‘I Alone Can Fix It’ Details Dark Days of Trump Administration
Book portrays WH riddled with chaos, lies, conspiracy theories
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I just finished reading back-to-back books about former President Donald Trump’s White House. The first one was “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” and I just completed Carole Leonnig and Phillip Rucker’s “I Alone Can Fix It.” That probably wasn’t a good idea. Reading two books about the team of grifters, conmen, and white nationalists who ran this country isn’t great for your psyche. I came away from the experience depressed. Right now, I’m reading a sports bio to cleanse my reading palate.
“I Alone Can Fix It” details the last two years of the Trump administration. During this time, Trump dealt disastrously with the coronavirus pandemic and the Capitol insurrection.
Common threads throughout the book are incompetence and selfishness. Several Trump White House staffers finally realize that he’s only in the presidency for himself. I don’t know why this was surprising to them. He told his lawyer, Michael Cohen, he saw running for the presidency as “one big infomercial.” Of course, he was only in it for himself! The question is, why did it take them so long to figure this out?
Milley compared the Trump White House’s lying to doublespeak found in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” After the insurrection, Milley addresses National Guard troops who are prepared to defend the Capitol and says of the attackers, “These guys are Nazis … these are like the guys we fought in World War II.”
Don’t trust the experts
Another theme running through the book is contempt for experts and mistrust of experienced government officials. For example, Olivia Troye, who has been all over the media talking about how Trump adviser Stephen Miller gummed up plans to evacuate Afghanistan citizens, was looked on with suspicion by Trumpists. According to the book, they considered her to be part of the “Deep State” because she had a background in government work.
