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The Room Where It Happened

A White House Memoir

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The Room Where It Happened

By: John Bolton
Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
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About this listen

 JOHN BOLTON READS THE EPILOGUE!

As President Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton spent many of 453 days in the room where it happened, and the facts speak for themselves.

The result is a “scathing and revelatory” (The New Yorker) White House memoir that is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration, and one of the few to date by a top-level official. With almost daily access to the President, John Bolton has produced a precise rendering of his days in and around the Oval Office. What Bolton saw astonished him: a President for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation. “I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my tenure that wasn’t driven by reelection calculations,” he writes. In fact, he argues that the House committed impeachment malpractice by keeping its prosecution focused narrowly on Ukraine when Trump’s Ukraine-like transgressions existed across the full range of his foreign policy—and Bolton documents exactly what those were, and attempts by him and others in the Administration to raise alarms about them.

He shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government. In Bolton’s telling, all this helped put Trump on the bizarre road to impeachment. “The differences between this presidency and previous ones I had served were stunning,” writes Bolton, who worked for Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. He discovered a President who thought foreign policy is like closing a real estate deal—about personal relationships, made-for-TV showmanship, and advancing his own interests. As a result, the US lost an opportunity to confront its deepening threats, and in cases like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea ended up in a more vulnerable place.

Bolton’s “first tell-all memoir by such a high-ranking official” (The New York Times) starts with his long march to the West Wing as Trump and others woo him for the National Security job. The minute he lands, he has to deal with Syria’s chemical attack on the city of Douma, and the crises after that never stop. As he writes in the opening pages, “If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk—all the while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and sheer amount of work—and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description, try something else.”

The turmoil, conflicts, and egos are all there—from the upheaval in Venezuela, to the erratic and manipulative moves of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, to the showdowns at the G7 summits, the calculated warmongering by Iran, the crazy plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David, and the placating of an authoritarian China that ultimately exposed the world to its lethal lies. But this seasoned public servant also has a great eye for the Washington inside game, and his story is full of wit and wry humor about how he saw it played. Americas Freedom & Security Politicians Politics & Activism Politics & Government United States World Russia Memoir China Middle East Iran Thought-Provoking War Suspenseful Military Espionage

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Critic reviews

"John Bolton's tell-all audiobook on Donald Trump's presidency is one of the most scathing rebukes to have come from a former member of Trump's staff. Doubtless, his behind-the-scenes revelations would be powerful enough to cripple any politician in the pre-Trump era. In the authoritative and comforting tones of a news anchor, Robert Petkoff narrates the countless inadequacies of Trump and the yes-men that surround him, along with the author's eventual conclusion that Trump is unfit for the job. Petkoff's seamless delivery of the 20-hour audiobook is a perfect listening companion. . . . As astounding as the numerous accounts of Trump's ineptitude, arrogance, and poor judgment is the backstabbing intrigue that permeates the White House."
All stars
Most relevant
As a foreign following US politics and domestic behaviour as all the actions tend to have an impact in the world economy being the most important thing after world health and found this book very important and all should read. For the ones that like me can’t wait for November to come to have a control on the Covid-19 situation in the US, because otherwise there will be no Americans to tell the story, having a “president “ that cares less about his people that his relationship with dictators around te world, one that wants to meet with the taliban, the one that abandoned his allies in the middle of a crisis, the one that turns its military on his own people .....
At least wile John Bolton was there we had someone sane in the picture, now what it who do we have?!
Great read, thank you for the insight.

Regards
Maria

Everything one imagine Trump is in black and white!

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An interesting insight in to the Trump White House, revealing what many suspected regarding the Trump control of the administration, as well as his understanding of critical events. I can't but help think at times that Bolton is trying to revise some of the history at points placing more of the burden on Trump when I suspect he was more a complicit 'yes man' than he is recognizing in his memoir. This is understandable given Trump is likely to be looked upon very unkindly by the hand of history, so he naturally would want to distance himself to protect his own legacy (which includes significant international relations work prior to his Trump White House stint). However his story of his supposedly white knight in the White House trying to get Trump to do this right thing at times becomes tiring: if it were true he would have resigned long before he did. He must have compromised his position far further than he concedes to stay in his position for as long as he did.

This aside, it still has value in shining a light in some of the workings (word used loosely) of the Trump regime, but should be taken with caution.

Interesting insight, with some history re-writing

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I was not expecting much even though I haven't read an inside the Trump WH before, now I know why!
It's just an everyone else is wrong, I did everything right, unapologetic load of ...

much as you would expect,

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suffers from a shocking lack of self awareness to either his or the US historical role in destabilising democracies by violence or the imposition of economic sanctions if the public dare elect someone US corporations don't approve of

interesting insider account

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A frightening insight into the decision making process of an ex president. Really enjoyed it.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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