Woodward’s earlier book about the Trump White House, “Fear,” was dismissed by Trump and his allies as fake, because so much of its material came from anonymous sources. The public lies that contradict his private admissions to Woodward, his repeated dismissal of the seriousness of the virus and his cavalier disdain for masks have surely contributed to the American carnage that the virus has left in its wake, with millions infected and more than 190,000 dead. Trump told Woodward, for instance, in early February, that he knew the coronavirus spreads through the air and is far more lethal than the flu. The usual White House playbook to deny and denounce unflattering Trump stories can’t be used against “Rage,” because Trump himself, in his own voice, is the book’s main source. In what we have heard so far, the President does an excellent job of hanging himself with his own rope. President Donald Trump gave 18 on-the-record interviews for “Rage.” Woodward recorded almost all of them. Trump was not happy about the book, writing on Twitter two days after its release: “Bob Woodward’s badly written book is very boring & totally ‘obsolete.’ Didn’t even talk about the recent Middle East deal.It’s because of the tapes. military and top officials, and an accidental war with North Korea in 2017 was far more likely than most Americans knew. Also, per the book, Trump repeatedly denigrated the U.S. Others include that two of the administration’s top officials-James Mattis, who was Trump’s first defense secretary, and Dan Coats, the then-director of National Intelligence-believed Trump was “dangerous” and “unfit” for the presidency, and considered speaking out about this publicly.

However, Trump’s handling of the coronavirus is just one of many revelations within Rage. Woodward argues he had to verify the information first. Woodward himself faced criticism for not publishing this information earlier, an act that many argued could have shifted the trajectory of a pandemic which has now killed over 200,000 Americans. Rage began stirring controversy even before it was published when Woodward released interviews in which Trump admitted to downplaying the threat of the virus in public to avoid panic. “‘Rage’ is the most important book Simon & Schuster will publish this year,” S&S CEO Jonathan Karp told CNN.

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