Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The Madman Theory

Trump Takes on the World

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
New York Times–bestselling author of The Return of Great Powers: A"compelling" study of the damage done to US national security by Donald Trump (Michael Isikoff, New York Times–bestselling author of Find Me the Votes).
From praising dictators to alienating allies, Trump made chaos his calling card. Was it a strategy, like Richard Nixon's attempt to destabilize communist bloc countries by appearing just crazy enough to nuke them—the "madman theory"?
Trump praised Kim Jong-un and their "love notes," admired and flattered Vladimir Putin, and gave a green light to Recep Tayyip Erdogan to invade Syria, while attacking US institutions and officials, ignoring the best information and intelligence available to him, and turning his back on allies from Canada and Mexico to NATO to Ukraine to the Kurds at war with ISIS. He continually caught the world off guard, but did it serve a purpose?
Jim Sciutto, a George Polk and Edward R. Murrow Award winner, shows how Trump's supporters assumed he had a strategy—that he somehow played three-dimensional chess. Four years later, it was clear his unpredictable focus on short-term headlines did in fact lead to predictably mediocre results in both the short and long run. His foreign policy undermined American national security interests while leaving longtime allies isolated and vulnerable—and comforting and emboldening our enemies. The White House's revolving door of staff demonstrated that Trump had no real plan; all serious policymakers—and those who would be a check on his most destructive impulses—were exiled or jumped ship.
Sciutto interviewed a wide swath of then-current and former administration officials to assemble the first comprehensive portrait of the impact of Trump's erratic foreign policy. The Madman Theory is the definitive take on Trump's calamitous legacy around the globe, showing how his proclivity for chaos created a world more unstable, violent, and impoverished than it had been before.
"An ominous warning." —Kirkus Reviews
"Combines fine reporting with intelligent analysis in a way that is unusual and enlightening—and entertaining." —William Kristol
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      July 1, 2020
      A look at the madness that pervades the Oval Office. CNN co-anchor and correspondent Sciutto offers a sweeping assessment of Donald Trump's presidency, focused on the president's erratic, baffling leadership style, which he dubs the "Madman Theory." "By numerous accounts," writes the author, "President Trump as commander in chief is self-confident, impulsive, and skeptical of official advice," foreign allies, and career diplomats. He is willing to ignore information, contradict and defy advisers, and he believes that he alone knows best. To fuel his analysis, Sciutto draws on media coverage, conversations with administration officials, and interviews with Mick Mulroy, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East; Susan Gordon, the country's "second-highest-ranking intelligence official"; Fiona Hill, former European and Russian affairs director on the National Security Council; Peter Navarro, Trump's trade adviser; Joseph Yun, special representative for North Korea policy; and Steve Bannon. Emerging from many sources is a portrait of "a former businessman applying the lessons and rules of the New York real estate market to world affairs and in the process jettisoning a values basis for US foreign policy." For some, such as Navarro, Trump's pragmatism is an asset. Others vehemently disagree. "Depending on whom you ask," Sciutto writes, "Trump the 'madman' is either a danger or a secret weapon, brilliant or incompetent, a 'madman' by choice to gain advantage in negotiations, or a 'madman' by accident who overestimates his own abilities and undermines the interests and safety of the nation." After examining Trump's handling of Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Ukraine, and COVID-19, Sciutto agrees with those who characterize Trump's approach to the world and to the presidency as "minimize, politicize, personalize, demonize the experts, and rarely strategize." The coronavirus, Sciutto concludes, "may be the crisis that finally exposed the emptiness at the core of 'America First.' " No surprises for followers of the news but an ominous warning about the future.

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading