Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office

[lightreads]

Unmaking the Presidency by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes

4/5. A sharp and articulate and eruditely scathing book that gets into what it actually means to say that Trump breaks norms. It's thoughtful about the presidency as an institution, with plenty of call-backs to prior disaster presidencies, and I think the general assessment of what has happened and what needs to happen is pretty much right. A good resource for the well-informed observer who wants to know more about the technicalities of executive power and executive tradition. I don't actually give a damn about Trump himself – his psychology is overanalyzed and frankly uninteresting – but this book manages around the edges to pin him down pretty much exactly.

Comments

[jadelennox]

I've had mixed feelings about reading this book because I find Susan Hennessey smart and insightful and scared of all the right things, and yet I loathe Ben Wittes so much. This is perforce a helpful review, thanks.

[lightreads]

She is great in several forums. She has been particularly supportive of women in the national security space which, I can tell you, is extremely bro-y. And yes, she is that great combination of super articulate and super mad.

I have more complicated feelings about him, and, uh, don't recommend following him on twitter to basically anyone. Is your loathing specific to opinions re Israel, or something else?