What do Dick Cheney and Rahm Emanuel have in common? Aside from polarizing personalities, both served as chief of staff to the president of the United States—as did Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta, and a relative handful of others. The chiefs of staff, often referred to as "the gatekeepers," wield tremendous power in Washington and beyond; they decide who is allowed to see the president, negotiate with Congress to push POTUS's agenda, and—most crucially—enjoy unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks.
Through extensive, intimate interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker’s expert managing of the White House, the press, and Capitol Hill paved the way for the Reagan Revolution—and, conversely, how Watergate, the Iraq War, and even the bungled Obamacare rollout might have been prevented by a more effective chief.
Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, The Gatekeepers offers an essential portrait of the toughest job in Washington.
This book couldn’t be more timely: As Whipple argues, from the beginning Donald Trump’s presidency has been a textbook case of how NOT to run a government. From botched executive orders to internecine warfare among the senior White House staff, the Trump administration has been marked by dysfunction and disarray. As White House chief of staff, it is Reince Priebus’s responsibility to communicate the president’s message clearly – it is not the press secretary’s or the director of communications (a job still unfilled in the Trump White House) or anyone else’s. It is also Priebus’s job to make sure that the president, the Defense Secretary and Secretary of State are on the same page. So far it’s not happening. In The Gatekeepers, Whipple explains how every president needs an empowered chief of staff in order to govern effectively. This is especially true for an outsider president like Trump, with no governing experience. As Whipple’s book shows, modern history is littered with the wreckage of presidencies who failed to understand this lesson. By contrast, every successful president has understood the importance of a strong chief (Ronald Reagan knew that he needed a consummate Washington insider, James Baker, in order to get things done).
From Watergate to the Iran-contra affair to the Iraq War to the bungled roll-out of Obamacare, Whipple brings fresh insights that he can discuss in an interview could not be more important or timely right now.