18 September 2021

BOOK REVIEW: Bob Woodward (and Robert Costa's) The Third Trump Trilogy "Peril" after Fear and Rage

We've been waiting for this new book ". . . "Written with Robert Costa, another Washington Post reporter, Peril caps a Trump trilogy by one half of the team that took down Richard Nixon. As was the case with Fear and Rage, Peril is meticulously researched. Quotes fly off the page. The prose, however, stays dry.
This is a curated narrative of events and people but it comes with a point of view. The authors recall Trump’s admission that “real power [is] fear”, and that he evokes “rage”. . ."
Behind the headlines about Gen Milley, China and the threat of nuclear war lies a sobering read about democracy in danger
<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>‘Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?’ Woodward and Costa wrote.  Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images<br>‘Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?’ Woodward and Costa wrote.  Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images</div>

Peril review: Bob Woodward Trump trilogy ends on note of dire warning

‘Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?’ Woodward and Costa wrote. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Last modified on Sat 18 Sep 2021 08.09 EDT

 
 "Donald Trump is out of a job but far from gone and forgotten. The 45th president stokes the lie of a rigged election while his rallies pack more wallop than a Sunday sermon and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
“We won the election twice!” Trump shouts. His base has come to believe. They see themselves in him and are ready to die for him – literally. Covid vaccines? Let the liberals take them.
Deep red Mississippi leads in Covid deaths per capita. Florida’s death toll has risen above 50,000. This week alone, the Sunshine State lost more than 2,500. Then again, a century and a half ago, about 258,000 men died for the Confederacy rather than end slavery. “Freedom?” Whatever.
One thing is certain: against this carnage-filled backdrop Bob Woodward’s latest book is aptly titled indeed. . .The book 'Peril' quotes Brad Parscale, a discarded campaign manager, about Trump’s return to the stage after his ejection from the White House. “I don’t think he sees it as a comeback,” Parscale says. “He sees it as vengeance.”
> ". . .Woodward and Costa show Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, the goddess of alternative facts, reminding Trump that he turned voters off in his second election. In 2020, Trump underperformed among white voters without a college degree and ran behind congressional Republicans. “Get back to basics,” Conway tells him. Stop with the grievances and obsessing over the election. From the looks of things, Trump has discounted her advice.
> Conway has a book of her own due out in 2022. Score-settling awaits. . .
Ending somewhere near the political present, Woodward and Costa shed light on the withdrawal from Afghanistan and Senator Lindsey Graham with it. . .

Fittingly, in their closing sentence, Woodward and Costa ponder the fate of the American experiment itself.

“Could Trump work his will again? Were there any limits to what he and his supporters might do to put him back in power?

“Peril remains.” 

__________________________________________________________________________

READ MORE DETAILS: Lloyd Green the Guardian

No comments: