Summary: Rage; Bob Woodward

By Quick Savant

Note: This is a summary book for RAGE and is not the original book written by Bob Woodward. It is not intended to replace or substitute for the original text by Bob Woodward in any way for fashion.
Pouncing on the moment President Trump became informed in the Oval Office that the Covid-19 pandemic would most likely become the most significant threat to national security during his Presidency, best-selling author Bob Woodward has woven the story, and Trump’s other challenges into an anti-Trump tirade that sometimes backfires. Woodard gets frustrated often in his interviews with Trump and sometimes yells at Trump and gets distressed. They told Trump that the coronavirus, before it could be slowed down, could scale up to the level of a Spanish flu which, in 1918, buried nearly 675,000 in America alone.
Woodward scoops like no other because he interviewed Trump 17 times and challenged his mind and thoughts over seven chaotic months. Trump characterized how 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. Trump stepped up to take charge, for better or for worse, as people like Lindsey Graham advised not to take full responsibility, just in case things go wrong. Trump didn’t listen, of course.
Worldly Bob Woodward, at age 77, sits comfortably in his chair with his writing computer in front of him as the #1 bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House and the main character in the movie All the President's men played by Robert Redford.
The book is a bit rough, I caught a few typos and outright mistakes, which I generally don’t see in best sellers, but it’s a compelling story full of the history of Trump’s day-to-day historical challenges. It’s a perfect book for a summary because Woodward broke it into 47 small sections that are relatively independent of each other. Woodward jumps back and forth between subjects.
The amount of information and facts is overwhelming, so I called upon my patented bullet delivery, which tidied everything up, easy to follow. The summary is quite long as far as summaries go. I didn’t want to leave out anything-- it all seemed important.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quick Savant
• Release date: Feb 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005950392

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Rage by Bob Woodward (Illustrated)

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Table of contents

PROLOGUE

OPENING NOTE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-TWO

TWENTY-THREE

TWENTY-FOUR

TWENTY-FIVE

TWENTY-SIX

TWENTY-SEVEN

TWENTY-EIGHT

TWENTY-NINE

THIRTY

THIRTY-ONE

THIRTY-TWO

THIRTY-THREE

THIRTY-FIVE

THIRTY-SIX

THIRTY-SEVEN

THIRTY-EIGHT

THIRTY-NINE

FORTY

FORTY-ONE

FORTY-TWO

FORTY-THREE

FORTY-FOUR

FORTY-FIVE

FORTY-SIX

EPILOGUE

Back Matter

Related Books

PROLOGUE

Trump had followed his healthcare advisors when COVID-19 first broke out in late December of 2019 and told Americans that the virus would not be high risk.

On January 28, 2020, adviser Robert O’Brien approached Trump with an opposite and extremely unsettling viewpoint. He said the virus would morph into the most massive national security threat that Trump would be against in his entire Presidency. The deputy national security adviser, Matt Pottinger, who had lived in China and spoke fluent Mandarin, seconded the motion. He knew that the Chinese had covered up the initial SARS virus epidemic in 2003, allowing it to spread into a pandemic. Pottinger’s contacts in China intimated that COVID-19 would not only have direr

consequences than SARS1 but that it would rival the 1918 Spanish Flu that buried nearly 50 million worldwide, among them almost 700,000 in America.

Trump asked for their reasoning:

Person-to-person transmission, despite the Chinese insisting that only eating bats would transmit it.

Frequent asymptomatic transmission

Rapid spread through international travel.

China had not blocked travel internationally during the busy holiday season, and Pottinger recommended cutting off incoming flights with China origins. The first virus case outside of China documented itself in Thailand on January 13, 2020.

The Chinese government did not exactly have a consoling, apologetic, or compassionate opinion or outlook: they said that China would not be the only country to suffer from the predicted pandemic, including massive economic damage.

The unsettling possibility arose that this seemed intentional and planned from the largest and strongest Communist country, who acted as allies with the Democrats, in the world in an American election year.

Despite opposition from his Cabinet, Trump restricted flights from China. Trump had distractions to the lurking pandemic, his State of the Union Address, the media frenzy associated with the Super Bowl, the Democratic caucuses Iowa technological failings, and let’s not forget the witch hunt of the impeachment trial.

Without more facts or research, and the lack of accurate information from China, Trump continued to play down the risk.

Trump mentioned the viral outbreak in his State of the Union Address and pledged to protect Americans but did not emphasize it-- he said later to avoid panic.

After Trump had been acquitted in the Senate, he telephoned Woodward, but to Woodward’s surprise, he did not boast about his acquittal; instead, he spoke of a setback regarding the virus.

Trump shared that new intelligence showed that the virus could travel through the air, allowing it to spread even more quickly than by contact and with more fatalities than most flu cases, maybe five times as many.

Trump said he worked with President Xi regarding the virus. Still, their relationship showed strain over the Made in China proposal--nothing less than a Chinese push for technological and industrial superiority and the negotiations over the Pacific trade deals--which currently heavily favored the Chinese.

Woodward had disparaged Trump in his book titled Fear, ​ ​ just 17 months prior, with no interviews, calling him over-emotional, unpredictable, and erratic. He stated that Trump bore the responsibility for a form of governing that affected his wielding of executive power. Woodward doubted Trump’s abilities in a crisis, especially one involving other countries where he lacked experience.

For the next book, Trump requested to be interviewed so he could set the record straight.

Trump likened running the country to a situation with plenty of surprises and dynamite sticks smoldering behind every door.

Woodward likened Trump’s description to those who carried out door-to-door searches in zones of combat. He said it implied a lack of confidence steeped in fatalism and the fear of the unexpected.

Trump cites examples of the mishaps and financial blowups with General Motors and Boeing.

Woodward shares that Trump had been holding back on him concerning his telephone conversations with President Xi. Trump’s security advisers firmly stated that Xi smiled as one not to be trusted, that they had blocked medical teams and journalists regarding the virus.

Was Trump to blame for not warning the people of the United States sufficiently? Was there a failure of leadership?

These are the challenging questions Woodward would tackle in the months to come.