= CONTENTS 14.100 DAYS 185 ¥ 15. MANAFORT 196 : y Author’s Note 16. PECKER, COHEN, WEISSELBERG 209 17. MCCAIN, WOODWARD, ANONYMOUS 223 18. KAVANAUGH 234 19. KHASHOGGI 246 20, OCTOBER SURPRISES 257 21. NOVEMBER 6 268 22.SHUTDOWN 282 ah SEE WALL 893 Shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration as the forty-fifth president of EPILOGUE: THE REPORT 309 the United States, I was allowed into the West Wing as a sideline observer. My book Fire and Fury was the resulting account of the organizational ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 317 chaos and constant drama—more psychodrama than political drama—of INDEX 319 Trump’s first seven months in office. Here was a volatile and uncertain president, releasing, almost on a daily basis, his strange furies on the world, and, at the same time, on his own staff. This first phase of the most abnor- mal White House in American history ended in August 2017, with the departure of chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and the appointment of retired general John Kelly as chief of staff. This new account begins in February 2018 at the outset of Trumps second year in office, with the situation now profoundly altered. The pres- ident’s capricious furies have been met by an increasingly organized and methodical institutional response. The wheels of justice are inexorably turning against him. In many ways, his own government, even his own White House, has begun to turn on him. Virtually every power center left of the far-right wing has deemed him unfit. Even some among his own base find him undependable, hopelessly distracted, and in over his head. Never before has a president been under such concerted attack with such a limited capacity to defend himself. His enemies surround him, dedicated to bringing him down. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021122