Front Row at the Trump Show

January 15, 2020
The chief White House and Washington correspondent for ABC provides a ringside seat to a disaster-ridden Oval Office. It is Karl to whom we owe the current popularity of a learned Latin term. Questioning chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, he followed up a perhaps inadvertently honest response on the matter of Ukrainian intervention in the electoral campaign by saying, "What you just described is a quid pro quo." Mulvaney's reply: "Get over it." Karl, who has been covering Trump for decades and knows which buttons to push and which to avoid, is not inclined to get over it: He rightly points out that a reporter today "faces a president who seems to have no appreciation or understanding of the First Amendment and the role of a free press in American democracy." Yet even against a bellicose, untruthful leader, he adds, the press "is not the opposition party." The author, who keeps his eye on the subject and not in the mirror, writes of Trump's ability to stage situations, as when he once called Trump out, at an event, for misrepresenting poll results and Trump waited until the camera was off before exploding, "Fucking nasty guy!"--then finished up the interview as if nothing had happened. Trump and his inner circle are also, by Karl's account, masters of timing, matching negative news such as the revelation that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election with distractions away from Trump--in this case, by pushing hard on the WikiLeaks emails from the Democratic campaign, news of which arrived at the same time. That isn't to say that they manage people or the nation well; one of the more damning stories in a book full of them concerns former Homeland Security head Kirstjen Nielsen, cut off at the knees even while trying to do Trump's bidding. No one's mind will be changed by Karl's book, but it's a valuable report from the scene of an ongoing train wreck.

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January 27, 2020
ABC News correspondent Karl (The Right to Bear Arms) offers a blow-by-blow chronicle of Donald Trump’s path to the White House in this detailed yet disappointing account that concludes two months before impeachment. Though Karl credits Trump with “pulling off the greatest political upset in American history” and carefully notes that all presidents have “bitterly complained” about their press coverage, he condemns the Trump administration for waging a “war on truth” and “pour rocket fuel” on America’s political divisions. His litany of evidence includes a 2013 TV interview in which Trump refused to take the “golden opportunity” to walk back claims that President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.; White House press secretary Sarah Sanders lying to reporters about air strikes against Syria; and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney admitting, in response to Karl’s question, that Ukrainian military aid had been withheld for political reasons, then denying the admission. Karl delivers a plethora of insider anecdotes, but his analysis of the administration’s impact on democratic norms feels shallow, and his tendency toward self-congratulation grates. (Is it really necessary to know that Anthony Scaramucci thought Karl’s exchange with Mulvaney over the Ukraine affair was “the question that saved America”?). Readers searching for headline-worthy insights into the Trump White House should look elsewhere. Agent: David Larabell, Creative Artists Agency.