Already much more fraught than anyone expected, 2020 is here. Potential war on the horizon, impeachment battles, and a fall election loom over the United States. The third year of the Trump presidency is coming to a close, and the fourth – hopefully, final – year of this administration promises to be as controversial and divisive as the first three. While I’m not a Trump supporter, I do have to thank him for igniting a newfound interest in how my government works and in history – both U.S. and European. The past twelve years have really felt as if I were living through historically important times. A time that will be written about hundreds of years from now, and I wonder if everyday people like me felt the same at the time of the Constitutional Convention or the Gettysburg Address. My interest in how we, as a nation, got to this moment requires diving into history. But one thing I didn’t think about was how the modern presidency came to be. Where did all the staff come from, how did the presidential “norms” arise? Enter Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes, editors of Lawfare, to analyze the Trump presidency with respect to the history of the executive branch. Unmaking the Presidency examines Trump as president in light of historical trends and how he both fulfills some and deviates from others. Unmaking the Presidency is a close examination of Trump as the executive with in-depth research to support their arguments and conclusions. I highly recommend this book to all voters, regardless of political affiliation.
Disclaimer: I received an electronic advanced reading copy (ARC) for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine alone.
TL;DR
Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes’ Unmaking the Presidency analyzes the Trump presidency by comparing and contrasting it with previous administrations. Highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary American politics.
From the Publisher
The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency
The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies.
From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage? As editors of the “invaluable” (The New York Times) Lawfare website, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have attracted a large audience to their hard-hitting and highly informed commentary on the controversies surrounding the Trump administration. In this book, they situate Trump-era scandals and outrages in the deeper context of the presidency itself. How should we understand the oath of office when it is taken by a man who may not know what it means to preserve, protect, and defend something other than himself? What aspects of Trump are radically different from past presidents and what aspects have historical antecedents? When has he simply built on his predecessors’ misdeeds, and when has he invented categories of misrule entirely his own?
By setting Trump in the light of history, Hennessey and Wittes provide a crucial and durable account of a presidency like no other.
Review: Unmaking the Presidency
Unmaking the Presidency analyzes the Trump presidency from his communication to his oath to the pardon powers to his lies. The book contrasts what Hennessey and Wittes are calling the personal or “expressive presidency” with the policy/process presidency. They lay out numerous examples of why Trump is an expressive president and his immediate predecessors fell into the policy/process group. But where the book truly shines is their explanation for how the processes that constrain the policy president arose. They trace the presidency from George Washington to Trump using many examples to state why and how presidential “norms” came into being. Most important, they show that what we call “norms” are self imposed, and the president – whoever that may be – makes the decision to abide by them or not.
Hennessey and Wittes, in this book, are only concerned with the executive branch as laid out in Article II of the U.S. constitution. They show that the executive branch is unique as compared to the other branches because its power is invested is one person, a “unitary executive.” They show the pros and cons of the unitary executive in a balanced way. This thread makes its way through the book, and it turns the book from informative to a horror story. If someone who was competent used Trump’s tactics, the U.S. could be in real trouble. The authors highlight how Trump’s tactics create chaos within his own administration. His twitter account often contradicts press releases and his cabinet. His insistence on fake news means that nothing is real, and his choosing to fight the press from the start of his administration onward prioritizes ego over governance. Hennessey and Wittes blend analyses with historical examples and quotes to build solid arguments about Trump’s unique presidency.
Analyzing Chaos
By setting up the categories of personal and process, the authors created a pretty solid framework to analyze the chaos that is this administration. For the personal or expressive presidency, the focus is the person in the office, not public service. Their whims, pet peeves, and, ultimately, character dictate policy. Their staff is expected to support and abide by presidential impulse. The expressive presidency is as close to a monarch as the constitution allows. This president believes that his wishes should be law and that “norms” and constitutional checks don’t apply to him. The process presidency works within the checks and balances of the constitution, but it also functions within the bureaucratic framework that’s built up around the executive branch with each successive administration. The process president knows that these “norms” and procedures allow them to navigate the complexity of government without the legal challenges the personal president faces. To oversimplify, the personal versus process dynamic is best described as chaos versus order.
The Trump presidency is defined by chaos as Trump tweets policy decisions that take even his staff by surprise. This chaos often puts him at odds with his own executive branch. The authors highlight this with a number of important examples. Hennessey and Wittes show how unelected bureaucrats enact policy that seem to be in defiance of the White House (see discussion of Nikki Haley and James Mattis). Trump’s policy by tweet means he doesn’t coordinate with the people who should back him up and support him. One has to wonder if anyone knows what’s going on day to day.
Analyzing Trump Speak
My favorite section of the book analyzed how Trump communicates. Not only do they address how he’s weaponized presidential speech but also how his direct line to the public pressures his own party in unforeseen ways. They make the claim that Trump’s unpolished tweets and rhetoric are a purposeful strategy, and I agree with them here. But what I found most interesting is that they point out Trump’s rhetoric is never intended to persuade. He commands, demands, promises, and declares success. They claim that he’s using rhetoric to engage his constituency, to keep them motivated and active. It’s a bold argument. I’m still thinking about it and reading Trump’s speech with this in mind. (I don’t like to listen to him speak; so, I read transcripts or quotes.)
In addition, Hennessey and Wittes describe the history of presidential communication from George Washington to Roosevelt’s fireside chats to Reagan the Great Communicator. They show how presidential speech has not only increased in frequency but also is more and more a direct line to the voter. Hennessey and Wittes claim that Trump is an extreme endpoint of the historical trend with regards to presidential speech. While they show that he’s putting his own “innovations” on presidential speech, like other recent presidents, he’s speaking more often and with less sophistication. Most U.S. voters know that politicians, in general, and presidents, specifically, speak more in sound bites than speeches dedicated to policy. The authors reference a study that shows presidential sentences have even shortened. Policy and plans have gone by the wayside while rhetorical flourishes, promises, and, now, attacks have risen to take their place. However, they also point out how he’s accelerating these trends as well. Trump’s speech is ubiquitous because he’s flooding the media with tweets, calls into Fox, gives interviews, and just grabs all the attention he can.
I found this analysis fascinating. For me, this chapter alone was worth the price of the book. This level of analysis made it easier to see how Trump got elected and how he keeps his 40% approval rating.
Research and Citations
I increasingly rate books that rely on history by the notes at the end of the book. In my ARC, the kindle shows 40% of the book as notes. Unmaking the Presidency is well researched with strong supporting citations. They are peppered liberally throughout each chapter. Never before have I wanted to read the Federalist papers, but after finishing this, I may put them on my to be read pile.
A Long Position Paper
Unmaking the Presidency is an excellent book. However, it reads a bit dry. It put me in the mind of a position paper or a very casual legal brief. This tone worked for me because the writing attempts objectivity, as much as objectivity is possible. They are dealing with the subject at hand free of their personal feelings.
It is also not a Trump bashing book, which I appreciate. Though, I’m sure partisans will disagree. The dry academic tone will be interpreted by the Right as media elites hating Trump for winning. While hard core Lefties will wonder why they’re giving Trump any credit at all. When this happens, the authors should take pride knowing that they struck the correct balance.
Conclusion
Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have delivered an excellent analysis of the Trump presidency in light of his predecessors. They’ve highlighted trends in the modern presidency that led to Trump and where he’s deviated towards something new. It’s a book that teaches us about the modern bureaucracy built up around the presidency, and why those layers are necessary. The authors seem to view the Trump presidency as one of changes to the office and its powers. 2020 will show if the voters accept or reject those changes. Unmaking the Presidency argues for a return to a process-focused executive. Hopefully, the voters listen.
Unmaking the Presidency by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes is available from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux on January 21st, 2020.