Publishers Weekly
06/29/2020
Former national security advisor Bolton (Surrender Is Not an Option) harps on his foreign policy pet peeves (Iranian aggression in the Middle East, North Korea's nuclear threat), critiques former colleagues (Jim Mattis, Nikki Haley), and defends his decision not to testify in the House impeachment inquiry in this lacerating yet tiresome slog through his time in the Trump administration. Readers eager to hear what Bolton has to say about the Ukraine pressure campaign (namely, that Mick Mulvaney probably came up with the idea of using security assistance as leverage against Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, and that the policy was "baked in" to White House dealings with Ukraine) will have to skip ahead to the last 50 pages. First, Bolton runs down seemingly every meeting, meal, phone call, and international summit of his 18-month tenure, touting his own achievements, such as pushing Trump to finally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, and blaming failures on a lack of policymaking structure within the White House and on Trump's vindictiveness, erraticism, and habit of forming competitive "bromances" with authoritarian leaders. The book's most serious allegations, including that Trump offered to "take care of things" when Turkish president Recep Erdogan complained about a U.S. Justice Department investigation, are buried within the avalanche of details. The bombshell to chaff ratio in this well-informed yet self-serving account is tilted punishingly in the wrong direction. (June)
From the Publisher
I can’t believe I’m saying this: it’s worse than I even imagined.” – Stephen Colbert
“As much as you think you know about the arrogance, vanity and sheer incompetence of Trump’s years in the White House, Bolton’s account will still astonish you... No wonder the White House was so determined to block this book.” – David Ignatius, Washington Post
"A scathing and revelatory account... indispensable, jaw-dropping, and specific...what a truth he offers us." – The New Yorker
“Bolton's bombshell book shows it's still possible to be shocked by Trump's presidency” – The Guardian
“Mr. Bolton’s volume is the first tell-all memoir by such a high-ranking official who participated in major foreign policy events and has a lifetime of conservative credentials. It is a withering portrait of a president ignorant of even basic facts about the world, susceptible to transparent flattery by authoritarian leaders manipulating him and prone to false statements, foul-mouthed eruptions and snap decisions that aides try to manage or reverse.” – The New York Times
“The most substantive, critical dissection of the president from an administration insider... lays out a long series of jarring and troubling encounters between the president, his top advisers and foreign leaders.” – Washington Post
“A book full of damning details” – The Economist
“Explosive” – Business Insider
“Devastating portrait” – Telegraph
“Eye-popping” – CNN
"Jarring" – Jake Tapper, CNN
"Shows the scale and depth of Trump’s depravity and corruption." – The Atlantic
"A service to the nation... There is no question that this book contains explosive revelations that could well have an impact on the election." – Thomas Wright, The Brookings Institute, The Atlantic
“The details are damning.” – Fareed Zakaria
“The most devastating indictment yet.” – Nicolle Wallace
“A harrowing portrait” – Mother Jones
"Absurdly entertaining" - Ben Domenech, The Federalist
“A riveting read” - Trevor Noah, The Daily Show
"The most important White House memoir yet to emerge from the Trump administration" – National Review
AudioFile Magazine
"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."
AUGUST 2020 - AudioFile
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, although the work could use an editor to tone down Bolton's ego and eliminate his self-serving anecdotes. As astounding as the numerous accounts of Trump's ineptitude, arrogance, and poor judgment is the backstabbing intrigue that permeates the White House. M.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-06-23
The latest tell-all—or, at any rate, tell-some—indictment of a dysfunctional presidency.
Bolton, a foreign policy hard-liner, writes that Donald Trump first courted him to serve as deputy secretary of state. Nothing doing, Bolton responded: “State could not be run successfully from that level.” It took back and forth before Bolton finally got to be in charge of something, named national security adviser. Given Trump’s contempt for the intelligence community, it stands to reason that Bolton’s job would be fraught, but he lasted a surprisingly long time—17 months, several lifetimes in the Trump administration. Bolton found allies and foes, but mostly the latter: He mistrusted Rex Tillerson and H.R. McMaster from the beginning while he suspects Mike Pompeo of negative leaks at the end of his tenure. But the author directs most of his ire toward Trump, and the book, while thoroughly self-serving—where was this information during impeachment proceedings?—delivers a damning portrait of a man quick to suck up to despots and seek their aid in holding onto his office. Instead of begging for China’s help in the coming election, as many media outlets portrayed a meeting with Xi Jinping, Bolton writes that Trump “stressed the importance of farmers, and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome.” Such muted statements, he writes, resulted from the government’s pre-publication review, which often amounted only to a directive to “take out the quotation marks.” Readers who supply the missing punctuation will find a Trump who is whiny, self-absorbed, unprepared, and spectacularly ill-informed at every turn—hardly breaking news. Notes Bolton in closing, though, it’s worth considering that a second-term Trump might be an unintended boon: “Democrats will find themselves far more pleased substantively with a ‘legacy’-seeking Trump…than conservatives and Republicans,” whose political coffins Trump would nail shut.
More confirmation of malfeasance than fresh news, but the message is clear: Voter, beware.