Fear opens with a quote from Donald Trump that he made to the author and Robert Costa during an interview on March 31, 2016:
"Real power is - I don't even want to use the word - fear."
The book ends with the resignation of his attorney John Dowd who had been representing him in the Mueller investigation. Dowd had made the conclusion that his client could not testify before Mueller's team because as Dowd said to himself "You're a fucking liar." Trump was unable to give the same answers to questions Dowd posed to him. When Trump decided that he would testify in front of Mueller's team, Dowd withdrew as his attorney.
The book goes into great detail describing the events of each month of Trump's Presidency showing the chaos and efforts made by every aide of his to prevent him from harming the nation. Even though there were 2 warring factions in his employ, they seemed to agree basically on those things that were bad for the country. It seemed amazing to me that aides who I have listened to on TV supporting him from the time of his campaign knew that implementing the policies he advocated during the campaign were bad for the country and they tried to dissuade him from implementing them.
Another unusual thing that I noticed was the absence of the Vice President at all of these meetings at the White House. Pence claims to spend 6 hours a day with Trump but the author's research does not place him near the action in the White House. He is only mentioned at 2 meetings where nothing particularly weird happened. So, what does Pence do all day?
Fear is an eye opening view of the Trump Administration as well as Trump himself. While most of the juicy parts of the book were already discussed in the media before I could get it at my library, it was still an interesting read. This obviously was a highly anticipated book as I waited two months on a waiting list at the Chicago Public Library to get it. When I put the book on hold I was number 597 in line! I have never seen any book hold like this before. This is a new record.
Definately 5 out of 5 stars! I think Fear will be read for generations to come as an insight to this most unusual period of American history.
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