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.
... [an] important new book ... Wittes and Hennessey...treat us to a wide-ranging and fascinating collection of contextual history. Each chapter is a smorgasbord ... historical support for the book’s conclusions makes for an entertaining and enlightening read. There are many good tidbits ... In an important way, this book is not only historical analysis but also an erudite, though not especially legal, brief advocating against a second Trump term. It is a worthy read from two fine and relevant minds.
Far more than a simple recounting of Trumpian outrages, however, the authors present a sobering case for how the current president is altering the fabric of the office itself, possibly for keeps ... The authors deliberate this question in engrossing detail, with each chapter illuminating the historical, legal, political, and cultural aspects of a presidential norm into which this commander-in-chief has thrown a hand grenade.
... isn’t just another compendium of insider gossip and bumbling treachery. The authors offer something more sobering, more analytical and, at this point, more revealing ... The book isn’t the work of bleeding-heart insurgents; the authors are national security pundits, and Wittes is famously a friend and confidant to the former F.B.I. director James Comey ... the authors are earnest and methodical — and the case they make is scarier for it .
