'The Divider'
The book is a comprehensive corroboration of what most people already know about a man they see as unfit to lead the U.S. as president.
Confession: One of my guilty pleasures is reading books on the 45th president and his administration, specifically those written by former insiders, all of whom were once close aides or even staunch supporters. In every case, these former allies came to see the president as a disaster waiting to happen and a man unfit to lead our great country.
The book covered in this post, however, was not written by insiders but makes the case nonetheless that former Pres. Trump routinely exhibited deeply disturbing behavior and was [and is] unfit to lead, both of which are points made in one of my favorite books on the topic, “The room where it happened,” by former national security adviser John Bolton.
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Title: The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021
By Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
Grade: 93
Initial thoughts:
I read this book in March, finishing it over three days. It was that good. The authors, drawing on interviews with more than 300 people, including Trump's own aides and advisors, paint a picture of a man who was driven by ego and self-interest. Donald Trump as a president, they wrote, was more interested in dividing the country than in uniting it. While some of the ground covered by Glassman and Baker has been covered extensively elsewhere, including the details of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville rally in 2017, which turned deadly and left at least one person dead, much of their reporting shines a light on titillating, never-before-discussed goings on behind the scenes.
It should come as no surprise that Baker, the Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times, and Glassman, a writer for the New Yorker, spent a lot of time in the book taking Trump to task for the divisive culture he fostered with the media who covered him. As they write, he repeatedly attacked the media as "the enemy of the people" and called for the firing of journalists who he believed were critical of him, which created a climate of fear and intimidation among journalists, and it made it more difficult for the public to get accurate information about the Trump administration.
That Trump's divisiveness had a profound impact on American politics is a surprise to no one, but what is often lost is how his actions and behavior contributed to the rise in political polarization and it made it more difficult for the government to function effectively. The authors also highlight how he made it more difficult for Americans to have civil conversations about important issues.
No denying the facts
When I tell friends that I enjoy reading about the train wreck that was the previous administration, I get one of three responses:
“Why?”
“You can’t believe all of that stuff written by liberals, you know?”
“Obama or Biden weren’t any better.”
First, I share with them one of my favorite bromides: “Everyone is almost never wrong.” That is, if everyone agrees on something, the likelihood that it proves false is far less than 50%. Plus, in nearly every instance—and, yes, even in the case of stories written by liberal journalists—the writers have multiple sit downs after the book is written to share with the president what they uncovered in their eporting. In no instance of a book I’ve read has he pushed back with “Fake news!”
In one famous instance, he asked a reporter, “Where did you get all of this information?” When told that it came in part from the 18 hours of interviews with the president himself, he responded, “Oh! I did, didn’t I?” Additionally, I do get the whole “politics are politics; they all do the same thing logic,” but I cannot recall a single instance of nearly every senior staffer/official/supporter calling a president unfit to lead after leaving the administration. (Let me be clear: I do not care for—and did not vote for—either Obama or Biden.)
A quote I enjoyed: Wrote the authors of Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State, “His job wasn’t to get things done but to stop certain things from happening, to prevent disaster.” Love him or hate him, any sane person has to admit that the former president made an indelible impact on not only the country, but on those around him as well.
Finally
While many books on Trump fail to cover a lot of new ground, “Divider’s” more than 600 pages and 30-plus chapters is the most comprehensive, detailed, heavily researched accounting of the Trump presidency that I’ve read. The book will stay on my shelf for years to come, as I am sure to pull it down from time to time to marvel at the astounding, and sometimes scary, nuggets they uncovered while reporting on the most controversial president of my lifetime.