Carol Leonnig Books

The first months of the Trump administration unfolded like a constant storm. The transition, which should have been a period of careful planning, was instead marked by confusion and rivalry. There was no unified structure guiding newcomers into the responsibilities of governing. Longstanding civil s...

From A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

One of the defining stories we uncovered occurred in July 2017 within the Pentagon’s secure conference room, known as “the Tank.” Senior military leaders gathered to instruct President Trump on America’s global alliances, hoping to ground his approach in strategy rather than impulse. They displayed ...

From A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

Early 2020 began almost quietly inside the West Wing. Reports from abroad spoke of a new respiratory virus spreading across Wuhan, China, but Trump’s inner circle, largely focused on re-election strategy, saw it as distant noise. Leonnig and Rucker reconstruct those pivotal weeks with clarity and te...

From I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year

When the pandemic became impossible to dismiss, Trump convened the coronavirus task force, ostensibly to demonstrate command. In reality, Leonnig and Rucker reveal, it became a stage for daily conflict. Fauci personified empirical restraint; Birx, professional composure wrapped around exhaustion; an...

From I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year

Great institutions often begin not in glory but in emergency. The Secret Service was created in 1865 at a time when the United States was emerging from the Civil War with a shattered economy and a currency system vulnerable to widespread counterfeiting. Its original mission was not presidential prot...

From Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service

Charisma can be dangerous when it outruns discipline. During John F. Kennedy’s presidency, the Secret Service faced a modern celebrity president who embraced openness, spontaneity, and visible public contact. Kennedy’s style energized the country, but it also made agents uneasy. He preferred open ca...

From Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service