Rage

By: Bob Woodward

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Bob Woodward's second global bestseller on the Trump presidency, based on in-depth research and interviews with the president.

Woodward, the No 1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans.

In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months - an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind - the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the 'dynamite behind every door'. At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president.

Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making. Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with first-hand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents.

Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a 'fantasy film'. Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. 'Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?' Trump told the author in July. 'Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.'

Critic reviews

'Washington's most eminent journalist dissects his first term and...concludes he is simply "the wrong man for the job". In a devastating critique..he lambasts him for revelling in "perpetual rage". A riveting read.' (Tony Rennell)

'Even in a news landscape where it feels like nothing is shocking anymore, the first excerpts from the new Bob Woodward book still landed like a pair of hydrogen bombs.'

'Rage may be Bob Woodward's most important book since All the President's Men.' (Peter Bergen)

'The book possesses more than a patina of similarity to the famous televised interviews between David Frost and Richard Nixon, the president Woodward and Carl Bernstein brought down with their reporting on Watergate nearly a half-century ago.'

'Woodward’s prose offers readers that delicious, vicarious sense of being an insider, right there in the room with Bob, a witness to presidential sulks and boasts.' (Rosa Brooks)

'[T]his revealing look at an embattled presidency facing a pandemic, racial unrest and a suffering economy…the book’s details have been explosive.'

'Rage is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand Trump.' (Walter Clemons)

'Damning… Unlike most Trump tapes, Woodward’s actually tell us something new about the president, rather than just confirming what we think we already know.' (Michelle Goldberg)

Great objective journalism

Bob is extremely amazing. The narrator is excellent. The book is highly revelant & meaningful.

not surprising

Enlightening.
Its been almost 5 years of watching with utter sadness, the cruelty and unchristian nature of the most powerful man in one of the most powerful countries in the world. Been perplexing that so many could put their trust in him.

Hopefully this is read by some and may cause them to look honestly at what they did to America 4 years ago and change course.

great compelling read

great compelling read with some interesting insights into the hires and fires and craziness that was the trump presidency

Recordings

Basically a putting down the recordings of interviews with Trump. I would have liked more interpretation from the author. Scary thought that people like Trump can be elected as President.