Bob Woodward and “Citizen Trump”

“President Trump was acting as the United States’ cheerleader, his Republican supporters argue. He was derelict in his duty to protect the American public, charge his Democratic opponents.”

Bob Woodward’s reporting helped to bring down one President. Now, in his book Rage, which was released yesterday, Woodward has exposed another. The difference this time is that we have President Trump’s own damning words on tape. Showman that he is, did President Trump think that he could trick Woodward into writing a favorable book? Did he believe that he—like Citizen Kane—could bend the public narrative, telling the reporter one thing and the public another?

The commentary that has accompanied recent headlines has largely fallen along the predictable partisan lines. President Trump says on Woodward’s tape that he knew in February of this year that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) was “deadly stuff” but that he has “always wanted to play it down…because I don’t want to create a panic.” President Trump was acting as the United States’ cheerleader, his Republican supporters argue. He was derelict in his duty to protect the American public, charge his Democratic opponents.

However, there is a more fulsome explanation than one rooted only in partisan ideology. As I examine in my new film Citizen Trump, President Trump’s missteps handling the pandemic are rooted in the celebrity path he has followed, as well as in the skills he leveraged in ascending to the highest political office in the land. It is a similar path to the one trod by the title character of his favorite movie, Citizen Kane.