The Fifth Risk sheds light on Trump’s chaotic transition and the mismanagement of several core federal agencies. It reveals what is happening when agencies and branches of government are under attack by their own government. What happens when the leader of a country believes that something it’s only good if it’s good for him and his family. 

Michael Lewis paints a dire picture of the disinterest, mismanagement and chaos in three government departments during the troubled transition period from Barack Obama to the Trump White House and his government’s wilful ignorance of the federal bureaucracy. The book has three main chapters that examine the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce respectively.

These three departments are dealing with some of the most powerful risks facing humanity. Thus, one would say, a new government would want to pay special attention to them. During the transition period the people who run these three crucial departments were prepared and waited to welcome the incoming administration’s transition teams. But nothing happened. When finally, after months in some cases, someone appeared, he (it was usually a he) was totally inappropriate for the job, and he was more interesting in removing climate change data from the agencies’ websites, than filling jobs or learning about the department. This shouldn’t be unexpected, Trump was backed by fossil fuel people, he is hostile to the idea of climate change.