As Chollet, who was interviewed for Woodward’s Obama’s Wars, notes, Woodward “is meticulous, diligent, and careful to get it right.” As someone who Woodward interviewed for Veil, I would add that his reputation for being a skillful reporter is well earned-before I saw him, I had decided what I would reveal about the post-mortem I had written for the CIA about the fall of the Shah of Iran, but through intelligent and gentle probing, he got me to say a good deal more. Like most observers, they find Woodward’s portrayal of how policy is made in the Trump White House both appalling and accurate. Derek Chollet has not only written about national security issues, but served for six years at high levels in President Barack Obama’s State Department, White House, and Pentagon. Sir Lawrence Freedman is one of the world’s leading authorities on international security and how governments make decisions involving war and peace, having written numerous academic studies, the official history of the Falklands war, and having served as a member of the Chilcot commission that analyzed British behavior before and during the Iraq war. But our two reviewers highlight points that need emphasizing. The White House responded by calling the book a collection of “fabricated stories.A nyone reading these reviews will already be familiar with the basic picture of the Donald Trump White House that Woodward presents, and even if they have not read the book most will be able to recite at least a few of the choice anecdotes.

Woodward also claims that Gary Cohn, the former director of the National Economic Council, boasted about removing papers off Trump’s desk to prevent their signature, including efforts by the president to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Woodward recounts that Mattis told “close associates that the president acted like - and had the understanding of - ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.'”

“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Mattis says. maintains troops on the South Korean peninsula to monitor the North’s missile activities. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit,” Dowd is quoted telling the president.Īnd Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is quoted explaining to Trump why the U.S. Trump’s former lawyer in the Russia probe, John Dowd, is also said to have doubted Trump’s ability to avoid perjuring himself should he be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Chief of Staff John Kelly is quoted as having doubted Trump’s mental faculties, declaring during one meeting, “We’re in Crazytown.”

Fear by bob woodward review