A Team of Predators

"A team of predators" describes the infighting and dysfunction among the members of Trump's administration. Woodward devotes a great deal of the narrative to the details and effects of this dysfunction. By taking the reader into the meetings and discussions between Trump and his advisors, the reader gets to see this infighting from a front-row seat. After Reince Priebus resigns as White House Chief of Staff, he realized the full extent of the disorder in the Trump White House. Members of the administration reacted to the power vacuum that Trump's flawed leadership created to go after each other.

Woodward's book details the many divisions and rifts in the White House. Mattis and Tillerson went their own ways, and Bannon, who advocated a rigid policy of American nationalism and isolationism, was on his own, though he had Trump's ear some of the time. McMaster was left...