Bob Woodward argues that Trump is 'far worse than Richard Nixon'
Over the past two weeks, headlines have trumpeted choice bits from Bob Woodwards new book, War: How then President Donald Trump secretly sent Covid test machines to Russian President Vladimir Putin. How Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drives President Joe Biden to private, invective-fueled rages.
News articles frequently call these tasty bits nuggets. As a publicity strategy, they have worked wonders, turning the book into an event that demands attention. But reducing the book to scoops trivializes Woodwards ambitions for this sprawling, occasionally blinkered but timely book. If the nuggets were the meal, then the headlines would make the book itself redundant.
War does not present a comprehensive view of the battles in Ukraine and the Middle East that partly inspire its title. Instead, this is Woodwards attempt to establish what it means to be worthy of the great responsibility of running a great power. The reporting and, yes, the nuggets serves as a vehicle for Woodwards judgments about the importance of character and teamwork in producing good government.
The book is also about more than foreign policy. The third war encompassed by Woodwards title is the 2024 presidential election. How do three conflicts two armed and another at the ballot box become one singular War? What unites them in this book is the struggle between those who seek to wield power for a greater good the Biden team, in Woodwards view and those who bend power to their own personal ends Trump and Putin, especially.
https://wapo.st/3U4UePl
Dennis Donovan
(25,549 posts)His crazy shit is organic.
madinmaryland
(65,154 posts)Seeing him wobbling around saying I hate Rich Little and trying to mock Rich Little all while saying I am not a crook. 🤣🤣.
The scary thing is he had control of the nuclear football, though I think he was smart of enough not to use it even if he was drunk.
Lovie777
(15,001 posts)Bristlecone
(10,486 posts)valleyrogue
(1,098 posts)Nixon committed treason when he violated the Logan Act, using third parties, to sabotage the 1968 Paris Peace Talks, and then, after he was elected, he literally dragged the Vietnam War out four more years to ensure his re-election, hammering out an agreement almost identical to the one LBJ tried to negotiate. Watergate still remains poorly understood despite new information that has been around for years. Watergate and the Chennault Affair go together, with the thread of the Vietnam War tying them together.
Nixon's dragging out that war cost hundreds of thousands of lives and damaged this country in such a way it has never recovered. There should never been an attempt to impeach Nixon. He should have been tried at The Hague instead.
Xipe Totec
(44,061 posts)Respectfully, I beg to differ.
Zorro
(16,287 posts)Trump is a career criminal.
I never thought there'd be a President I'd despise more than Nixon, but Trump replaced him at the top of my list.