A 1965 Novel About an Unhinged President Seems Awfully Familiar Now
“It Could Happen.… Someday It Probably Will!”
These are the words from a paperback cover of a 1965 novel called Night of Camp David, about a president of the United States who appears to collapse into madness, threatens global chaos, and must be deposed from power to save the nation, if not the planet. The thriller by Fletcher Knebel unfolds at the commander in chief’s woodland retreat in the mountains of Maryland, a place where every president since FDR has sought solace and hosted gatherings far outside the beltway of Washington D.C.
Guess where Donald Trump had reportedly planned to flee this weekend, before apparently calling off the visit, as government officials started calling for the 25th Amendment to be used to remove him from power?
That old book, republished by Vintage Books in 2018 after Trump’s volatility renewed interest in the out-of-print story, has officially left the realm of fantasy. Parallels that might once have seemed like amusing coincidences now illuminate something more alarming about how far the “new normal” of Trump’s presidency has descended into what was once regarded as the worst-case scenario.
Trump’s reported plans to escape to Camp David came one day after stoking the rage of a mob of supporters who later attacked the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to derail the certification of Joe Biden as the president-elect. “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength,” Trump said in a speech to his unruly supporters. Soon after, that crowd charged the barricades of the Capitol building, breaking down doors and shattering the windows to gain entrance. As the world watched on television, the attackers ran amok, seizing control of the House and Senate floors, scrawling violent graffiti, and desecrating the seat of power for the legislative branch of government.
We all saw what happened next. Five dead. Explosives recovered. Clouds of tear gas swallowing a building that is a hallowed symbol of American democracy.
It’s hard not to think of Knebel’s once far-fetched plot, as news headlines are dominated by high-profile resignations from the Trump administration and reports that even officials in his own party consider him too dangerous to remain in office for the two weeks leading to Biden’s inauguration. But how closely does that 56-year-old book match with our dystopian reality? Perhaps the biggest difference is that the book’s deranged president is a Democrat. From there, things get eerily similar.
The first evidence of fictional President Mark Hollenbach’s impending breakdown comes in the opening chapter, when he angrily denounces his own vice president. In the novel, the V.P. is implicated in a campaign-finance scandal, but the president’s view of the matter stems from paranoia. “O’Malley did it for the express purpose of embarrassing me in an election year,” Hollenbach declares, ignoring those who point out that this makes no sense, since their political fates are tied together.
On Wednesday, Trump attacked Vice President Mike Pence for accepting the results of the election. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,” Trump tweeted. But few would say this was the first sign of instability.
Later, Hollenbach lashes out over the media. “It’s a snide little crack designed to demean the President!” he growls in private over one sardonic newspaper headline.
The difference? Trump also does this in public. “Don’t ever talk to the president that way,” Trump snapped during a November press conference after a journalist questioned his election-fraud claims.
The man Hollenbach is considering as his replacement V.P. is an ambitious junior Iowa senator named Jim MacVeagh, who becomes the president’s closest confidant during his ensuing breakdown. MacVeagh’s mistress, a secretary for the Democratic Party chairman, tells him a story about the president’s notorious temper and his bizarre belief that a certain Treasury department appointee was spying on him. Echoes abound of Trump’s “deep state” conspiracy fantasies.