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2.71 AVERAGE
2.71 AVERAGE
Boring, dry, self aggrandizing..... Most of this was covered in the news. And in the days after the book came out, anything note worthy was covered. Don't waste your time.
While this does give some insight into White House affairs and Trump´s relations with other country leaders, it barely adds anything new (of substance) to the conversation and was overall not enjoyable to read. Glad I didn´t pay for it.
Perhaps Too Detailed
In depth look at the difficulties in decision making under a President obsessed with reelection instead of global leadership. Bolton is meticulous in his storytelling perhaps too much at times. As expected there is some self aggrandizing throughout the book and his evident scorn for some people is evident in a constant stream of cheap shots.
Overall a recommended read for those interested in politics at the highest levels of power.
In depth look at the difficulties in decision making under a President obsessed with reelection instead of global leadership. Bolton is meticulous in his storytelling perhaps too much at times. As expected there is some self aggrandizing throughout the book and his evident scorn for some people is evident in a constant stream of cheap shots.
Overall a recommended read for those interested in politics at the highest levels of power.
So this is it, THE book. Despite reading anything from this man feeling like an affront to my better senses I gave this book a shot.
It's an interesting look at what goes on inside the White House from a national security perspective. It reads often like a diary of sorts.
Bolton has little character or colour to his writing and at times it's a long slog. Although Bolton's frequent and near-obsessive references to Obama throughout are kind of unintentionally amusing. He doesn't like that guy.
Those of us who follow Trump's bumbling, embarrassing presidency will find nothing new here we didn't already know.
The adults are in control, despite Bolton trying to claim otherwise, he says the liberals like to run with that narrative. However, the entire book reads as just that. Grown-ups attempting to control a dangerously impulsive man child.
Trump is hot-headed, makes poor decisions and his ultimate priority is re-election, and how he looks in the eyes of the public. Often above American lives.
The leaked portions most already know about, are literally the "juiciest" parts. But they are neither expanded upon nor even given reflection by Bolton. In most cases, they are barely even given more than a single line of text.
In his want to appease his Republican or more conservative readers, you can read how cautiously he writes in places. Of course, a lot of the book was subject to stringent white house review which he details at the end.
If you follow American politics, you won't find out much here you really didn't know about Trump already. Perhaps try Mary J Trumps book for that, but here you will find a big detailed memoir filled with the processes and practices of handling important, often world-shaping events in the White House. Which is enjoyable enough to read.
It's an interesting look at what goes on inside the White House from a national security perspective. It reads often like a diary of sorts.
Bolton has little character or colour to his writing and at times it's a long slog. Although Bolton's frequent and near-obsessive references to Obama throughout are kind of unintentionally amusing. He doesn't like that guy.
Those of us who follow Trump's bumbling, embarrassing presidency will find nothing new here we didn't already know.
The adults are in control, despite Bolton trying to claim otherwise, he says the liberals like to run with that narrative. However, the entire book reads as just that. Grown-ups attempting to control a dangerously impulsive man child.
Trump is hot-headed, makes poor decisions and his ultimate priority is re-election, and how he looks in the eyes of the public. Often above American lives.
The leaked portions most already know about, are literally the "juiciest" parts. But they are neither expanded upon nor even given reflection by Bolton. In most cases, they are barely even given more than a single line of text.
In his want to appease his Republican or more conservative readers, you can read how cautiously he writes in places. Of course, a lot of the book was subject to stringent white house review which he details at the end.
If you follow American politics, you won't find out much here you really didn't know about Trump already. Perhaps try Mary J Trumps book for that, but here you will find a big detailed memoir filled with the processes and practices of handling important, often world-shaping events in the White House. Which is enjoyable enough to read.
ughHHHH
pompous, self-aggrandizing, hypocritical asshole wanks himself with one hand & donald trump with other for nearly 600 pages. credit for managing to write an “exposé” on the djt white house, ~still~ sound like a sycophant, AND make me sympathize with donald trump though??
also, he says he doesn’t believe in yoga which is (a) not how beliefs work & (b) not how the english language works. i don’t get it & i never want to read another book again good night
pompous, self-aggrandizing, hypocritical asshole wanks himself with one hand & donald trump with other for nearly 600 pages. credit for managing to write an “exposé” on the djt white house, ~still~ sound like a sycophant, AND make me sympathize with donald trump though??
also, he says he doesn’t believe in yoga which is (a) not how beliefs work & (b) not how the english language works. i don’t get it & i never want to read another book again good night
informative
slow-paced
If you want to know about how it works in the Room Where it Happened, this is politics in the chaotic Trump Era described as this book is an in-depth look at how bureaucrats do their jobs. A few take aways, Bolton HATES Obama, fundamentally and philosophically. The first third of the book explains how Obama failed at being president and everything is his fault.
From there he discusses how Trump's belief that he can solo "close the deal" with anyone based on his personal relationships with nutjobs and the chaos of having a president that is emotionally driven, not logically or following a complete plan. This is demostrated through many times Trump is constantly reversing course on decisions he made or was making, because it might make Turkey, North Korea, Russia or the Taliban not like him anymore. Bolton does say that Trump made many correct decisions using this technique, which should be read as Hawkish, basically by being being manipulated through leaders pushing the right button or saying the right phrase. Ultimately, this drive to do what is best for Trump or that "He couldn't tell the difference between his personal interests and the country's interests" pg 348: 1, was the cause of his downfall.
Few other quotes I found fun,
On Grand Strategy- "I'm a talker, I like to talk." pg 372: 1
-"That set tongues wagging for some time, since he was implying exactly the opposite of what the tweet said. As Trump said later, 'I like to f*** with them.'" pg 380: 3
From there he discusses how Trump's belief that he can solo "close the deal" with anyone based on his personal relationships with nutjobs and the chaos of having a president that is emotionally driven, not logically or following a complete plan. This is demostrated through many times Trump is constantly reversing course on decisions he made or was making, because it might make Turkey, North Korea, Russia or the Taliban not like him anymore. Bolton does say that Trump made many correct decisions using this technique, which should be read as Hawkish, basically by being being manipulated through leaders pushing the right button or saying the right phrase. Ultimately, this drive to do what is best for Trump or that "He couldn't tell the difference between his personal interests and the country's interests" pg 348: 1, was the cause of his downfall.
Few other quotes I found fun,
On Grand Strategy- "I'm a talker, I like to talk." pg 372: 1
-"That set tongues wagging for some time, since he was implying exactly the opposite of what the tweet said. As Trump said later, 'I like to f*** with them.'" pg 380: 3
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3429550.html
There have been a lot of White House memoirs in the last three and a half years. This is the only one I have read. I've been aware of John Bolton for a long time, as a particularly hardline (and reputedly unpleasant) activist on the Right of US foreign policy debates, who briefly served as UN ambassador under the junior Bush; and of course I've been in and out of the various Washington foreign policy institutions for years, but less so in the most recent period. This book, as if you didn't know, is Bolton's own account of his 17 months as National Security Adviser to President Trump.
I found it fascinating. I've seen a lot of reviews complaining that it is badly written. I disagree. I would say that Bolton takes no hostages - he assumes that the reader is already familiar with the ins and outs of US foreign policy, and with the detail of what Trump had done in his first two years in office (and what Obama did before him). Bolton barely even explains his own thinking on some of the crucial issues - he makes it clear that he hates the Iran deal and the Paris climate treaty, but only offers snippets of analysis in passing. So I felt some frustration about what is not there.
But what is there is fascinating. Bolton clearly kept good contemporaneous notes of all of his meetings and conversations, obviously with the intention of writing this book. (Trump even jokes with him about that at one point.) It's a dreadful picture of presidential disorganisation and ego, of decision systems which do not work because Trump himself refuses to be managed, of years of careful diplomacy up-ended by a single volatile outburst, and of opportunities lost. One does not have to sympathise with Bolton's political goals to sympathise with his frustration.
There are some very good set-piece accounts as well. The account of the NATO Brussels summit deserves to be made into a theatrical farce; very few details would need to be changed. The accounts of Trump's relations with North Korea are spine-chilling. The sections on Russia and China are very enlightening. The chapter on Venezuela is a record of a failure of US power projection, which Bolton attriubutes to mistakes largely made by Trump, but frankly from his own account it seems at least as important that the actors who the US supported on the ground were unable to deliver.
The chapter on Trump's last-minute decision in June 2019 to cancel a planned retaliation strike on Iran, with the title "Trump loses his way, and then his nerve", is particularly interesting because it actually shows a rather good side of Trump (which Bolton deeply disparages) - he doesn't actually like the idea of killing people, and the information that the US could be about to cause 150 Iranian deaths caused him to change his mind on authorising the strike. Bolton is of course right that the process of reaching the final decision was chaotic and wasteful of political capital, but I give Trump credit for his squeamishness. (Of course, this was motivated by the bad publicity that the casualites would generate, rather than any human sympathy for the potential victims, but we will take what we can get.)
Another specific point where (to my surprise) I found myself closer to Trump than to Bolton was the question of the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic. It seems to me that this project dangerously increases Russian influence in the EU's energy market, and that there are many questions to be asked about it. Trump's hostility to it is more visceral, but comes from a similar suspicion of Russia (he is not as pro-Russian as some like to depict him, at least from Bolton's account). Bolton doesn't spell out his own position, but makes it clear that he disapproves of the extent to which Trump's attitude to Germany and to Angela Merkel is driven by this one issue.
I had hoped to see some discussion of a situation where I know Bolton's views are closer to mine than either of us is to the mainstream of EU and US foreign policy - the Western Sahara, where he worked with James Baker at the time when he came close to solving the comflict with Morocco. I had heard through the grapevine that he was exerting some pressure on Morocco at the time, but this may have been wishful thinking - there is no mention of it in the book, which suggests both that Bolton has moved on and that he did nothing about it when in the NSC, let alone bring it to Trump's attention.
Bolton ends by going into some detail on the impeachment process (which happened after he resigned in September 2019). Both left and right have attacked him for his behaviour here (he did not offer evidence to the House, but made himself available to the Senate, which did not avail itself of the offer). I found it difficult to get excited about the impeachment at the time - it was always clear that a supine Senate was going to acquit Trump, and truth be told the case was not as solid as it would have needed to be even in less partisan times. I also found it difficult to get excited by Bolton's account except to observe that his conscience clearly does trouble him, otherwise he would not have written at such length (and comparatively less lucidly than the rest of the book).
An interesting read, at least for those who are as wonkish as I am about international politics.
There have been a lot of White House memoirs in the last three and a half years. This is the only one I have read. I've been aware of John Bolton for a long time, as a particularly hardline (and reputedly unpleasant) activist on the Right of US foreign policy debates, who briefly served as UN ambassador under the junior Bush; and of course I've been in and out of the various Washington foreign policy institutions for years, but less so in the most recent period. This book, as if you didn't know, is Bolton's own account of his 17 months as National Security Adviser to President Trump.
I found it fascinating. I've seen a lot of reviews complaining that it is badly written. I disagree. I would say that Bolton takes no hostages - he assumes that the reader is already familiar with the ins and outs of US foreign policy, and with the detail of what Trump had done in his first two years in office (and what Obama did before him). Bolton barely even explains his own thinking on some of the crucial issues - he makes it clear that he hates the Iran deal and the Paris climate treaty, but only offers snippets of analysis in passing. So I felt some frustration about what is not there.
But what is there is fascinating. Bolton clearly kept good contemporaneous notes of all of his meetings and conversations, obviously with the intention of writing this book. (Trump even jokes with him about that at one point.) It's a dreadful picture of presidential disorganisation and ego, of decision systems which do not work because Trump himself refuses to be managed, of years of careful diplomacy up-ended by a single volatile outburst, and of opportunities lost. One does not have to sympathise with Bolton's political goals to sympathise with his frustration.
There are some very good set-piece accounts as well. The account of the NATO Brussels summit deserves to be made into a theatrical farce; very few details would need to be changed. The accounts of Trump's relations with North Korea are spine-chilling. The sections on Russia and China are very enlightening. The chapter on Venezuela is a record of a failure of US power projection, which Bolton attriubutes to mistakes largely made by Trump, but frankly from his own account it seems at least as important that the actors who the US supported on the ground were unable to deliver.
The chapter on Trump's last-minute decision in June 2019 to cancel a planned retaliation strike on Iran, with the title "Trump loses his way, and then his nerve", is particularly interesting because it actually shows a rather good side of Trump (which Bolton deeply disparages) - he doesn't actually like the idea of killing people, and the information that the US could be about to cause 150 Iranian deaths caused him to change his mind on authorising the strike. Bolton is of course right that the process of reaching the final decision was chaotic and wasteful of political capital, but I give Trump credit for his squeamishness. (Of course, this was motivated by the bad publicity that the casualites would generate, rather than any human sympathy for the potential victims, but we will take what we can get.)
Another specific point where (to my surprise) I found myself closer to Trump than to Bolton was the question of the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany through the Baltic. It seems to me that this project dangerously increases Russian influence in the EU's energy market, and that there are many questions to be asked about it. Trump's hostility to it is more visceral, but comes from a similar suspicion of Russia (he is not as pro-Russian as some like to depict him, at least from Bolton's account). Bolton doesn't spell out his own position, but makes it clear that he disapproves of the extent to which Trump's attitude to Germany and to Angela Merkel is driven by this one issue.
I had hoped to see some discussion of a situation where I know Bolton's views are closer to mine than either of us is to the mainstream of EU and US foreign policy - the Western Sahara, where he worked with James Baker at the time when he came close to solving the comflict with Morocco. I had heard through the grapevine that he was exerting some pressure on Morocco at the time, but this may have been wishful thinking - there is no mention of it in the book, which suggests both that Bolton has moved on and that he did nothing about it when in the NSC, let alone bring it to Trump's attention.
Bolton ends by going into some detail on the impeachment process (which happened after he resigned in September 2019). Both left and right have attacked him for his behaviour here (he did not offer evidence to the House, but made himself available to the Senate, which did not avail itself of the offer). I found it difficult to get excited about the impeachment at the time - it was always clear that a supine Senate was going to acquit Trump, and truth be told the case was not as solid as it would have needed to be even in less partisan times. I also found it difficult to get excited by Bolton's account except to observe that his conscience clearly does trouble him, otherwise he would not have written at such length (and comparatively less lucidly than the rest of the book).
An interesting read, at least for those who are as wonkish as I am about international politics.