The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump by Bob Woodward
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
To get the full experience of this book the audio version I believe would be the best way. I don’t think one would get the full scope of this by text. Whatever award Bob Woodward is eligible to win for this book he should automatically win for having undergone listening to Trump talk for this many hours. I wasn't even sure I'd make it to the finish line.
The tapes range from when Trump was a candidate in the spring of 2016 to the summer of 2020 during the height of Presidential re-election, Covid-19 pandemic and the George Floyd unrest across the country. He spends much of the time talking(more like shouting) about how well he’s done and how everyone is unfair to him. No other President has ever done what he has done for (insert accomplishment or feat) the country. It’s pure hyperbolic sales pitch(more like BS) mode.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic you’d swear his greatest accomplishment was the letter exchanges with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He constantly bragged about them.
He also stood by the perfect phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine where he tried to get the newly elected leader to investigate then former Vice President Joe Biden for alleged corruption. He would not admit his own release of the calls transcripts played a big part in his first impeachment. Woodward presses him on this but would never admit releasing the transcripts was a bad idea because, as he insisted, they were “perfect “ phone calls.
Why torture one self to listening to Trump for hours on end? It is a challenge I admit. He constantly interrupts and is almost always shouting or at least talking over Woodward. It’s amazing Bob got in the questions he did. He’s also very repetitious to an almost nauseating number of times. I think sometimes that’s part of his success as he just wears you out. It’s constant grievance and self aggrandizement in his conversions and attitude. I do think it’s important to hear what Trump is like as he could be President again. I think four years later people have either forgotten or downplay how bad he was. This book should serve as a reminder how Donald really is, and this isn’t even including the election denial and January 6th attempted insurrection that followed the events of this book.
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