The Tribune

Bob Woodward is 75-years-old. He grew up west of Chicago, the son of an Illinois judge and graduated from Yale in 1965. After five years in the U.S. Navy, some spent at sea, he turned down an acceptance to study at Harvard Law School to start in journalism. Although his application was initially deferred, he was later accepted as a reporter for the Washington Post in 1971.

The following year, he and colleague Carl Bernstein were assigned to cover a “third rate burglary” at the fancy Watergate apartment complex along the Potomac River in Washington, DC.

Eighteen books including a dozen bestsellers later, Woodward has won two Pulitzer Prizes, has been married three times, has a daughter born 22 years ago, and is still telegenic, though not as much as the actor Robert Redford, who played him in the 1976 movie All The President’s Men.

His reporting on the Watergate scandals that brought down the Richard Nixon presidency has been hailed as possibly the most distinguished journalism in American history.

In his books and newspaper stories chronicling presidents since Nixon, Woodward has a Robert Mueller-like reputation for thoroughness, accuracy and integrity.

His books are generally regarded as unimpeachably objective.

So when Woodward’s most recent book appeared last week, it was greeted with much fanfare. “Fear: Trump in the White House” has quickly surged to the top of the bestseller lists.

Political observers are treating as truth the information in the book, which Woodward is dutifully publicising with media appearances.

One of these occurred when Woodward appeared on the highly respected Public Broadcasting System programme Washington Week. In a discussion with Washington Post White House correspondent Robert Costa, Woodward discussed Trump and his presidency.

Costa led off by asking what had most surprised Woodward as he researched the book. “I was stunned by the degree to which his staff keeps trying to bring Trump into the political mainstream,” Woodward said, amazement still clear in his face. “Trump appears to rule outside the law.

“I was also startled to hear, and observe in his tweets and speeches, how little the president’s beliefs have evolved over the past 30 years or so.” Trump does seem to believe stuff that has had little validity for decades.

Woodward said Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis has become the steward of American trade, security and special international relationships. He cited an incident during the ongoing Trump tap dance with notoriously unreliable North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. “At one point,” Woodward reported, “Trump was threatening to pull out all American dependents from South Korea. No one knew how Kim would react, but Kim could logically see this as a prelude to armed invasion, and who knew how he would respond to such a provocation? As the Pentagon deflected this erratic presidential impulse, it amounted to an administrative coup d’etat. ‘We have to save the country,’ an official told me.”

Woodward said that when Trump imposed steel tariffs on China and threatened others, “everyone knew it was a mistake”.

Trump’s assertions that Syrian President Assad and Venezuelan President Maduro should be assassinated were other impulses that Woodward reported had been stymied by administration officials who feared their consequences for the U.S.

The Mueller investigation seems to exert an almost uncanny effect on Trump and his administration, Woodward said. “I’m frankly amazed,” he reported. “It feels like Trump is tied up and paralysed” by the Mueller probe.

For Woodward, the challenges presented by Trump are unique and unprecedented in American history. “This is a president with no operating theory. There is no team of wise, trusted advisers. There seems to be little if any collaboration with other nations or even American political leaders. A leader must listen to others, but there is scant evidence that Trump does so.

“You simply cannot run a complex country like the United States on untruth. This is a genuinely troubling time,” Woodward concluded.

“Former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater famously told Nixon ‘there have been too many lies, too many crimes.’ Nixon resigned the next day. It makes me wonder, where is Trump’s tipping point?”

Woodward certainly helped bring down a flawed American president 45 years ago.

Will history repeat itself?