Everyone Should Read Anonymous’s “A Warning”—An Insider’s Look at Trump’s White House

“A Warning,” is a best-selling book is written by an anonymous member of Trump’s inner circle, and all Americans should read it.  The author particularly aims the book at fellow Republicans and asks them to look at it carefully.  I want to second that.

Anonymous, who recently promised on Reddit to reveal his/her identity soon, has been one of the members of the Trump White house since the 2016 election.  He/she wrote an anonymous op-ed article for The New York Times editorial page in September of last year.  It was entitled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” and said that while Trump himself is out of control there are members of his administration working hard to restrain his worst impulses and keep the country from disaster.  It finished by comforting readers with the thought that “adults are in the room.”  The article made Trump furious, demanding the name of the author from The New York Times, which refused to cooperate.

In this new book Anonymous retracts that closing statement.  He/she says that no one is able to control Trump any longer and those who were doing so are now mostly gone. Indeed, he/she chronicles the short political lives of anyone who comes to work for Donald Trump.  For the office of Chief of Staff or National Security Advisor the president has a rapidly revolving door.  At one point Anonymous states that the Chief of Staff position is “usually the most coveted and powerful staff job in Washington” but not under Trump.  No one who is really qualified wants it.  “Trump’s children are his chiefs of staff.”  New appointees for any White House position are often advised by those in the know to write their resignation letter ahead of time because “you may need it at a moment’s notice.”

The book gives numerous examples of Trump bragging about his intelligence and knowledge, immediately followed by terrifying examples of his constant failure to understand what is going on, combined with confusion about basic facts most people know.  Alas Trump, in his own mind, cannot be wrong, so chaos reigns in situation after situation.  The president doesn’t read anything (certainly not books—“The Art of the Deal” was ghost written completely by its coauthor who is not certain that Trump has ever done more than skim it).  Briefings, therefore, on important matters cannot be on paper.  Position papers will be thrown back across the table.  Instead the president wants simple pictorials in the form of charts.  Furthermore he cannot be presented with multiple new ideas—only one at a time.  Nor more than one choice at a time.  Everything must be kept very simple or he loses interest and ends the meeting.  Trump is constantly revealing surprise about things world leaders are expected to know long before they take office. And Anonymous has many examples.  [I just read that when the military recently showed Trump a map of Korea he was astounded that Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is only 30 miles south of the DMZ.  “They’ll have to move it!” he told his generals.  At first they though he was kidding, but he repeated it even louder.] 

Many of Trump’s directives are simply ignored by his staff because of their impracticability.  The book gives multiple examples such as Trump directing a foreign leader be told that “we’re done dealing” with that nation because of something that was said, or that a television commentator be scolded for daring to demonize our glorious leader.  Trump forgets things overnight and that is often for the best. 

Anonymous has chapters devoted to staff trying to stop or correct or hide Trump’s mistakes or misdeeds.  All of this, both terrifying and depressing, is detailed for the reader.  I am no fan of Trump, and little of this surprises me, but I’d never seen how it looks from backstage, so to speak, and how blatant and scary it is when seen up close.  Then why would I keep reading?  Hmm.  Well, it’s like a car wreck, or a badly infected big toe: it’s impossible to look away. 

Trump has major trouble getting along with anyone who is not a sycophant.  Thus he started with a fine opinion of the military, appointing a large number of generals to posts, but cooled on that when they opposed many of the things he wanted to do (like pull all our troops out of South Korea).  Late in his first term he has solved the problem of disagreements with the military by just ignoring them. Leaving them out of decisions entirely: suddenly pulling troops out of Syria, cozying up to dictators no one else in the free world trusts, etc.  Both Congress and the courts are no longer thought important by the president.  Congress won’t do what he wants so he spurns them.  The courts overturn his decisions and so he fumes “Why do we need courts anyway?”  Trump seems to think that he can do anything by simply issuing an executive order, even if doing so would violate a statute or (in more than one case) the Constitution.  Dictators can rule by fiat—he should be able to do so as well.  In his own mind Trump thinks like a king and is annoyed that others don’t see him in that same light.

The president does not like to deal with federal employees (the “deep state”) so he doesn’t want to hear their opinions, or ask them for advice, or even have them at important meetings.  Only his appointed politicos are welcome to attend, and note-taking is discouraged.  Thus vital matters are conducted without sufficient information or current intelligence, and chaos results from the resulting presidential announcements.  As I said above, Anonymous now retreats from his/her assurance in the 2018 op-ed piece that there are “adults in the room.”  Those original advisors are mostly gone (Anonymous is one of the few left) and only Trump appointees who know how to nod their heads up and down on cue are left.

In foreign matters Trump is drawn to dictators, who Anonymous says Trump longs to imitate.  At the same time Trump is contemptuous of the democratic leaders of the free world, whom he has alienated steadily.  This is no small matter: it’s dumping our friends and climbing into bed with the bullies of the world.  Scary to predict the results here, but Anonymous explores the possibilities in great detail.

Anonymous, a Republican, then takes on the Republican party for accepting all of this.  He/she particularly goes after Republicans who were once sworn enemies of Trump the candidate (Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Jim Jordan, etc.) but now lick his boots with the best of them.  The party should have more pride, Anonymous argues, more backbone, following that up with a history of the Republican party and reasons why it should restore itself as the “Grand Old Party” of yesteryear. 

In the end Anonymous makes a plea to us all: to the Republicans not to reelect Trump, to the Democrats not to nominate someone who is so far Left that the public will not support him/her, and to the American people to come to their senses and wrest back control of the nation from a man who thinks he’s the greatest leader in history but behaves like a spoiled child somehow in charge of the family.

Since Anonymous’s book was published (and immediately climbed to the top of the New York Times non-fiction best seller list) the author has been relentlessly attacked as a coward who lobs bombs from a hiding place and avoids cross examination.  There is certainly something to that, and Anonymous will have to deal with it all when he/she finally drops the mask (and leaves the administration).  That’s surely in the immediate future, but doesn’t lessen the current important message.

In the meantime, read the book.  “Oh,” you reply, “I know all of this and don’t need to hear it again.”  Wrong.  This is more than merely a rehash of Trump’s misdeeds.  It is a well-written, detailed, insider’s look at Trump in the closed meetings, and the assessment of a true historian (Anonymous fills the book with references from Marcus Aurelius to the founding fathers, and more) written with great intelligence and wonderful phraseology.  I learned a great deal from reading it.  It still keeps me up at night if I let myself think about the specifics.

You should read “A Warning” too.  No matter who you are.  Do it soon.  It’s important.

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Related Posts:

“A Guide to the Best of My Blog”; http://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-guide-to-best-of-my-blog.html

“Comparing Donald Trump to a Badly Infected Big Toe,” August 3, 2016; https://douglaswhaley.blogspot.com/2016/08/comparing-donald-trump-to-badly_3.html