Walter Reed Hospital so he could wave at his adoring fans while he was still contagious.
Rucker and Leonnig paint a dismal picture of the campaign and the first few years in office, pretty much ending with the Mueller report but with an epilogue about the incident that finally got him impeached: attempting to blackmail the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden if he wanted the foreign aid that had already been authorized.
I’m not going to get very specific in this review, because all the significant outcomes have been widely reported in the news.
But I will make an exception on page 170. So much is crammed onto that page: his ignorance, his penchant for corruption, and his lack of understanding of how he was being manipulated. Here’s the corruption piece:
Trump perked up at the mention of bribes and got rather agitated. He told Tillerson he wanted to help him get rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump told the group. “We’re going to change that.”
Looking at Tillerson, Trump said, “I need you to get rid of that law…”
What I found most interesting was the clear lens on what happened behind the scenes. Rucker and Leonnig show us the back story in vivid detail: who was trying to do what, why, and how the palace politics was playing out. You find out who was fighting with whom, who was covering up for whom (hint: the beneficiary was usually the guy at the Resolute Desk). All the intrigues and negotiations. The differences between those in the administration who thought he is saving the world, and those who thought their job was to save the world FROM him (the now-departed adults in the room like Tillerson, Kelly, and Mattis).
I know that many of you have probably voted already. If you haven’t, get out there and vote. Whether you voted early or not, get your friends to vote. Volunteer with and/or financially help an election protection organization. This is a moment to step up.
