By Tevi Troy
Book Review By Michele Justic
The first Trump-Biden debate of 2020 grabbed the nation’s attention as a dramatic example of the polarized fighting between left and right on the political scene. Would it surprise you to learn fighting is prevalent within political camps as well? In Fight House, presidential scholar Tevi Troy draws back the curtains of the Oval Office for readers to discover the division within the ranks that can often lead to the downfall of the whole presidency.
Political rivalries have existed since George Washington’s presidency, and while only the Hamilton–Burr feud ended in gunfire, as cabinets grew, so did the multitude of tensions. Cursing, quitting, backstabbing — many have witnessed such immaturity on Donald Trump’s primetime television show “The Apprentice.” Many more witnessed it on the national stage with the positions of chief of staff, national security adviser, press secretary, economic adviser, counsel, and communications director changing hands in one term under Donald Trump. Is staff turnover on the executive level a sign of a dysfunctional administration or par for the course? Troy delves into history, beginning with Harry Truman, to answer that question.
Presidential tolerance for conflict, internal ideological disagreement, and challenges to the established order of doing things have challenged the staff of each administration. The JFK-LBJ-Nixon presidencies reflect a pattern of insecurities devolving into jealousies and infighting, culminating in infamous scandal. Behind John F Kennedy’s easy smile, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (or Rufus Cornpone as he was called by detractors) and Attorney General and presidential brother Bobby Kennedy (or Sonny Boy as he was called by LBJ) would trade barbs in the public arena after perceived ego-bruisings. When Johnson needed to assume power after the assassination, he made up for his unpopular standing with a tight rein on staff which prevented him from accepting expert opinions on the Vietnam War. Though elected to bring change, Richard Nixon brought more infighting between National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and Secretary of State William Rogers. His warring aides approach encouraged intellectual input leading to successes in China and the Middle East but also encouraged many leaks to the press which aroused enough suspicion to eventually orchestrate the Watergate break-in.
Respect for the presidency continued to dwindle with the loosely run Ford and Carter administrations until Ronald Reagan ushered in a new era of leadership. Chief of Staff James Baker, Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Deaver, and adviser Ed Meese formed a tight troika after squashing former trusted advisers such as John Sears and Al Haig with almost frat house type of pranks complete with gorilla costumes. In a 1986 Fortune magazine cover story titled, “What Managers Can Learn From Manager Reagan,” Reagan advises, “I believe that you surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the overall policy that you’re decided upon is being carried out.”
The George Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, while appearing as different as possible, similarly reflect the underlying conflict within the parties as a whole. That conflict led to seeming schizophrenic domestic and foreign policies.
Troy brings the most insight to the junior Bush administration review, where he served as deputy assistant and then acting assistant to the president for domestic policy followed by a successful tenure as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Troy notes that before assuming a position for the Bush administration, he asked a friend from the Clinton White House for advice. Troy was told, “Watch your back.” While this may have reflected previous administrations, Troy notes the advice was unneeded in Bush’s domestic policy arena but would have been needed on the national security team. Karl Rove reported that Bush team members “can go to the Oval Office and advocate a perspective diametrically opposed to the point of view of the person on the sofa across from them.” On the national security side, Condoleeza Rice was charged with harnessing the differing temperaments and opinions of the hawkish Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and the dovish Secretary of State Colin Powell. Among the very real consequences of this disunity, Troy argues that Iraq descending into civil war could have potentially been avoided by cooperation between State and Defense.
The electorate chose a different path with No Drama Obama, about whom speechwriter David Litt recalls, “Obama’s process was defined not by infighting or caution but by an ironclad if unwritten rule: Everyone stayed in their lane.” Staff had clear roles and purposes with the exception of Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, known by some as “The Night Stalker,” whose opinion seemed to supersede all others.
Readers will enjoy this walk down memory lane featuring many frenemies and some knock-down fights. Troy conveys his message through detailed and often humorous historical surveys and also summarizes with conclusions after each chapter and charts at the end of the book. He used a similar reader-friendly approach in his other books: What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, Intellectuals and the American Presidency: Philosophers, Jesters, or Technicians?, and Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management in the Oval Office.
