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Bob Woodward

Fear: Trump in the White House Audio CD – CD, September 11, 2018

by Bob Woodward (Author), Robert Petkoff (Reader)

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“Explosive.”—The Washington Post

“Devastating.”—The New Yorker

“Unprecedented.”—CNN

“Great reporting...astute.”—Hugh Hewitt

THE INSIDE STORY ON PRESIDENT TRUMP, AS ONLY BOB WOODWARD CAN TELL IT

With authoritative reporting honed through nine presidencies, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies.

Fear is the most intimate portrait of a sitting president ever published during the president’s first years in office. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One and the White House residence.

Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. Often with day-by-day details, dialogue and documentation, Fear tracks key foreign issues from North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East, NATO, China and Russia. It reports in-depth on Trump’s key domestic issues particularly trade and tariff disputes, immigration, tax legislation, the Paris Climate Accord and the racial violence in Charlottesville in 2017.

Fear presents vivid details of the negotiations between Trump’s attorneys and Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, laying out for the first time the meeting-by-meeting discussions and strategies. It discloses how senior Trump White House officials joined together to steal draft orders from the president’s Oval Office desk so he would not issue directives that would jeopardize top secret intelligence operations.

“It was no less than an administrative coup d’état,” Woodward writes, “a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.”

Language

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date

September 11, 2018
Dimensions

5.06 x 1 x 5.75 inches
ISBN-10

1508240094
ISBN-13

978-1508240099
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"With the steely, measured delivery of a seasoned newscaster, Robert Petkoff narrates an audiobook that truly lives up to its title. As he has done for decades since breaking the Watergate scandal, reporter Bob Woodward dissects the White House, in this case since the election of Donald Trump. The results are frightening. Using hundreds of hours of interviews with White House sources, notes from meetings, journals, and other available information, Woodward describes Trump as a man who refuses to read research before making major decisions and ignores and belittles the advice of experts, instead running the Oval Office on instinct and rash decisions. Woodward and Petkoff humanize other key members of the White House including embittered Chief of Staff John Kelly, erratic former Chief of Staff Steve Bannon, occasional voice of reason Ivanka Trump, and a host of others. It's a fascinating, often horrifying work of journalism." ― AudioFile Magazine

About the Author

Bob Woodward is an associate editor at The Washington Post where he has worked for 50 years. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his Watergate coverage and the other for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has authored 20 national bestselling books, 14 of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (September 11, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1508240094
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1508240099
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.06 x 1 x 5.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #868,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #815 in Hoaxes & Deceptions
- #1,520 in National & International Security (Books)
- #1,585 in United States National Government

Customer Reviews:
9,996 ratings

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Bob Woodward

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Bob Woodward is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked since 1971. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, first in 1973 for the coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein, and second in 2003 as the lead reporter for coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

He has authored or coauthored 18 books, all of which have been national non-fiction bestsellers. Twelve of those have been #1 national bestsellers. He has written books on eight of the most recent presidents, from Nixon to Obama.

Bob Schieffer of CBS News has said, “Woodward has established himself as the best reporter of our time. He may be the best reporter of all time.”

In 2014, Robert Gates, former director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense, said that he wished he’d recruited Woodward into the CIA, saying of Woodward, “He has an extraordinary ability to get otherwise responsible adults to spill [their] guts to him...his ability to get people to talk about stuff they shouldn’t be talking about is just extraordinary and may be unique.”

Gene Roberts, the former managing editor of The New York Times, has called the Woodward-Bernstein Watergate coverage, “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time.” In listing the all-time 100 best non-fiction books, Time Magazine has called All the President’s Men, by Bernstein and Woodward, “Perhaps the most influential piece of journalism in history.”

In 2018 David Von Drehle wrote, “What [Theodore] White did for presidential campaigns, Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward has done for multiple West Wing administrations – in addition to the Supreme Court, the Pentagon, the CIA and the Federal Reserve.”

Woodward was born March 26, 1943 in Illinois. He graduated from Yale University in 1965 and served five years as a communications officer in the United States Navy before beginning his journalism career at the Montgomery County (Maryland) Sentinel, where he was a reporter for one year before joining the Post.

Photos, a Q&A, and additional materials are available at Woodward's website, www.bobwoodward.com.

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DRob

Fear: Trump in the White House

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

Okay, so I’ve been putting off writing this review while I try to process my feelings about it. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:
1. There was nothing particularly surprising in this book or in any of the other books that have been released about Trump, except this book describes the lengths to which his staff go in order to handle him—taking documents off his desk before he can sign them, conducting meetings prior to meetings to try to agree on an approach
2. The book itself was disjointed and unfocused. Perhaps Woodward did this on purpose to try to portray a chaotic and unfocused administration, but I honestly am left wondering why he felt he had to write the book now and why he was in such a hurry to release it. I felt as though the book was not finished—it ends abruptly when McGahn resigns and I’m not sure if there was a point to it ending then or if it was just the last thing Woodward could cover before he could meet his publishing deadline.
3. Bannon comes off surprisingly well in this book. I suspect he is a source for much of the info.
4. Woodward comes across as lukewarm on the Mueller investigation. I doubt that is his intent, however he is being so careful to try to present things from the point of view of Trump and his team that he gives the impression that he is somewhat sympathetic to them.
5. Repeatedly we see Trump refusing to look at evidence, especially if it contradicts his own long-held beliefs. For instance, one of his economic advisers says that his role is to identify the underlying statistics that confirm Trump’s instincts, and Trump’s instincts when it comes to the economy are always correct.
6. This book reinforces that Trump views everything from a profit motive. He obsesses over the fact that countries benefit from the US military without helping to pay for it, not understanding the strategic importance of using our military around the world. He gets all excited when Afghanistan promises him the mineral rights in exchange for our military support, not realizing that the minerals in Afghanistan are totally inaccessible and are useless to anyone.
7. And everything comes through a filter of how it impacts Trump. This is the only thing he cares about.

But he knew that. We knew it before the election, and nothing has changed except he’s become even more boorish and less conciliatory. My guess is that the Trump apologists will do what they always do and shrug this book off- fake news, poorly researched, lies, etc. Those opposed to Trump who have been following his presidency at all will shrug and say, “Yeah, tell us something we don’t know.” (This is pretty much where I am.)

The key target audience is, of course, the in-betweeners, and despite all the teeth gnashing and hand wringing about this book, if they haven’t figured everything that is in this book out already, then they are willfully sticking their heads in the sand and aren't going to change now

So bottom line, for me, is that I truly don’t understand why Woodward wrote this book at this point in time. My husband says he was trying to impact the elections, and that may be it. Somehow, I just don’t see it, though. I think voters have Trump fatigue. I think they are tired of the whole thing, and most of them have probably already decided for whom they will vote. At this point, Mueller could come out and tell everyone that he has discovered all of Hillary’s missing emails on Trump’s servers and found evidence that Trump and Clinton are colluding together on pizza gate, and it still wouldn’t have an impact on anything. These are, indeed, strange and scary times.

632 people found this helpful

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david

Nothing new or surprising

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2018

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Let me get this out of the way first - Bob Woodward is a very good writer and clearly an excellent investigative journalist. That being understood, there is nothing in Fear that warrants reading it. Perhaps this is a sign of the times. It's a reality of our lives - with this 24 hour news cycle and constant social media access to many of the main players in this saga - that it's next to impossible to be shocked by anything. Sure, there are entertaining tidbits here and there, but please tell me one revelation in this book that we haven't heard time and again. On the one hand, having someone of Woodward's reputation writing these things does in some ways lend credence to many of the outlandish stories we've been hearing the past couple of years. Is that enough, though? That's up to the individual reader, but for me reading this book felt like reliving stories that I had already been told numerous times.
I also became more and more uncomfortable with Woodward's use of quotations in some instances. For example, there's a moment mid-way through Fear in which President Trump calls Lindsey Graham in the middle of the night for a heart to heart. It's difficult to believe that either Graham or Trump relayed this story to Woodward, so the idea that he is surmising what was said is problematic for me in terms of the book's overall effect. I get that it's a narrative choice, and one that Woodward hardly invented, but because of the nature of this book and because of the subject matter and allegations of fake news, this method may blur the lines just a bit too much.
Overall, this is a mostly shallow exercise that doesn't really offer anything new or groundbreaking nor does it change the narrative of where this country finds itself in the here and now.

147 people found this helpful

Helpful

Fear!

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

Bob Woodward has not written a conventional biography of Donald Trump. His book, "Fear: Trump in the White House". is 42 chapters long, with each chapter being another tale of woe about Trump and his time in the White House. As with all Bob Woodward books, it is very plainly written. There's not much flowery writing in "Fear", just the facts. Woodward lets the reader put their own interpretation on what he's written; unfortunately, most readers - like me - will see facts that add up to a disaster of a presidency.

Should fans of Donald Trump buy and read "Fear"? Yes, but they probably won't because the truth, as accounted by Bob Woodward, is not an easy read. I'm a liberal Democrat - horrified by Donald Trump and his presidency since the time when Trump came down the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 - and I'm finding it difficult to have my greatest fears verified.

I also find it interesting that Bob Woodward and his publisher chose to release the book on September 11th.

2,653 people found this helpful

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Donald N. Powell

Whatever

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

Some revelations about our president but nothing you did not know if you mildly followed the news. Woodward actually makes him look better than my impression of him. Much of the book impugns the people working for him much more than the president himself. It attempts to explain the complexity of the job and policy decisions as a means of justifying the president's missteps. President Trump seems almost logical in his policy outlook throughout the book. Yes, he comes off as self absorbed and self indulgent but we all knew that about him in the 1980's. Not that impressed with this book.

69 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Mac McAleer

Deep Background *

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is a large book produced by an authoritative author. It is a readable and sober account of the people in President Trump’s Administration. Trump himself was not interviewed. There is no sensationalism or comment by the author. As a journalist, he has let the characters speak for themselves. The book is quite detailed and some readers may start to lose interest part of the way through, longing for an overview or executive summary. I would have liked some context, some analysis and some history. And when you get to the end of the book it just. Stops. Because the story has not finished.

Already there have been several books written about the Trump presidency and there will be many more (1). This contribution is the book equivalent of the newspaper of record (2). It is sensible, believable and trustworthy. You do not get more authoritative in journalistic circles than the author, Bob Woodward. Surprisingly, it is also very readable. This is an experienced journalist telling a story. The central character is Trump, surrounded by a continuously changing constellation of other characters that form the basis of this story. Even if you are not normally interested in politics, this is a compelling read, although the details and the cast of characters can be confusing. It is not a salacious read.

THE BOOK STARTS with a 7-page Prologue set eight months into the Trump presidency in September 2017. It describes the story of the South Korea letter. Trump thought that the US was being ripped off by US spending in support of South Korea defence and by the US-South Korea trade agreement. He wanted to reduce the defence spending and stop the trade agreement. The letter, if signed would have killed the trade agreement. His aides thought this was a bad idea. When the letter was seen on Trump's desk waiting for signature, his aides would surreptitiously move it to a folder so that it would not be seen. After this taster, the book proper begins with a flashback to August 2010. Steve Bannon (3) has been persuaded to meet Trump by a mutual friend to discuss Trump’s political ambitions. After the meeting, Bannon is asked, “What do you think?” Bannon replies “I’m pretty impressed by the guy,” but as running for president he thought, “Zero chance”. The next chapter is titled “Six Years Later”; none of the following chapters has a title. Trump has won the Republican nomination and Steve Bannon is about to formally join his team.

THE STYLE in the early part of the book includes much reconstructed conversation. These conversations often includes expletives. However, as the book progresses the style becomes less conversational and with larger paragraphs of background information. The expletives also become less common. For example, on page 56: 'Next, Cohn repeated what everyone was saying: Interest rates were going to go up over the foreseeable future. I agree, Trump said. “We should just go borrow a lot of money right now, hold it, and then sell it and make money.” Cohn was astounded at Trump’s lack of basic understanding. He tried to explain. If you as the federal government borrow money through issuing bonds, you are increasing the U.S. deficit. What do you mean? Trump asked. Just run the presses - print money.' In the middle of the book, Chapter 18 page 145 there is: 'By spring, Bannon saw that the constant disorder at the White House wasn’t helping him or anyone. “You’re in charge,” Bannon told Priebus. “I’m going through you. No more of me doing my own thing.” A chief of staff who was not in charge had become too disruptive even for certified disrupter and loner Steve Bannon. It was a major concession that Jared and Ivanka would not make.'. By Chapter 36 page 297 the style is reflective: 'From his point of view, Bannon believed Trump had largely failed as a change agent. The old order in national security certainly won in Trump’s first year, Bannon believed. Perhaps the only exception was a toughening stance on China and an awareness that China was the true rival in international affairs.'

THE CONTENTS can be detailed. The many characters can become confusing, particularly when some are fired, resign or change their role in the Administration. However, although it is detailed, it is detailed in a focused way. The focus is on the people in the Administration. Thus, James Comey appears for the first time in Chapter 20 (page 163), only because he is about to be fired. All the chapters are short and they are often dominated by a particular subject, but not always. It is surprising how much foreign affairs dominates (5).

THE HARDBACK is a substantial 357 pages that expands to 420 pages when the Source Notes and Index are included. Despite this, it can easily be picked up and read. The size also allows a readable font size and a generous line spacing. The text is dived between 43 short chapters, allowing the reading to be paced. At the centre of the book are 16 colour plates. Each plate contains one or two photographs of some of the people mentioned in the text (4). The journalistic style may be better experienced via the audio CD rather than the printed book.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Before the book starts there is a one page “Note to Readers” where Bob Woodward gives an overview of his method. He used the journalistic rule of “deep background”, meaning that all the information given to him in interviews could be used but he would not say who provided it. When he uses exact quotations, thoughts or conclusions, the source is the person, a colleague with direct knowledge or a reliable documentary source. I am sure deep background has nothing to do with deep throat.
(1) Already there have been Howard Jacobson’s despairing satire , the disgruntled James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty , the tabloid treatment from Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury and the supermarket tabloid Stormy Daniels's Full Disclosure . Future historians will be fascinated by President Trump. Depending on events, they may even be fascinated by a President Pence .
(2) The author has been associated with the Washington Post for many years that with the New York Times is considered either a high-end newspaper of record or a purveyor of Fake News. He is famous for his association with Watergate and the subsequent book about it with his co-reporter Carl Bernstein All the President's Men . This book on Trump is a description of his early presidency. He is not looking for a potential Trumpgate,
(3) Steve Bannon is a right of centre proponent who was an early member of Trump’s team but subsequently fell out of favour and out of the administration.
(4) The people in the photographs are: Donald Trump President, Melania Trump First Lady, Jared Kushner First son-in-law, Ivanka Trump First daughter, Steve Bannon CEO of Trump campaign, Gary Cohn National Economic Council Chairman, James Comey FBI director, Kellyanne Conway Trump campaign manager, John Dowd Trump personal lawyer, Joseph Dunford Chairman of Joint Chiefs, Micahael Flynn National Security Adviser, Lindsey Graham Senator, Hope Hicks White House Strategic Communications Director, John Kelly Homeland Security Secretary/Chief of Staff, James Mattis Secretary of Defense, H. R. McMaster Second national security adviser, Robert Mueller Special counsel, Peter Navarro Staffer (trade), Mike Pence Vice President, Mike Pompeo CIA Director, Rob Porter Staff Secretary, Reince Priebus Chief of Staff, Jeff Sessions Attorney General, Rex Tillerson Secretary of State, Donald McGahn White House counsel, Jin ping Xi President of China, Jong Un Kim President of Norh Korea.
(5) The contents of the chapters are approximately: Prologue, Sep-2017: South Korea letter; 1, Aug-2010: Steve Bannon meets Trump; 2, Six Years Later; 3, Bannon becomes CEO of Trump campaign; 4, The campaign; 5, The campaign; 6, After the election: Hires Mattis; 7, Hires Gary Cohn from Goldman Sachs; 8, Intelligence; 9, After the inauguration: NATO; 10, Michael Flynn lying about conversations with Russians; 11, Hires McMaster; 12, North Korea; 13, Senator Lindsey Graham; 14, Saudi Arabia; 15, Afghanistan; 16, Iran; 17, NAFTA and TPP; 18, Syria; 19, NAFTA, China, Steel; 20, Firing Comey; 21, Dowd - Trump's personal lawyer; 22, North Korea, immigration; 23, Climate Change; 24, Mueller investigation; 25, Twitter, G20; 26, Sessions; 27, Immigration, meeting in The Tank; 28, Priebus leaves; 29, Charlottsville; 30, Charlottsville; 31, Afghanistan; 32, Kelly new chief of staff; 33, China; 34, North Korea; 35, Tax ; 36, Steve Bannon; 37, North Korea; 38, Afghanistan; 39, DACA and The Wall; 40, Mueller and Dowd; 41, China; 42, Dowd.

44 people found this helpful

drjonty

Be Afraid

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

Woodward gives another account of the Trump WhiteHouse that corroborates many of the things we've already learned from the Fire and Fury. The scale of the problem and Trumps volatile idiocy are on display. He is less good on the Mueller investigation because he relies so much on Dowd. In fact this is a weakness of the book generally. Woodward often has one source of a two sides argument so there is some self-serving storytelling here. However it is a fascinating and terrifying read of an angry incompetent and immoral man sitting in the most powerful office in the world.

22 people found this helpful

Anglian Traveller

Woodward’s account of the current WH bends over backwards to be fair & balanced

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

Donald Trump’s antics in New York City over decades revealed him to be a malignantly selfish self-promoter and a lying, thieving (until now, unindicted) criminal, with a trail of bankruptcies and lost court cases, blacklisted by all the banks in the city who refused to lend to him because of his long history of repayment defaults. It was almost beyond belief that anyone could be conned into believing he was a “successful businessman”, the very antithesis of the truth, let alone that he might be elected president of the world’s only remaining superpower.

In an attempt to be seen as non-partisan, Bob Woodward’s 15th book ‘Fear’ bends over backwards to be fair to Trump as president and to present an ‘impartial’ account of this malignant, car-crash administration. Woodward as usual relies on extensive interviews with White House staffers and whereas it’s not difficult to work out his principal sources – Porter, Cohn, Priebus, Bannon, McMaster, the Senator Lynsey Graham, Trump’s various personal lawyers – they remain unattributed though Woodward claims to have all the interview material on tape for future posterity. Woodward’s scrupulous attention to the granular detail of interactions and meeting notes makes for a roughly chronological but patchwork account from the 2016 election campaign up to the end of March 2018.

The shocking picture which emerges is of a grossly dysfunctional administration where no-one has an ounce of respect or affection for Trump who repeatedly demonstrates his ignorance, incompetence and unfitness for office and inability to inspire loyalty, to manage people or even understand how the US government works. Staffers continually stifle or slow-walk the president’s initiatives, including stealing papers off his desk before he can sign them, and Trump never notices or remembers the missing documents. Many of the meeting accounts quickly descend into shouting matches replete with expletives and obscenities, and we are shown not a mature government of professionals driven by coherent policy objectives but one of ad-hoc decisions made on-the-hoof by staffers offered little guidance and no leadership. To Rex Tillerson, Trump is “a f****** moron”, to Chief of Staff General Kelly “an idiot”, to Gary Cohn “a f****** a******”and so on. Trump reciprocates, repeatedly and openly referring to members of his staff in expletive- and obscenity-laden language.

People are hired and fired not face-to-face in a respectful way, but are shocked to discover they are no longer working for the administration when announced to the world by tweet. Trump has no understanding of trade or economics, for example he refuses to understand the difference between the balance of traded goods across borders - which is of no economic consequence - and the national debt, as increased by >US$1.5 trillion in the GOP’s 2017 congressional tax bill, of great economic consequence. Trump is obsessed with destroying trade and security treaties with allies and refuses to listen to expert advice that these agreements are in America’s interest and to destroy them will do harm to the country, but he doesn’t care and won’t listen, declaring repeatedly that “this is all bull****” and storming out of meetings.

Woodward goes very lightly on the Special Council’s Russia investigation instigated by Trump appointee Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein following the sudden firing of James Comey, but does focus on Trump’s obsession with it and reports on several interactions between Mueller’s team and Trump’s lawyers. Faced with Trump’s determination to meet with Bob Mueller, Trump’s lawyers Sekulow, Cobb and Dowd attempt to prepare him. As usual, Trump doesn’t answer the questions asked but goes off on a rant; rambles, evades, denies, cries “fake news”, repeatedly contradicts himself. Dowd admits to Woodward that he couldn’t bring himself to tell Trump to his face what he really thought: “Mr. President, you’re a f****** liar.”

The book runs to 357 pages excluding an extensive notes section and index, and has a 16-page centre section of colour photos of the main players. Overall, ‘Fear’ is a meticulously researched reportage, though apart from some peripheral details you probably won’t learn anything you didn’t already know. The writing style is literate but not exactly racy, more documentary-reporting in style. Woodward tried for weeks to reach Trump for an interview for the book through six different channels including Kellyanne Conway, but Trump reportedly remained unresponsive to these interview requests so is not interviewed in the book.

14 people found this helpful

Tssmith

essential reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

In contrast with Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' which is far removed from impartial, Bob Woodward's 'Fear' strives to be scrupulously fair. Woodward has put together a wealth of convincing material to support his narrative. The conclusions to be drawn are clear: that Trump appears to have serious difficulty when it comes to consistent adherence to the truth; and that Robert Mueller and his team have behaved like partisan Democrats bent on overturning the 2016 Presidential election. It's a pity that Woodward did not hire Michael Lewis as a ghost writer. Lewis would have given the book greater coherence and a much more lively style. Woodward can be a little wooden at times. Essential reading.

12 people found this helpful

Thomas P.

Interesting but scattered read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2018

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In general this was a decent, well researched and footnoted read, although the reviews that you'll see disclose most of the more significant parts. What really stuck out for me though was the structure of the book, or apparent lack thereof. It read more like a series of tidied up reporter's notes than a narrative built from those notes. While there was some attempt at assembling chapters around certain topics, this approach also wound up causing you to move back and forth in time, which was a fairly jarring experience, not unlike Trump's presidency. For me, that took something away from the book as it really felt only coarsely assembled. It's unclear whether a chronological narrative would have been impossible due to the chaotic nature of the Trump White House or if such an approach is difficult with any White House based on the demands on those who work there. You may be able to save yourself the time and expense by reading the news coverage of the book instead of the actual book itself; there's really not that much added by the presentation of the more significant anecdotes from the news. I guess I was hoping for more.

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Buy new:

$14.48

FREE delivery: Friday, May 27 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon

Sold by: Emilia's Prime Store

Buy used:

$6.88