In November 2016, the day after the United States presidential election, workers at the Department of Energy were in a hurry. They waited for the new president’s men in the corridors of a faded department building in Washington. This was protocol: whoever comes to take charge of the department after the elections has to be briefed about the current issues. After all, the Department of Energy is one of the most important parts of the government, managing power grids, researching alternative energy sources, and even taking care of the nuclear arsenal. It is impossible to manage such a department with no briefing. To avoid disruptions in the country's energy sector, newly elected presidents sent their people there immediately. That was the case with the transition from Clinton to Bush, and from Bush to Obama. But to the surprise of the department, no one came that day. Nobody came the next day, or even the day after that. By the time Trump’s person visited the department for the first time, it had already been a month.

This was one of the numerous episodes of mismanagement of the Trump administration that Michael Lewis, the author of Moneyball and The Big Short, described in his book called The Fifth Risk. The book is all about the terrific incompetence of White House bureaucrats. The Fifth Risk discusses how life has changed in the departments that do not directly deal with politics — the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture.

Lewis shows that even politicians do not understand what these departments do. These departments are enormous beasts, and managing them requires an extraordinary talent and an exceptional desire to understand all the nuances of the work. Trump's people had neither of the two. In the book, we witness how a former head of an oil corporation becomes the head of the Department of Energy. Unwilling to get familiar with the department, he starts a witch hunt, trying to find out who was engaged in research on climate change. And yet, the absurdity fades when compared with the rest of the book.

Reports of persecutions overlap with stories about department veterans. Lewis tells us about the people who have gone through bureaucratic battles, trying to preserve the work they have done for decades. Besides their academic talents, these are people who can defend their point of view in front of politicians who understand neither science nor technology. By juxtaposing these people with the politicians of the new administration, Lewis draws a distinct line between people who work for the country and those who are there just for the money.

Even though The Fifth Risk does not go deep into the details, it is enough to comprehend the horrendous level of incompetence of the administration. In the beginning, we see how Trump's careless attitude towards the government scared even Steve Bannon, the mastermind behind Trump's presidency. At one point in the book, Bannon literally exclaims: “Holy f*ck, this guy doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t give a sh*t!” Even if such a start forces one to expect bad things, what happens next will still surprise the readers. 

The Fifth Risk makes another important point, showing why public services and governmental organizations should not be run like businesses. Lewis occasionally makes fun of the enormous bureaucratic machine that is the government of the United States — like the fact that the FDA regulates cheese pizzas while the USDA monitors pepperoni. But he still highlights the dangers of radical deregulation, by making the case for why privatizing obscure sectors such as weather forecasting is a bad idea. Throughout the book, the author asks experts in departments what risks to expect. Looking at their fears now two years after the book release, all this could have been prevented. Chapters mentioning the dangers of decreased funding for forest fires and disease control feel like a dire prophecy coming true.

Many books have been written about the Trump presidency, yet The Fifth Risk stands out because it does not focus solely on Trump, but on the actions of his administration. In his previous works, Moneyball and The Big Short, Lewis wrote about boring and complicated things such as baseball statistics and collateral debt obligations in an entertaining and straightforward way. The same goes for The Fifth Risk, where he properly navigates the reader through the complicated maze of American bureaucracy. 

Describing how much the departments that should be far from political intrigue have changed, Lewis shows that politicizing matters such as science and technology brings nothing good. The readers can already see the results — wildfires are raging and the United States, despite its resources and capabilities, is experiencing devastating losses from the pandemic. The Fifth Risk raises a question — what would happen if people in the government have no idea nor interest in how the government works? The readers don’t have to go far to get an answer. All they need to do is to look at modern America.