The anonymous author of A Warning wrote on page 239 "He has always acted impulsively to serve his interests over those of the United States". A few pages later he or she said "The Trump administration is an unmitigated catastrophe and the responsibility rests entirely at his feet, the predictable outcome of assigning organizational leadership to a man of weak morals". Since this author is anonymous we don't know who he or she is, we also don't know if the author is or is not a White House staff member as is claimed. What seems believable is that there are Trump administration appointees who see how unhinged and immoral this President is. They have tried to control his worst instincts and many have been fired for it. Why don't they just quit. This author says that many stay because they see that when or if the leave their replacement will be worse. The anonymous author shows what we already know. Donald Trump is an immoral, self deluded criminal who is damaging not just our own country but the entire world. It would be a better book if Anonymous would have identified him/herself and cited solid evidence. Nonetheless what the book says is doubtlessly true. In the conclusion the author says the best result would be if Trump lost the 2020 election. Either to a Democrat or in the Republican primary. We should all do our best to see that one of these happens. ( )

I was given this book to read by a friend. I would not have read it otherwise because I did not think it would not give me any new information. Yet it was interesting to have watched Trump and then see what happened behind the scenes. Even knowing everything that Trump has done, it was good to review all those utterly strange things.

I also found the behind the scenes events at the White House fascinating. This book describes in detail how people can work for him. Besides how someone could vote for someone that made fun of a person with a disability, this was my primary question.

The author is clearly a conservative and approaches Trump from a betrayal vantage point. He also takes the time to restate and promote conservative views. It was fine, I guess, but not necessary for the thesis of this book.

In the epilogue he makes a direct correlation to 911. He went a bit overboard.

I believe that many supporters remain loyal by the fact that Trump is still in office (and by wearing blinders). This book provides the case that it is the administration that has kept him from blundering his way to being relieved of his duties and explains how this is done. ( )

Unexpectedly well-written, nuanced, balanced, and fair.
The kind of book that is not terrifying or full of sensationalism, but is rather a call to attention: This is the problem, and here are things we can do to fix it.

( )

Without You, It Will Get Worse

As Anonymous makes clear page after page, President Donald J. Trump presides over the most chaotic White House not only in memory but in the total history of the United States. In the beginning, as the author states, a group of earnest supporters and officials thought they could rein in Trump’s worst traits and accomplish conservative Republican goals they believed in. He calls this affiliation of government officials the Steady State. Soon enough, Trump got rid of them. What remains are loyalists and those clinging because of fear. The result is a presidency running wild and out of control, trampling tradition and law, transforming once credible men and women in stooges, and the U.S. into a country forfeiting its credibility and power in the world. The American people, according to the author, are left with only one recourse, and that is to fire Trump. At the end of the book, a litany of sorrowful specifics of Trump’s unfitness for office and as a human being, the author states that putting things right “will require us to alter ourselves—to consider who we were, who we are, and who we want to be.” More bluntly, is Trump how we see ourselves, how we wish our own children to behave when they are adults? The point is: character is everything, and Trump possesses not an iota of the stuff.

It goes without saying that Americans should read this book, to read it and be thoughtful and honest with themselves regarding the president. Unfortunately, the reality is that the very people who should read this book, the Trump supporters for whom the author wrote it, will not read it. Not only not read it, but condemn it without looking past the cover, probably condemn it at the behest of Trump himself and the bloviators who dissemble on his behalf. Too bad, because they, all of us, need our eyes opened to just how bad the Trump presidency really is. To quote the author:

“The net effect of the president’s war on democratic institutions is that he has turned the government of the United States into one of his companies: a badly managed enterprise defined by a sociopathic personality in the c-suite, rife with infighting, embroiled in lawsuits, falling deeper into debt, allergic to internal and external criticism, open to shady side deals, operating with limited oversight, and servicing its self-absorbed owner at the expense of its customers. We should have seen this one coming.”

Fellow Americans, heed the warning from someone, a conservative Republican, who has been in the thick of it and witnessed the chaos and danger firsthand. Ask yourself regarding Trump: Is this who I am, is this who I want to associate with, is this who I want my children to be. As the authors concludes, “if … we shrink from the task, our names will be recorded by history as those who didn’t pass the torch but let its light expire. That is my warning. Every American generation before us faced and passed this test. Our charge is to do the same, proving that the United States can do what other civilizations could not—survive the ages—and bend the arc of the moral universe toward the value that is the real sinew of civic life: freedom.” ( )

“It’s like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak to find your elderly uncle running pantsless across the courtyard and cursing loudly about the cafeteria food, as worried attendants are trying to catch him.” A Warning by Anonymous ( )