Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A veteran Washington, D.C., reporter assesses Donald Trump's first year as president."The difficulty in writing a book about what actually happened during Trump's first year is you write in a frenzied state of dread," says CBS News chief White House correspondent Garrett (The Enduring Revolution: How the Contract with America Continues to Shape the Nation, 2005, etc.). "What the @#%* is next? Is what I'm writing what really matters?" The author examines the Trump phenomenon and takes an early stab at identifying 10 presidential actions likely to have a "lasting impact." He seeks to be "credible, balanced, and nuanced," noting both the "unadulterated love" of supporters who believe Trump "says things that need to be said" and the abhorrence of critics who find his "belligerence," "indifference" to facts, and TV-animated consciousness make him "exhausting to the soul and corrosive to the spirit." As Garrett writes, "Trump is recklessly authentica living, breathing, orangish and hair-sprayed Rorschach test of what early 21st-century America wants and expects from politics and the presidency." The author devotes a detailed chapter to each important Trump action, including his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, the travel ban, his "malicious" criticism of federal law enforcement, and his firing of FBI director James Comey. Other chapters focus on the potential of Trump's Saudi Arabia visit to "realign" the Middle East, his failure to repeal Obamacare, the "haunting racial overtones" of separations of border-crossing families and remarks on "shithole" countries, his confronting North Korea, the elimination of 879 federal regulations, and tax reform. Billed as a disruptor, Trump is "a reliable, pliable conservative ideologue on about every issue but trade." Garrett refuses to speculate on collusion: "I still don't know the bottom line of the Russian story." Some readers may be taken aback by his belief that media-hungry Trump merely "pretends to hate reporters" and his answer to the query, "is Trump a racist? No one can know but Trump."This generally thoughtful analysis is especially good on Trump's "coarsening influence on political dialogue." Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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A political journalist since 1990, Garrett (The Enduring Revolution: The Inside Story of the Republican Ascendancy and Why It Will Continue) is most notable as a White House correspondent, first for Fox News and now at CBS News. All his experience, however, did not prepare him for President Donald Trump, whom he considered "a silly reality TV celebrity running a silly campaign for the presidency." This book rehashes the Trump administration's "searing and noisy" first year, which included consequential policy changes in deregulation, taxes, judicial appointments, and immigration, alongside the firing of FBI director James Comey and the ongoing investigation into Russian electoral interference. Garrett's ruminative prolog, at turns incisive and disjointed, gives way to chapters dedicated to single events or topics taken from current headlines. If journalism is the first draft of history, then works like this are the second: more expansive and detailed than typical newspaper stories but destined to be quickly outdated. VERDICT Less Fire and Fury and more Bob Woodward, this title's success will depend on readers' willingness to relive 2017 in American politics.-Chad Comello, Morton Grove P.L., IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.