Team of Vipers [Paperback] Cliff Sims

Helps the reader to understand how team Trump functions, an insider view, must read for all trying to understand the functioning of this administration.

States matter of factly things as they happened during his association with Trump- before and after election and the subtle vying for power of people around the president.

Cliff Sims was a member of Trump's campaign team and then worked in the White House (WH) for over a year. He lasted a lot longer than many of the other original Trump campaign workers, in part because he was apparently better at staying out of the office rivalries that have decimated and distracted President Trump's staff during his first term in office. Ultimately, according to Sims, he was done-in by a nefarious John F. Kelly, who not only forced Sims to resign, but mendaciously torpedoed Sims’ attempt to accept a job offered by Secretary of State Pompeo to work on his staff.This book appears to be Sims' attempt at publicly exposing those he feels to have been the "bad actors" on the WH staff, i.e. the staff members who acted the most dishonestly, disingenuously, treacherously, and ineptly during Sim's tenure with the WH team. So, even though Simms claims to be trying to turn the other cheek as a Christian, this book seems to me to be an attempt at revenge. Nevertheless, I feel that Sims' feelings and observations about his experiences in the WH are worth telling, and constitutes an important historical record. If what he claims is true, that Woodward's and Wolff's books are mainly full of fabricated quotes and incidents, then Sims' book is likely the best book so far about the inner workings of President Trump's first year-and-a-half in office.Apparently, the media reports that some members of President Trump’s staff tried to derail his political agenda were often true. Sims doesn’t pull any punches in criticizing, with accompanying fascinating anecdotes, the staffers who he feels shouldn’t have ever been in the WH. These include:Rob Porter- Lied about the spousal abuse allegationsReince Priebus- Disloyal and incompetent; represented Republican National Committee (RNC) establishmentMadeleine Westerhout- Acted as a spy for certain staff cliques, including RNC loyalistsKatie Walsh- RNC establishment loyalistSean Spicer- Incompetent liarKellyanne Conway- Mercenary opportunist and huge leakerOmarosa- Unhinged drama queenPaula White- Evangelical charlatan in charge of Trumps Christian advisory boardJim Acosta- Not a staffer, but a CNN grandstander who appeared to be using his WH press pool job for personal aggrandizement rather than in an honest effort to report the newsMike Dubke- Incompetent Preibus allyMichael Short- RNC stoogeRaj Shah- RNC groupie and Preibus allyLindsay Walters- RNC loyalistJohn F. Kelly- The biggest villain in Sims’ book; described as an insecure, vindictive, dishonest, dishonorable, petty, paranoid, martinet who not only fired people on fabricated charges, but then tried to destroy their careers and reputationsMercedes Schlapp- Self-promoting charlatan and Kelly allyJoe Hagin, Zach Fuentes, Jordan Karem, Uttam Dhillon- Kelly’s evil minionsInterestingly, as far as I know, the only staffers on the list above still working at the WH are Westerhout and Schlapp.Sims praises other staffers, cabinet members, and Trump loyalists, saying, again with copious anecdotes, that their efforts and motivations were more competent and sincere, including: Hope Hicks, Sarah Sanders, Johnny McEntee, Keith Schiller, Ben Carson, Steven Mnuchin, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Marc Short, Rick Dearborn, Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, Andy Hemming, Jeff Sessions, Peter Navarro, the Secret Service, Anthony Scaramucci, Jason Miller, Steven Cheung, Andy Surabian, Kaelan Dorr, Stephanie Grisham, Steve Bannon (kind-of), Tony Sayegh, Josh Raffel, Justin Clark, Larry Kudlow, Brett O’Donnell, Mary Elizabeth Taylor, Matt Lloyd, and Andrew Giulianai.One of Sims’ major complaints is that President Trump is most at fault for the drama and conflict in his WH staff. According to Sims, Trump took mainly a hands-off approach to selecting and managing the staff, and that’s why antagonists like Kelly were allowed to sow so much disharmony and disorder in the WH.Ultimately, however, Sims’ book is about the majesty and magic of Trump’s election win and his attempts to fulfill ALL his campaign promises. As an inside look into how President Trump accomplished so many of his promises even with a staff in such disarray, this book is an invaluable record.By the way, Mr. Sims, if you’re reading this, what you should have done when you walked out of Uttam Dhillon’s office after he informed you that you never had a security clearance is gone straight to whichever inspector general’s (IG) office has jurisdiction over the White House staff. Your IG complaint likely would have set-off a chain reaction that would have gotten Kelly and his corrupt compatriots ejected from the White House sooner than they eventually were.

Do you want to know why things happened in the White House as it did in the first year of Donny's reign in America. It's all here, the back stabbing and planning against each other. Very interesting.

Really enjoyed this book. Not sure why Trump had to disparage the author. He was clearly there and close to the action. This isn't an anti-Trump diatribe - it's a balanced book that tells it warts and all. A fascinating and entertaining book. I've read them all on Trump. I didn't expect I'd learn much, but this does give a different and hugely enjoyable perspective. Good job!

This very personal and somewhat self-critical account of the author's time in the Trump White House provides the best insight into what is happening there. Although the book is very supportive of Trump and his policies and is very critical of those who are undermining him, I found it to be fascinating. Without intending to, the book describes what it is like to work in a chaotic office area for a boss that is not quite rational.

Cliff Sims' book is outstanding for the honest and fair way he represents his experiences in the White House. His views are understandably subjective but he's given me the most balanced insight into the people and inner workings of the administration that I've read. Well worth a read.