Said, watch out, after this madness is over, everybody is going to write a how i won the war or how i saved the republic. here we are, a lot of people have. what i am finding now is, it is putting together an extraordinary historical record. i m actually glad you wrote the book. i do want to ask you, though, what do you say to your critics who suggest you should have said this earlier when trump was in power, and you should have left your position as sec def? great questions, and let me answer each. first of all, i wouldn t be the first secretary of defense to write a book. every one of my predecessors has. the reason i wrote it, which is probably the same reason they did, is i thought it was important to history and for the american people to understand the ins and outs of what happened during this tumultuous time in our nation s history. the trump administration had its successes, right? abraham accords, lower taxes, operation warp speed.