Summary: Rage: Bob Woodward

NOTE: This is a summary book for RAGE and is not the original book written by Bob Woodward, nor is it intended to replace or substitute for the original book by Bob Woodward . 

Pouncing on the moment that President Trump became informed in the Oval Office that the Covid-19 pandemic would most likely become the most significant threat to national security, Woodward wove the story and Trump's other challenges into an anti-Trump tirade that sometimes backfires. Woodard, frustrated often in his interviews with Trump, sometimes yells at him.

Woodward has the scoop no one else does because he interviewed Trump 17 times and climbed into his mind and thoughts over seven chaotic months. Trump characterized the way he felt with an apt metaphor: "Dynamite behind every door." Between a rock and a hard place, the American people's health stood on the line, and most likely, his Presidency. Doubt came into play, as did elements of denial, as Trump put on his combat boots, ready to wage war not only against the virus but the Left and the Chinese who wanted to see him fail.

Woodward claims that Trump's responses to the challenges posed by the virus and its threats to the health of America's people and the economy were met with the same instincts, character, and patterns that made for survival the previous three years. Trump goes off on tangents, seems continuously distracted, is unpredictable, often lies as a form of persuasion, interrogates everyone, is gruff, thinks many are out to get him, hires and fires staff at a dizzying pace, and loves conflict--but also is surprisingly effective.