Opinion | Woodward book and anonymous White House staffer show US crisis goes deeper than an erratic president – America is an empire in decline

Bob Woodward, with Carl Bernstein, did more than anyone else to expose the misdeeds of US president Richard Nixon and bring about his downfall. Now, 45 years later, Woodward is in full spate with explosive claims against President Donald Trump in his book, Fear: Trump in the White House. His basic charge is that Trump is unfit to be president and is destroying America, democracy and any claims by the US to be a leader in global affairs.

Then, an anonymous op-ed writer in The New York Times, who claimed to be a senior White House official and “part of the resistance inside the Trump administration”, added fuel to Woodward’s fire.

The danger is that in the excitement of the daily turmoil, the important issues might be forgotten. For example: how broken is the US claim to be a democracy? What powers do a president or government get by winning an election, and what are the best checks and balances to keep a democracy democratic? How is Trump changing America’s place in the world, and with what consequences?

Anonymous in the White House was damning of Trump: “The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making … The president’s leadership style … is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.”

The critical official is not one of Washington’s leftist chattering classes. Indeed, she or he complains that the “bright spots” of Trump’s rule – “effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more” – have been spoiled by the president’s behaviour. The official complains about Trump’s affinity for autocrats, like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, and lack of support for America’s steadfast allies.

Trump slams NYT’s op-ed as ‘gutless’