James Mann is a Fellow-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. His books include The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power and Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet. (September 2018)
The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House
by Ben Rhodes
When we look back at the Obama administration today, it seems as if it took place in a different universe. In the era of Donald Trump, we take notice of habits and patterns in the Obama years that didn’t stand out much at the time. We took for granted, for …
The greatest damage done during Trump’s first year concerns neither domestic nor foreign policy, but something far deeper: it is the harm he has caused to America’s political system and to the democratic norms that underlie it. No evaluation of the impact Trump has had as president could be complete without addressing his attacks upon the rule of law, upon notions of political and racial tolerance, upon national unity, upon the freedom of the press, upon civil discourse, upon truth itself. The result has been to fray the bonds that hold American society together.
What does it mean to be an “adult” in Washington in general, or, in particular, under Donald Trump? What policies do the “adults” favor? Where do they come from, and what do they believe? Most importantly, what is the significance of the fact that most of Trump’s so-called grownups come from the military? To answer such questions, it helps to look at the history, both of the way the idea of “adults” has been used in Washington in the past and of the way military officers in the US have served in top civilian jobs.
