Book Review: Under Fire: Reporting From the Front Lines of the Trump White House By April Ryan

April Ryan is giving us a unique look of the White House through the lives of the press. At any given point, the press can become the story. For years, April Ryan has worked in various presidential administrations, yet this is the first one where she felt attacked. It is pretty clear that the White House has little regard for anybody’s family and reputation before they attack them. The President’s tweets and the treatment of the staff has harmed many reporters, and April Ryan is one of them.

I must admit that I am annoyed with the name calling of individuals and taking digs at people even though it can be entertaining. Ryan does take digs at people, as she does not have an inside understanding of what happens in the White House like Omarosa and Woodward, so she is describing her experience with the White House.

If this was not the President, then I would say that April Ryan has a great claim for libel and slander. The White House has harmed her to the point that Ryan should go to therapy since she is under a great deal of stress while going to work.

Omarosa wrote in her book that she was just like Donald Trump. The rest of the book was trying to justify her role within the White House. The one major “accomplishment” Omarosa claims to have is the meeting of HBCU presidents coming to the White House. According to Omarosa, it is the fault of the Trump White House that this meeting didn’t produce anything for the HBCU presidents, such as money. Yet, April Ryan accounts that the failure was Omarosa that Ryan claims is one of the reasons that lead to Omarosa being fired. April Ryan showed the Donald Trump of Omarosa, as it was clear that Omarosa instructed the Press Secretary to not answer Ryan’s questions. Even though Ryan and Omarosa were friends, I am unclear as to how they could be friends when Omarosa would start rumors that Ryan was being paid from the Clinton campaign and then had Omarosa’s attorney friends to call Ryan for counsel only to have fuel for more rumors. It is Ryan’s book that solidifies our perspective of Omarosa. Ryan completely discredits Omarosa’s book.

In the 171 pages of this book, we were able to read April Ryan’s commitment to telling the truth through her reporting. She is committed to African Americans and the issues that serve them. It is amazing that she was able to not acknowledge her role as a woman and the effect of the women’s movement on her life.

Ryan lives within her Blackness and not in her womanness, so we are not even aware of the intersection of being a Black woman in her profession. Ryan is trying to demonstrate that it is hard to be a journalist who seeks truth while reporting on this White House.