Horowitz: Woodward Sounds Alarm on Trump’s Fitness to Serve

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Rob Horowitz, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Bob Woodward PHOTO: Lyndon B. Johnson Library

In his new book. Fear; Trump in the White House, Bob Woodward amplifies and adds telling details to an all too familiar picture of a president who is simply unfit to serve, viewed by the people who work with him every day as impulsive, ignorant and untruthful, posing a potential danger to the nation.

In his first of what promises to be an exhaustive round of media interviews, the noted journalist who, along with Carl Bernstein, won the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Watergate, told David Martin of CBS News, "You look at the operation of this White House and you have to say, Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis.”

Woodward went on to say, "People who work for him are worried ... that he will sign things or give orders that threaten the national security or the financial security of the country, or of the world."

Woodward’s devastating portrait of Trump and the high level of chaos and dysfunction of the White House, mainly reinforces the glimpses we get from the reporters who cover Trump on a daily basis and is similar in emphasis to a previous inside look; Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff.

The anonymous opinion piece by a ‘Senior White House Official’ published by the New York Times last week sounds the same notes as well.

But Woodward’s detailed reporting based on more than 100 interviews and his well-earned credibility make this work even harder for the White House to dismiss. Trump’s predictable attempts to do so last week, calling Woodward an idiot and a democratic operative and calling the book a fake book with fraudulent quotes in series of tweets and on-camera responses, rang more hollow than usual. His responses, however, will likely do the same thing for Woodward’s book, he did for Wolff’s book: boost sales.

Bob Woodward has covered the inner workings of white houses and administrations for nearly 50 years, authoring 19 books in the process and earning a reputation for being measured and non-partisan in his judgments. When asked by David Martin what his conclusion was after taking such an in-depth look at the Trump Administration, Woodward exclaimed, “That people better wake up to what's going on.” For anyone who is already not wide awake, that is the kind of wake-up call that deserves your attention.

{image_2}Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island