Reading The Fifth Risk a second time it felt more like the series of Vanity Fair articles it stemmed from than an organized book of its own. It was good though, and it piqued my interest about other cabinet members and their departments.

The Best People has the most of the answer to those queries. Alexander Nazaryan, a regular contributor to Newsweek, shows the reader what happened in the other departments from the time when Trump’s “beachhead” group landed in the departments and who their secretaries were, to when that first “best” leader fell from grace. Most of the original cabinet secretaries and their departments are covered to some degree, but not all.

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The Best People: Trump’s Cabinet and the Siege on Washington
by Alexander Nazaryan
2019 / 305 pages
read by Robert Faaas – 9h 15m
rating: 9.5
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This group of “best people” seems to have one similarity – they’re supporters of the Trump agenda – with one first goal; they are to get rid of anything from the Obama era. Also, for the most part, they are rich by inheritance with upscale education and some political experience.

Naroyan writes well and he’s seriously opposed to Trump but not blindly. This is a very good look inside the lives of the Cabinet members and their respective departments.

Michael Lewis wrote a fine book with The Fifth Risk but it was basically 3 related essays focusing on only three departments and tied up with a Prologue. The Best People develops the same general idea with more departments.

If you’re interested in reading about the current administration’s journey this is a good one to add to your collection.