[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-46169-en":3,"doc-seo-46169-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},46169,962075114765,"Quinn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd",1,"Story & Novel","The Room Where It Happened","The document is an excerpt that introduces the author’s perspective on serving as National Security Advisor and analyzing the dynamics of the Trump Administration’s early period. It discusses how turmoil, uncertainty, information overload, and personality conflicts shaped decision-making, and critiques simplistic narratives about the “axis of adults” and later “yes men.” It also explains institutional objectives for national security governance, the need for disciplined analysis and planning, and the disruptive impact of poor transition processes and persistent personnel turnover.","Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.  \nGet a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up  \nand see terms and conditions.  \nCLICK HERE TO SIGN UP  \nAlready a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in  \nyour inbox.  \nFor Gretchen and Jennifer Sarah  \nHard pounding, this, gentlemen. Let’s see who will pound  \nthe longest.  \n—THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,  \nRALLYING HIS TROOPS AT WATERLOO, 1815  \nCHAPTER 1  \nTHE LONG MARCH TO A WEST WING CORNER OFFICE  \nOne attraction of being National Security Advisor is the sheer multiplicity and volume of challenges that confront you. If you don’t like turmoil, uncertainty, and risk—all while being constantly overwhelmed with information, decisions to be made, and the sheer amount of work, and enlivened by international and domestic personality and ego conflicts beyond description—try something else. It is exhilarating, but it is nearly impossible to explain to outsiders how the pieces fit together, which they often don’t in any coherent way.  \nI cannot offer a comprehensive theory of the Trump Administration’s transformation because none is possible. Washington’s conventional wisdom on Trump’s trajectory, however, is wrong. This received truth, attractive to the intellectually lazy, is that Trump was always bizarre, but in his first fifteen months, uncertain in his new place, and held in check by an“axis of adults,” he hesitated to act. As time passed, however, Trump became more certain of himself, the axis of adults departed, things fell apart, and Trump was surrounded only by “yes men .”  \nPieces of this hypothesis are true, but the overall picture is simplistic. The axis of adults in many respects caused enduring problems not because they successfully managed Trump, as the High-Minded (an apt description I picked up from the French for those who see themselves as our moral betters) have it, but because they did precisely the opposite. They didn’t donearly enough to establish order, and what they did do was so transparently self-serving and so publicly dismissive of many of Trump’s very clear goals (whether worthy or unworthy) that they fed Trump’s already-suspicious mind-set, making it harder for those who came later to have legitimate  \npolicy exchanges with the President. I had long felt that the role of the National Security Advisor was to ensure that a President understood what options were open to him for any given decision he needed to make, and then to ensure that this decision was carried out by the pertinent bureaucracies. The National Security Council process was certain to be different for different Presidents, but these were the critical objectives the process should achieve.  \nBecause, however, the axis of adults had served Trump so poorly, he second-guessed people’s motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunningly uninformed on how to run the White House, let alone the huge federal government. The axis of adults is not entirely responsible for this mind-set. Trump is Trump. I came to understand that he believed he could run the Executive Branch and establish national-security policies on instinct, relying on personal relationships with foreign leaders, and with made-for-television showmanship always top of mind. Now, instinct, personal relations, and showmanship are elements of any President’s repertoire. But they are not all of it, by a long stretch. Analysis, planning, intellectual discipline and rigor, evaluation of results, course corrections, and the like are the blocking and tackling of presidential decision-making, the unglamorous side of the job. Appearance takes you only so far.  \nIn institutional terms, therefore, it is undeniable that Trump’s transition and opening year-plus were botched irretrievably. Processes th","cbCaioRTVyFBtEXp","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioRTVyFBtEXp","pdf",38885612,3,570,"English","en",105,"# Chapter 1\n## The long march to a West Wing corner office","[{\"question\":\"What challenges does the author associate with being National Security Advisor?\",\"answer\":\"The author highlights turmoil, uncertainty, risk, constant information overload, heavy workloads, and international and domestic personality and ego conflicts that are difficult to explain coherently to outsiders.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author evaluate the “axis of adults” explanation for early Trump behavior?\",\"answer\":\"The author says parts of the hypothesis are true but the overall picture is simplistic, arguing the “axis of adults” caused enduring problems by failing to establish order and by appearing transparently self-serving and dismissive of clear goals.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the author say is missing from the president’s approach to governance?\",\"answer\":\"The author 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