Narrator: On the morning of July 25, 2019, President Donald J. Trump placed a call from the White House residence to Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky. To the officials listening in, the conversation that followed was not a standard diplomatic exchange. Instead, they heard Trump pressure his foreign counterpart to investigate a political rival, Joe Biden, explicitly asking him to "do us a favor though." One aide who heard the call described it as "crazy," "frightening," and a clear criminal act. This single phone call, born from a president who felt vindicated and unrestrained after the Mueller investigation, would trigger a whistleblower complaint and ultimately lead to his impeachment. How did the American presidency arrive at such a perilous moment? In their book, I Alone Can Fix It, journalists Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig provide a meticulously reported account of the chaos, power struggles, and institutional decay that defined Trump's catastrophic final year, revealing a leader who governed not for the country, but for the preservation of his own power.

Narrator: From the very beginning, Donald Trump’s leadership was defined by a singular, solipsistic principle: absolute personal loyalty. This was established on the night he accepted the Republican nomination in 2016, when he stood on a stage he helped design and declared, "I alone can fix it." This wasn't just a campaign slogan; it was the governing tenet of his entire presidency. The book explains that Trump viewed the government and its institutions not as instruments of public service, but as tools for his own self-promotion and protection.

This demand for fealty created a toxic culture within the administration. Experienced professionals, often referred to as the "adults in the room," joined the administration believing they could temper Trump's worst impulses. However, they were systematically worn down by what they saw as the impropriety and illegality of his ideas. One by one, those who challenged him or prioritized their duty to the Constitution over their loyalty to the president were either forced out or resigned in frustration. As one senior official described the dynamic, it was like "a senior-level cabinet playing Whac-A-Mole" with a president who had "horrible instincts." This exodus of expertise left a vacuum, which was soon filled by enablers who were more willing to carry out his directives, no matter how reckless.

Narrator: The Trump administration was born in chaos, a direct result of a campaign that never truly expected to win. The transition period was not a structured process of vetting and policy planning, but what one advisor called a scene from "the Jabba the Hutt bar in Star Wars." In this environment, loyalty was the most valuable currency.

The appointment of Michael Flynn as National Security Advisor serves as a prime example. Rucker and Leonnig document how Ivanka Trump casually offered Flynn any job he wanted, simply because he had been loyal. This happened despite stark warnings from figures like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who told Trump that Flynn was a "horrific choice" and would "get you in trouble." Even President Obama, in his post-election meeting with Trump, specifically advised against hiring Flynn. Trump ignored them all. This pattern of prioritizing loyalty and image—what Trump called the "casting call" approach to staffing—over competence and experience set the stage for a dysfunctional administration, leading to ethical scandals and national security crises that would plague the presidency from its earliest days.

Narrator: Trump’s presidency was characterized by a relentless assault on the very institutions designed to hold power in check. He viewed the Justice Department not as an independent body, but as his personal law firm, and he expected its leaders to protect him. This worldview collided with reality when Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.

The book details Trump's explosive reaction. He summoned his White House Counsel, Don McGahn, and screamed at him for failing to stop the recusal. In a moment of raw frustration, Trump lamented, "Where is my Bobby Kennedy? Where’s my Eric Holder? Where’s my Roy Cohn?" He fundamentally misunderstood that the Attorney General's duty is to the law, not the president. He longed for a "fixer" like Roy Cohn, his notoriously unethical former lawyer, who would prioritize his personal interests above all else. This fury at Sessions for upholding departmental rules marked a turning point, signaling Trump's willingness to dismantle any institutional norm that stood in his way.

Narrator: As Trump grew more volatile, a quiet resistance formed within his own administration. His most senior national security advisors, including Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, became so alarmed by the president's ignorance of history and global affairs that they staged an intervention.

In July 2017, they gathered Trump and other top officials in the Pentagon's secure conference room, known as "the Tank," for a tailored tutorial on America's role in the world. They used maps and charts to explain why alliances like NATO and trade deals were vital to U.S. security and prosperity. Trump, however, was dismissive. He called the war in Afghanistan a "loser war" and berated the assembled generals, calling them "dopes and babies" and stating, "I wouldn't go to war with you people." The meeting was a disaster. Tillerson was so disgusted that he was later heard calling the president a "fucking moron." This event reveals the profound disconnect between Trump and his own experts and the desperate, often futile, efforts by those around him to prevent his impulses from becoming catastrophic policy.

Narrator: The departure of restraining voices like Mattis and Tillerson created an administration of enablers, leaving Trump feeling liberated to follow his instincts without challenge. This new reality culminated in the Ukraine scandal. Feeling he had been exonerated by the Mueller report, Trump saw no reason to hold back. The book explains that in his July 25, 2019, call with President Zelensky, Trump was not just "winging it"; he was executing a deliberate pressure campaign, conceived with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to benefit his 2020 reelection campaign.

He had systematically removed the guardrails. There was no John Kelly to snatch the phone, no H.R. McMaster to warn of the geopolitical consequences. Surrounded by loyalists, Trump felt empowered to leverage nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid to pressure a foreign power into investigating his political rival. The officials who listened to the call were horrified, recognizing it as a blatant abuse of power. It was the act of an unrestrained president who believed, as he had declared years earlier, that he alone could fix it—and that he was above the law.

Narrator: The central takeaway from I Alone Can Fix It is that American democracy is not a self-perpetuating machine; it is a fragile system that relies on the integrity of the individuals sworn to uphold it. Rucker and Leonnig document how one president’s transactional and solipsistic worldview subjected the nation's institutions to an unprecedented stress test, pushing them to their breaking point.

The book leaves the reader with a chilling question about the future: What happens when the norms of governance are shattered? It serves as a powerful reminder that the guardrails of democracy—the rule of law, a free press, and the public servants who honor their oaths—are only as strong as the people willing to defend them against a leader who believes he is the only authority that matters.