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2.71 AVERAGE
2.71 AVERAGE
Kind of disappointing in that Bolton presents Trump in the Oval Office just as he is in public: an emotional child. Fascinating descriptions of high level conversations and decisions made long into the night. Only to be reversed and trashed when Grumpy woke up at 9:30am and decided that (insert name of deplorable dictator) really liked him.
Mr. Bolton is certainly very full of himself, but (and this is coming from a liberal) probably with good reason as his ideas if carried out would have improved the world situation.
Mr. Bolton is certainly very full of himself, but (and this is coming from a liberal) probably with good reason as his ideas if carried out would have improved the world situation.
Slogged through the first 20% then skimmed and jump around. It’s slow and tedious and full of (boring) details of how great and smart Bolton thinks he is, and how ridiculous Trump is. The latter I already knew, and this book really gave no new insights about the president’s behavior because it’s just more of how he acts and comments in public. The man is a lunatic in private and in public.
In the second act of the hit musical Hamilton Aaron Burr sings us the story of the famous Madison/Hamilton compromise that led to the passage of Hamilton’s economic plan and to the US Capital being located on the banks of the Potomac. We
know of the story primarily from the recollections of Thomas Jefferson, who naturally puts himself at the center. The compromise happened at a dinner for the three men hosted by Jefferson. Was this really what happened? We will never really know because, as Burr sings “No one else was in the Room where it happened.” In contemplating the results Burr goes on to point out that
No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens
In his new book former National security advisor John Bolton draws back the curtain and show us The Room Where it Happened. It is a fascinating and rather depressing look at the inner workings of the Trump White House. When the book was first announced there was a giant clamor among people who had not read the book. Everyone thought it was going to be a tell all. Both Trump critics and Trump fans expected the book to be a salacious tell all full of dirty details. The Trump critics couldn’t wait for the expose. Finally, they would have the dirt that should have been available at the impeachment. Trump supporters prepared by declaring everything in the book that they had not read to be “fake news” and nothing but lies. The truth was actually far more mundane.
During the trial of Adolph Eichmann the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the term “The banality of evil” to describe men like Eichmann who take part in a great evil, but make the evil sound almost tedious and boring. Bolton’s book could almost be subtitled the Banality of Incompetence. If you are looking for Donald Trump, Evil Genius then you will be very disappointed in this book. The Trump that you see here isn’t so much diabolical as simply incompetent and completely over his head. This should not be a big surprise to anyone who has observed Trump’s career over the years. The sheer boringness is in many ways the worst part of the book. Yes, there are some salacious stories here. Most of the book is not salacious, it’s just the tediousness of a White House that has no actual direction other than the whim of Donald Trump.
If you want a typical story from this book a good example would be the talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un. During their first meeting Trump mentioned his calling Kim “Rocket Man” and learned that Kim did not know the Elton John song. When Trump sent Mike Pompeo to engage in the next round of talks he autographed an Elton John Greatest Hits CD as a gift for Kim. During the phone debrief after Pompeo left the talks “Trump didn’t seem to realize Pompeo hadn’t actually seen Kim Jong Un, asking if Pompeo had handed over the Trump-autographed copy of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” CD, which Pompeo had not. Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months.” This is a typical story.
Another good example is a little more dangerous. During a conflict with Turkey there was an impasse. The solution came from Mike Pence: “the Vice President suggested Jared Kushner call Turkey’s Finance Minister, since they were both sons-in-law of their respective countries’ leaders. Really, what could go wrong? I briefed Pompeo and Mnuchin on this new “son-in-law channel,” and they both exploded, Mnuchin because the Turkish son-in-law was Finance Minister, his counterpart, and Pompeo because this was one more example of Kushner’s doing international negotiations he shouldn’t have been doing (along with the never-quite-ready Middle East peace plan). I always enjoyed bringing good news.” Pence suggesting that foreign policy be handled by members of “the family” is so typical of this administration that we almost forget that the US government is not some third world dictatorship or a mob family and this is not how things are supposed to work.
The Room Where It Happened is a memoir, it is not a book that has been researched by a third party. This means that it is very much written from Bolton’s perspective and with his own prejudices. His likes and dislikes come through. He was obviously not close to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley or to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. On the other hand, you see him working closely with John Kelly and Mike Pompeo. These personal feelings are quite apparent and they should be taken into account when reading the book. Bolton’s writing is not florid. It is very straight forward. In many ways you almost get the feeling that immediately after every meeting Bolton went straight to a quiet place and wrote down his notes. The book was little more than filling in a few blanks in the notes and framing the narratives. Trump people deny the unflattering portrait of the President in the pages, but the stories ring true. In the end we may never know what happened in these rooms. But the straight ahead look at Trump’s dysfunctional foreign policy shows us that a lot of damage control will be necessary in the years ahead.
know of the story primarily from the recollections of Thomas Jefferson, who naturally puts himself at the center. The compromise happened at a dinner for the three men hosted by Jefferson. Was this really what happened? We will never really know because, as Burr sings “No one else was in the Room where it happened.” In contemplating the results Burr goes on to point out that
No one really knows how the game is played
The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens
In his new book former National security advisor John Bolton draws back the curtain and show us The Room Where it Happened. It is a fascinating and rather depressing look at the inner workings of the Trump White House. When the book was first announced there was a giant clamor among people who had not read the book. Everyone thought it was going to be a tell all. Both Trump critics and Trump fans expected the book to be a salacious tell all full of dirty details. The Trump critics couldn’t wait for the expose. Finally, they would have the dirt that should have been available at the impeachment. Trump supporters prepared by declaring everything in the book that they had not read to be “fake news” and nothing but lies. The truth was actually far more mundane.
During the trial of Adolph Eichmann the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the term “The banality of evil” to describe men like Eichmann who take part in a great evil, but make the evil sound almost tedious and boring. Bolton’s book could almost be subtitled the Banality of Incompetence. If you are looking for Donald Trump, Evil Genius then you will be very disappointed in this book. The Trump that you see here isn’t so much diabolical as simply incompetent and completely over his head. This should not be a big surprise to anyone who has observed Trump’s career over the years. The sheer boringness is in many ways the worst part of the book. Yes, there are some salacious stories here. Most of the book is not salacious, it’s just the tediousness of a White House that has no actual direction other than the whim of Donald Trump.
If you want a typical story from this book a good example would be the talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un. During their first meeting Trump mentioned his calling Kim “Rocket Man” and learned that Kim did not know the Elton John song. When Trump sent Mike Pompeo to engage in the next round of talks he autographed an Elton John Greatest Hits CD as a gift for Kim. During the phone debrief after Pompeo left the talks “Trump didn’t seem to realize Pompeo hadn’t actually seen Kim Jong Un, asking if Pompeo had handed over the Trump-autographed copy of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” CD, which Pompeo had not. Getting this CD to Kim remained a high priority for several months.” This is a typical story.
Another good example is a little more dangerous. During a conflict with Turkey there was an impasse. The solution came from Mike Pence: “the Vice President suggested Jared Kushner call Turkey’s Finance Minister, since they were both sons-in-law of their respective countries’ leaders. Really, what could go wrong? I briefed Pompeo and Mnuchin on this new “son-in-law channel,” and they both exploded, Mnuchin because the Turkish son-in-law was Finance Minister, his counterpart, and Pompeo because this was one more example of Kushner’s doing international negotiations he shouldn’t have been doing (along with the never-quite-ready Middle East peace plan). I always enjoyed bringing good news.” Pence suggesting that foreign policy be handled by members of “the family” is so typical of this administration that we almost forget that the US government is not some third world dictatorship or a mob family and this is not how things are supposed to work.
The Room Where It Happened is a memoir, it is not a book that has been researched by a third party. This means that it is very much written from Bolton’s perspective and with his own prejudices. His likes and dislikes come through. He was obviously not close to UN Ambassador Nikki Haley or to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. On the other hand, you see him working closely with John Kelly and Mike Pompeo. These personal feelings are quite apparent and they should be taken into account when reading the book. Bolton’s writing is not florid. It is very straight forward. In many ways you almost get the feeling that immediately after every meeting Bolton went straight to a quiet place and wrote down his notes. The book was little more than filling in a few blanks in the notes and framing the narratives. Trump people deny the unflattering portrait of the President in the pages, but the stories ring true. In the end we may never know what happened in these rooms. But the straight ahead look at Trump’s dysfunctional foreign policy shows us that a lot of damage control will be necessary in the years ahead.
Where in the hell was all of this when Mueller was testifying? Where was this during the impeachment trial? Bolton had a chance to go down in history as a patriot, instead he’ll go down as a footnote.
While the content was interesting, Bolton was far too self-aggrandizing and holier-than-thou to make this an easy read.
I was intrigued, so I decided to read this. I knew it would be a mistake going in. Somehow more cringeworthy than the politics of it all is how arrogant and self important Bolton is. You can tell he has always thought he was the smartest person in any room and wants everyone to know it. I highly regret the read but got it from a library so at least I didn't waste any money on it.
Well this was an utterly boring read for me. Most likely because a lot of it was way out of my knowledge base. In any event, it was rather interesting. If the information is true, it’s very disturbing. If it’s false...well, why write such a boring book? I do think it’s an important read.
This book (which I borrowed from the library) is rather a tedious slog to get through, with some chapters worse than others. I suspect that there were different editors for different chapters as the tone and sentence length seemed quite different. The book could have had a much heavier hand with the editing. For historians and political scientists this book may be a trove of information, but for the average reader there could have been an abridged edition.
But one thing is clear from this book---none of the adults in the room where it was all happening thought that their boss was doing a good job and they had to spend much of their time in damage control mode. Policy was announced in tweets, security and other briefings were usually one directional rants from the boss, and decisions that seemed to have been made one day were reversed the next.
But one thing is clear from this book---none of the adults in the room where it was all happening thought that their boss was doing a good job and they had to spend much of their time in damage control mode. Policy was announced in tweets, security and other briefings were usually one directional rants from the boss, and decisions that seemed to have been made one day were reversed the next.
Okay, first of all, I am disgusted with myself for putting money in John Bolton’s pocket. While this book, for me, didn’t especially cover new ground vis a vis Trump’s childlike tantrums, inability to focus on or retain information or general incompetence, I was thrilled to hear how miserable he made John Bolton during Bolton’s tenure in the Trump White House. Bolton’s hawkishness is evident in the book, but the number of pro-war polemics were lower than I was suspecting, which made it slightly more readable. I can’t recommend this unless like me you delight in hearing that your every suspicion about Donald J Trump is in fact entirely accurate.