Team of Vipers

My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House

By: Cliff Sims

Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May, Cliff Sims - introduction

Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Note: Per author's request, profanity has been removed from both the book and the audio program.

The Instant New York Times Best Seller

"Sims’s vivid portrait of Trump shrewdly balances admiration with misgivings, and his intricate, engrossing accounts of White House vendettas and power plays have a good mix of immersion and perspective. The result is one of the best of the recent flood of Trump tell-alls." (Publishers Weekly)

The first honest insider’s account of the Trump administration. If you hate Trump you need the truth; if you love Trump you need the truth.

After standing at Donald Trump’s side on Election Night, Cliff Sims joined him in the West Wing as special assistant to the president and director of White House message strategy. He soon found himself pulled into the president’s inner circle as a confidante, an errand boy, an advisor, a punching bag, and a friend. Sometimes all in the same conversation.

As a result, Sims gained unprecedented access to the president, sitting in on private meetings with key congressional officials, world leaders, and top White House advisors. He saw how Trump handled the challenges of the office, and he learned from Trump himself how he saw the world.

For 500 days, Sims also witnessed firsthand the infighting and leaking, the anger, joy, and recriminations. He had a role in some of the president’s biggest successes, and he shared the blame for some of his administration’s worst disasters. He gained key, often surprising insights into the players of the Trump West Wing, from Jared Kushner and John Kelly to Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway.

He even helped Trump craft his enemies list, knowing who was loyal and who was not.

And he took notes. Hundreds of pages of notes. In real-time.

Sims stood with the president in the eye of the storm raging around him, and now he tells the story that no one else has written - because no one else could. The story of what it was really like in the West Wing as a member of the president’s team. The story of power and palace intrigue, backstabbing and bold victories, as well as painful moral compromises, occasionally with yourself.

Team of Vipers tells the full story, as only a true insider could.

©2019 Cliff Sims (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Makes my teeth itch

Daniel Thomas May's "Trump voice" is loathsome. You hear it and think Trump is always quiet, calm, and low energy. It makes my teeth itch.

I wish the author read his own book

The story is great.
The intro READ BY THE AUTHOR is great.
The Audible reader Mr May is a complete mismatch for this book. Where Sims writes with a down-to-earth warm style that makes me want to sit and talk to him May sounds like he is reading a bio of Lincoln. Waaay too formal. A complete mismatch. I kept replaying sentences that should have changed the tone, or word emphasis.
So frustrating. I will absolutely do a test run on the reader before ever getting an audible book again.

Bleeped words! What the @#%#$?

All expletives in this audiobook are bleeped, just like network tv. I stooped counting at 50.

Nothing really new here. lackluster narration. sanctimonious tone.

Ego trip

This book is a sad scenario of an ego driven young professional who sold his soul to Donald Trump and ended up where most people do in the Trump world. Pathetic on so many levels and not worth the time.

I would have given it 1-star except ....

This book shows the level of incompetence at the Trump White House from the viewpoint of one who displays thinking at the level of a summer intern, not someone who was supposed to interpret complex ideas for Trump's speeches full-time. For this reason alone I recommend you slog through it.
Also, it gives insight into someone who, every few pages, reminds you of what a devout Christian he is and the process through which he twisted his mind to still support Trump.
That he was allowed to work in the White House at all makes it truly "500 Extraordinary Days."

Portrayed Trump in a more reverential light than he deserves

The idea of a devout bible toting Christian feeling compelled to become a Trump enabler was hard to stomach. Furthermore, the image of Sarah Sanders praying for Devine guidance before press conferences, was comical beyond belief.

Self-aggrandizement of the petty

I cannot fault the reader, for they seem to have perfectly captured the tone of this petty functionary from the Trump 2016 campaign. Carries the tone - and substance - of a National Enquirer “exposé”. The details he goes into are irrelevant to the moments he relates. While everyone is the star of their own show, I could not manage to listen past the 4th chapter. It was clear Mr Sims shares many personality traits with Trump, most of them unfortunate.

Good Listening

Gets you behind the scene of the early days of the Trump presidency; definitely scary to think this was/is going on! The infighting and backstabbing, just so unprofessional.

Trump

The store was interesting but it is hard to
Believe that trump is as great as he makes him
Out to be. After most of the cabinet members he has chosen and other appointees I can’t believe he is brilliant.

Really?

I try to be open. I respect his perspective. BUT, really? This is the president you are PROUD to have served in the White house? As a liberal i did start to see another side of "Trump", but the overboard end kiss ass after what went through in this White House left me un-impressed.