November 9, 2018
Bob
Woodward’s latest book, Fear, essentially is a
history of the late stages of the Trump campaign and the first year or so of
his administration. It is packed with
quotes, suggesting considerable access to the players, but its narrative is so
unstructured that, as I read it, it seemed not to have any overriding
theme. However, the author had
suggested two.
One, set
forth in the Prologue, is this: “The . . . United States in 2017 was tethered
to the words and actions of an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and
unpredictable leader. Members of the
staff had joined to purposefully block some of what they believed were the
president’s most dangerous impulses. It was a nervous breakdown of the
executive power of the most powerful country in the
world.”[56] The story supports that summary; among other
protective acts, aides surreptitiously removed papers from Trump’s desk to
prevent his signing them. I suppose
that I didn’t recognize that as a significant thread because the portraits of
Trump, and to some degree of the chaos in the White House, were familiar.
The other
theme, reflected in the title, appears on another introductory page. It is a comment by Trump in an interview
with the author in March, 2016: “Real power is — I don’t even want to use the
word — fear.”[57] No context is given.
Possibly
Trump avoids the phrase, but the author did not. In a passage referring to “private advice to a friend who had
acknowledged some bad behavior toward women,”
Trump is quoted: “You’ve got to
deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any
culpability, then you’re dead. . . .
You showed weakness, You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be
aggressive. You’ve got to deny anything that’s said about
you.”[58]3 Woodward prefaced that quote with this
anticipatory restatement: “Real power is fear. It’s all about strength. Never show weakness. You’ve always got to be
strong. Don’t be bullied.” Presumably he was summarizing Trump’s attitude, but
the reference to fear doesn’t fit. The
quote is clear enough; the gloss wasn’t necessary, except to fit the story into
the second theme.
That passage is part of a short, separate
section which begins with a discussion of the relationship between Trump and
his wife, and which is sandwiched between discussions of the Mueller
investigation and tariffs. That is
typical of the episodic nature of the narrative.
Mr.
Woodward inserted “Real power is fear” at two later
points, one referring to Trump’s
threats, in business deals, to walk away, but applying it to NAFTA
negotiations, the other concerning relations with North
Korea.[59] As with the reference to fear above, these
are the author’s comments, not statements by Trump. Again, they don’t quite fit the context, so they seemed to me to
be an overreach.
However,
Trump’s behavior during the runup to the midterms demonstrates that Fear is
Power indeed is his guiding motto.
Facing a possible blue wave, he resorted to fearmongering about
immigrants, hoping to frighten undecided voters into opting for safety.
In the
process, he may have convinced the faithful that his bluster is a mark of
strength, but the Trump quote in the “private advice” passage reveals that he
is a weak man trying to look strong.
Although on television he could shout “you’re fired,” he often cannot
fire real people face to face. He scatters insults constantly, but whines about
ill-treatment if criticized.
Rather
than making America great again, in his meeting with Putin Trump was weak and
made the country look weak. Most
recently he has done both by appearing to be so frightened of a distant caravan
of refugees that the Army must be called out.
Fear is an appropriate title in another way. From the beginning, Trump has been afraid of
disclosure. That has become worse with
the election of a Democratic House.
Firing Jeff Sessions and replacing him with an apparently more pliable
acting AG is a result of Trump’s fear of the Mueller investigation. Probably there will be more such signs.
_____________________
<br>56. p. xxii
57. p. xiii per the index, actually unnumbered
58. p. 175
59. pp.274-75, 300
