The Epilogue returns us to the Prologue. To the big questions as they pertain to leadership and followership. To leaders and their followers. To what is the role of and the responsibility of followers who find themselves in situations that are uncomfortable. That are uncomfortable because their leaders, those more highly positioned then they, are either incompetent, or immoral, or both. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings,” wrote Shakespeare in “Julius Caesar.” In other words, if we are followers, not leaders, we are not, not at all, absolved of responsibility. If things go wrong, we share blame for not speaking up and out, for not having the guts to speak truth to power – even if doing so comes at a cost.

The chapter singles out two senators, two governors, and four Fox News heavyweights as having played especially important parts among the president’s enablers. The two senators – Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and inveterate Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham – were remarkable for the prominence, persistence, and importance of their fealty. The two governors – Florida’s Mike DeSantis and Georgia’s Brian Kemp – were standouts for standing strong in Trump’s corner, no matter the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases in their respective states. And the four Fox News heavyweights – Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity – were striking for their staunch and some would say slavish clinging to the president’s coattails. As with every enabler, most notably those singled out by name in this book, Trump’s presidency, and even his subsequent electoral viability, would not have been possible without them.

The chapter explores the prequel to the coronavirus crisis of 2020. Our knowledge of plagues dates back almost to the beginning of recorded history. They have haunted and hounded us for eons, now being no exception to the historical rule. The pandemic that most vividly predates this one, the deadly “Spanish Flu” that spread the world in 1918/19 provides an apt backdrop to the arrival of the new coronavirus for which Americans were prepared, but only poorly. Certainly, poorly in comparison with other countries loosely thought of as US peers, such as Germany in Europe and, in Asia, South Korea. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why people do a poor job of preparing for “predictable disasters.” Disasters which, though they are foretold, we prefer to avoid.

Chapter 3 traces the nature and trajectory of the Trump administration – especially given he was a president who came into office without any political, government, or military experience whatsoever. While for a time there were several “adults in the room,” for example Secretary of Defense James Mattis, in relatively short order they disappeared from the administration. This left the federal government in the hands effectively of only those who were reliable and relentless Trump loyalists. Trump’s extraordinary need for, insistence on, almost slavish personal and political loyalty meant that turnover in the administration was inordinately high which, among other things, explains why it was so poorly equipped to cope with the pandemic.

Chapter 1 tells how even early on, as a presidential candidate but still a political novice, Trump had a special connection to some considerable number of the American people. It describes the demographic to whom he particularly appealed, the nature of his appeal, and the reasons for his appeal. It references how Trump’s candidacy could easily have stumbled, referencing an incident that shows how it nearly did. But then the chapter goes on to describe how and why he was able to survive near political disaster with relative ease. The visceral connection between Trump and his diehard followers explains why, despite so much gone wrong in 2020, a public health crisis and an economic crisis, Trump’s base held firm. The chapter finally makes clear how it is Trump’s base that explains everything – that explains how he was able to be so bad a president and get away with it, until Joe Biden finally pushed him out of the Oval Office.

The chapter is a careful chronicle - specifically of what happened between January and June 2020, after the new coronavirus was introduced into the United States. The narrative proceeds on roughly a month by month basis – it is intended to provide readers with precise reminders of what happened when, and of who did what when. The progression of the disease – Covid-19 – is in stark evidence. This against the backdrop of an administration that prefers to deny what actually is happening, that opts to address the economic crisis without first addressing the health crisis, and that gradually ensnares a large cast of characters in a wide web of deception and destruction.

As the title of the chapter makes clear, it is all about the role played by medical experts in enabling President Trump, in enabling his presidency, and in enabling his administration badly to manage/mismanage the pandemic. This chapter will be controversial, for among other reasons the widely admired Dr. Anthony Fauci is among the cast of characters. So be it. Questions must be asked, and answered, about what should be the response of a good follower who has a bad leader. Some of the physicians discussed in the chapter are the previously mentioned, Drs. Fauci and Birs – and Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield. In each of these cases their professional credentials should not inhibit us from asking what was, what should have been, their proper role. Their proper response to a president who was as unethical in his management/mismanagement of the pandemic as ineffective.

Trump did not have an “inner circle” as this term is conventionally understood. That is, he was a lifelong loner, so did not have personal, professional, or political intimates. He did, however, of course, have some people around him to whom he was, relatively, close, most of whom stayed for the duration of his administration. Trump’s inner circle is divided into three groups: 1) outer ring: 2) middle ring; and 3) inner ring. In the outer ring were people such as longtime immigration maven Stephen Miller, as well as Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway. In the middle ring are key players such as Vice President Mike Pence and Don Jr. And in the inner ring are Trump’s well-loved daughter, Ivanka, and her indispensable advisor-husband, Jared Kushner. The First Lady, Melania Trump, is separately discussed.

The prologue sets the stage for the book that follows. It describes where the book will go and how it will get there. It defines “enablers as followers who allow or even encourage their leaders to engage in, and then to persist in, behaviors that are destructive.” The prologue explores the all-important concept of followership, provides a brief history of relations between leaders and followers, and introduces the concept of the “leadership system,” that is, the equal importance of 1) leaders; 2) followers; 3) contexts. The concluding section of the prologue introduces distinctions among President Donald Trump’s enablers by dividing them into Trump’s Tribe and Trump’s Team. It similarly introduces the context of the book, which is the coronavirus crisis in the United States, especially during the first six months, January through June 2020.

Chapter 7 tracks Trump’s anti-science bias, and its effect on the administration’s management/mismanagement of the pandemic. The chapter begins by putting science in America in an historical perspective. It swiftly proceeds to put the discussion in a contemporaneous context, with a special focus on the antipathy between the president and the scientific community – that part of the scientific community that was outside as opposed to inside the administration. What is made clear nearly throughout the book is that experts – scientists and doctors – who were inside the administration were caught in a vise. A vise that obliged them to choose – between their profession and the president. Almost without exception they opted to support the latter at the expense of the former. The White House Coronavirus Task Force was, for example, not much more than a sham, even though members of the Task Force included the likes of Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.