Summary

Chapter 16 focuses on Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director Comey. The President had become increasingly annoyed with Comey, seeing him as personally responsible for the legal and political trouble caused by the Russia investigation. He also noted that Comey was unpopular with Democrats because of his poor handling of the Clinton email investigation, thus he reasoned that firing Comey would be universally popular. Wolff argues that Trump’s gross miscalculation on this point indicates that he does not understand the role of institutions. In other words, the FBI would continue to exist and investigate Trump’s connection to Russia regardless of its director. Bannon and Priebus both tried to convince the President not to fire Comey, but Trump eventually cut himself off from everyone except Kushner and Ivanka and made the sudden decision to fire him on a Friday afternoon. This caught...