The Fifth Risk

“Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”

This tweet from Donald Trump was sent exactly one week after the election and received over 100,000 likes. Lewis selects it as the epigraph to The Fifth Risk to introduce the approach taken to filling positions inside the Cabinet and their respective departments. Ultimately, Lewis indicts Trump as the one responsible for the lack of preparedness in every member of his administration, and he also calls out Trump for his desire to remain ignorant, which is seen in his decision to cut funding for research. Lewis also counters Trump’s claim that appointing administrators to the Cabinet was a “very organized process,” as we see in the fact that so few staffers showed up to meet with their outgoing counterparts in the weeks following the election.

“Most of the big problems inside the U.S. government were of the practical management sort and had nothing to do with political ideology.”

Lewis’s book is not meant to be partisan, and he notes critiques of both the Bush and the Obama transitions into office in the Preface. Rather, his main argument is about project management and how the Trump administration did not take steps to prepare to run the government. He also uses this quote to introduce the importance of a smooth transition into office after a new election, believing that it can alleviate some of the issues that hinder productivity within the government.