The Room Where It Happened, Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - "Chaos As A Way Of Life" or "Actually Bolton's Title for this Chapter is Fine as is"

While there are certainly many criticisms of the president present today (even more so in the short but already overflowing 2020 life), I feel like this chapter points at the central failing of the Trump administration: a complete lack of order and professionalism, which both influences and is influenced by Trump's own inconsistent and self-centered style.

Quick Hits: John Bolton tackles the theme of chaos and disorder of this White House, especially compared to previous administrations that he has served in. He portrays an administration constantly scrambling to put out fires started by the president and to take the gasoline out of his hands as he moves into another room. He talks about the vindictive pettiness in the treatment of friends and foes alike, the constant undermining of administration officials and cabinet members, and frustration of the nepotistic influence of the Trump family.

Bolton starts with the often discussed issue of the president's schedule, the one where Trump's "official" days don't start until noon. He contrasts this with the ordered schedule of President George H.W. Bush, who started his day at 8 AM with intelligence and staff meetings. While wishing for this kind of order, Bolton comments on the fact that the timing and quantity of briefings and meetings are not the primary problem with a president who "spoke at greater length than the briefers, often on matters completely unrelated to the subjects at hand" (Bolton 224).

The pettiness of the president, already mentioned earlier by Bolton, comes up again here, mixed with his hypocritical relationship with the military and complete inability to read the room. Naturally, the McCain connection comes up here (including the funeral issue), but Bolton also moves into the controversy of revoking former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance. Here the influence "[Trump's] favorite media sources" and Sen. Rand Paul move Trump to act against the advice of his chief of staff Gen. Kelly. Kelly is upset by this, but also by Trump's callous disregard of American service members:

Since Trump was disparaging the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time, he had seemingly implied that Kelly's son had died needlessly. "Trump doesn't care what happens to these guys," Kelly said. "He says it would be 'cool' to invade Venezuela.' I said relatively little during the conversation, which was mostly Kelly venting his frustrations, very few of which I disagreed with. (225) 

This seems quite relevant now in light of the current news about the treatment of Lt. Col. Vindman and Bountygate.

 

Certainly, it is apparent that from Bolton's point of view, the chaos is only partially due to Trump's undisciplined approach to leadership; indeed, the implication is strong in this chapter that the pervasive influence of those outside of the actual structure of the executive branch weighs more heavily on the president's decisions than those with actual experience. The narrative here is interwoven with Jared Kushner (the son-in-law with no oversight and clearance problems) constantly interfering with the work of Pompeo, Kelly, Mattis, Bolton, etc.; with Ivanka's Hillary Clinton style email problems; and with Melania's spiteful actions to get Mira Ricardel fired. Moreover, there is consistent influence of the media on Trump's thinking (and the unhelpful nonsense of Rand Paul). While Bolton is pretty upfront with his criticisms of different administration officials, he argues that dysfunction, disorder, and disarray of the administration no doubt is a primary cause of the alarmingly high turnover rate and the failure to have any sort of clear sense of policy, foreign or domestic.