This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mandarax (talk | contribs) at 20:12, 24 January 2020 (MOS:NDASH). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 20:12, 24 January 2020 by Mandarax (talk | contribs) (MOS:NDASH)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 2020 book about Donald Trump
Cover of first edition | |
Author | |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subject | Presidency of Donald Trump |
Publisher | Penguin Press (US), Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
Publication date | January 21, 2020 |
Publication place | USA |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 465 |
ISBN | 9781984877499 |
A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America is a 2020 book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig. The book presents an account of the first three years of the presidency of Donald Trump. It focuses on specific incidents of conflict with senior advisors, including former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
Background
The title refers to a phrase Trump has repeatedly used to describe himself, starting in January 2018 when a book, Fire and Fury, raised questions about his mental stability. Responding in a series of tweets, he said "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart" and that his achievements in life qualified him as "not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!" He continued to describe himself as "a very stable genius" on multiple subsequent occasions.
Rucker and Leonnig have suggested that A Very Stable Genius is an effort to make sense of conflicting images of Donald Trump as "a success, a master in some ways, and also a chaotic, undisciplined, impulsive leader". The book draws on more than 200 interviews with sources, who are not named in the book. The authors requested an interview from Trump, but he declined their request.
Content
The book is organized around specific episodes of conflict within the Trump administration, under chapter titles that include "Unhinged", "Shocking the Conscience", and "Paranoia and Pandemonium". For example, the book highlights a July 2017 meeting at the Pentagon at which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, among other senior advisors and generals, attempted to brief the president on the current state and projection of military power, with Trump responding negatively to their approach and reportedly calling them "losers", "dopes", and "babies". Early in his presidency he reportedly tried to undo the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, saying it's "just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas." When Tillerson told him it would need action by Congress, he instructed an aide to draft an executive action to repeal the law. The authors document a pattern in which Trump fired any and all advisors who tried to educate him or restrain his impulses – the so-called "grownups in the room" – replacing them with advisors who "think their mission is to tell him, 'Yes.' "
The book also highlights apparent gaps in the president's geopolitical knowledge, relating a story about a meeting with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in which the American president reportedly claimed, incorrectly, that India and China do not share a border. Another account describes him visiting Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial while apparently having no understanding of what actually happened there.
Release
In a 2018 article on the publishing market for books about Donald Trump, Steven Perlberg of BuzzFeed News reported that Rucker and Leonnig were collaborating on a new Trump book, and that unnamed reporters covering the president had "been approached with the promise of large six-figure advances". North American rights to the book were purchased by Penguin Press, while UK and Commonwealth rights were purchased by Bloomsbury Publishing. US and UK editions were scheduled for simultaneous publication on January 21, 2020.
Reception
Reviews of the book have been positive, with special praise for the detail of the authors' research. In The New York Times, Dwight Garner called the authors "meticulous journalists", noting that "this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date." Writing for The Guardian, Lloyd Green called the book "richly sourced and highly readable", and observed that it provided a contrasting, "unsettling" account in comparison to other "tell-all or third-party confessional" books. In The Washington Post, Joe Klein noted that the book's uneven sourcing made some portrayals of key figures less convincing than expected, but generally praised the book for showing that Trump "has created his own ideology and his own party". Writing for The Times, Justin Webb criticized the tone and overall purpose of A Very Stable Genius, suggesting that the authors should have spent their time investigating infighting within the Democratic Party instead of writing "another of these breathless inside-the-Trump-White-House takes", but noted that book was nonetheless useful for understanding Trump.
References
- Rucker, Philip; Leonnig, Carol (2020). A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America. Penguin Press. ISBN 9781984877505.
- ^ Cummings, William (July 11, 2019). "Trump says he's 'so great looking and smart, a true Stable Genius' in tweet bashing 2020 Dems". USA Today. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- Gstalter, Morgan (July 12, 2018). "Trump again labels himself a 'very stable genius'". The Hill. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
- Forgey, Quint; Lippman, Daniel (May 23, 2019). "'Extremely stable genius': Trump defends his mental fitness as he tears into Pelosi". Politico. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
- ^ Kelly, Mary Louise (January 17, 2020). "3 Years In, 'A Very Stable Genius' Authors Say Trump Decisions Are 'More Chaotic'". NPR. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
- ^ Garner, Dwight (January 16, 2020). "A Meticulous Account of Trump's Tenure Reads Like a Comic Horror Story". The New York Times. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
- Licata, Nick (January 23, 2020). "'A Very Stable Genius' steps inside the Oval Office of the chaotic Trump administration". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
- Smialek, Jeanna (January 15, 2020). "Trump Tried to Kill Anti-Bribery Rule He Deemed 'Unfair,' New Book Alleges". The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
- ^ Klein, Joe (January 16, 2020). "'Losers,' 'dopes' and 'scum': Inside Trump's war with his own advisers". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
- Perlberg, Steven (September 21, 2018). "The Future Of Publishing Is Just Books About Donald Trump Forever Until You Are Dead". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
- Cowdrey, Katherine (October 8, 2019). "Bloomsbury to publish Washington Post's Leonnig and Rucker's take on Trump". The Bookseller. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
- Green, Lloyd (January 19, 2020). "A Very Stable Genius review: dysfunction and disaster at the court of King Donald". The Guardian. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
- Webb, Justin (January 23, 2020). "A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig review — uncouth, unhinged, but holding on". The Times. Retrieved January 24, 2020.