The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir

Trump’s National Security Advisor took detailed notes. The result is the most comprehensive and substantial account of the Trump Administration from a senior advisor who had served three previous presidents over 30 years, with stunning revelations about happened inside the most powerful room in the nation.

Bolton’s account starts with his long march to the West Wing as Trump and others woo him for the National Security job. The minute he lands, he has to deal with Syria’s chemical attack on the city of Douma, and the crises after that never stop. As he says in the opening pages, “If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk; all the while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and sheer amount of work; and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description, try something else.” The conflicts, ego and otherwise, are all there—from the upheaval in Venezuela, to the erratic and manipulative moves of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. But so too is the story of a chaotic White House and of a President with his own set a rules. “The differences between this presidency and previous ones I had served were stunning,” writes Bolton, who served Reagan, and George HW Bush and George W. Bush. His account makes that clear.

John Bolton is the former National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump. He served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005-2006. He has spent many years of his career in public service and held high-level positions in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush. Ambassador Bolton is also an attorney. From 1993 through 1999, he was a partner in the law firm of Lerner, Reed, Bolton & McManus. Ambassador Bolton was born in Baltimore in 1948. He graduated with a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School. He currently lives in Washington D.C.

THE ULTIMATE INSIDER ACCOUNT: Unlike other bestselling White House memoirs, this one was written by a seasoned public servant with a long habit of writing down conversations and with almost daily access to the President. So the book reads like a real West Wing, with dialogue from all the top players and world leaders, and a precise rendering of what went down. The facts speak for themselves.

A GREAT READ: While a White House memoir, Bolton’s book makes a powerful case for the deepening threats facing the United States and for how we should face them. But he also has a great eye for the Washington inside game, and his story is full of wit and wry humor about how he saw it played.