A Review of Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig’s — A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America

We are a government of men and not laws, it has no force until people enforce it.

William Galston, a Brookings Institution senior fellow, said that “we are a government of men and not law.” It has no force until people enforce it. That is the underlying theme of Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig’s A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America. The test is how far can one person, in this case a self-declared stable genius who is the president of the world’s longest running democracy, repeatedly stretch or ignore the legal norms of a democratic government before a breaking point is reached? The current Republican controlled Senate Trial of President Donald J. Trump will answer that question.

Rucker and Leonnig interviewed more than 200 sources — most on condition of anonymity. Trump turned down their request to be interviewed. Their chronological account of his first term in office is an insider’s view of what they describe as his “vain glorious pursuit of power…”

The universal value of the Trump administration was loyalty…” According to the authors, not to the country or its laws but to him personally. Among multiple examples, one that stood out for me was his attack on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This law does not allow US companies, like real estate developers, such as himself, to bribe foreign governments to secure special services for their business. He asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “to get rid of that law”. Tillerson said he’d have to work with Congress. Unsatisfied, Trump turned to his senior policy advisor, Stephen Miller, to draft an Executive Order repealing the law.

Trump besides demanding loyalty, he delighted in abusing those whom he felt resisted to his proposals. For instance, he ridiculed national security advisor General H.R. McMaster’s work performance in front others White House staff for delivering boring briefings with too much detailed paperwork. McMaster’s aid said, “The president doesn’t fire people, he just tortures them until they’re willing to quit.” Both Tillerson and General McMaster were finally pushed out.

Trump wants loyalty to extended to his staff and federal executive agencies, like the Justice Department, which he referred to as “my” Trump Justice Department. He couldn’t understand why it would not…