Chiefly dysfunctional
A former Pres. Trump staffer provides a insider's perspective of an administration full of back-biting, vitriol, and distrust.
Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House
By Cliff Sims
As I’ve written here many times before, I read every book written by former members of Pres. Trump’s administration. They are always eye-opening and sometimes downright scary. Team of Vipers is a tell-all book by a former Trump aide that offers a scathing indictment of the Trump White House.
Sims, who worked as a special assistant to the president for communications, provides a firsthand account of the chaos, dysfunction, and backstabbing that characterized the Trump White House. He paints a picture of a White House that is completely out of control, with a president who is volatile and unpredictable and having a culture of leaks, betrayal, and constant infighting.
What I enjoyed most
One of the most striking things about the book is his portrait of Trump himself, who Sims depicts as narcissistic (shocker) and vindictive, more interested in his own ego than in the good of the country. Sims also describes Trump as a man with a limited attention span and a poor understanding of policy.
Sims' book is not without its critics, however. He has been accused of exaggerating his claims or of writing a book out of spite. However, Sims' book is based on his own firsthand experiences, and it is a valuable addition to the literature on the Trump administration. Even so, I enjoyed Team of Vipers, in large part because of the unique, insider's perspective on the Trump White House it provided.