Book Review: THE TRIAL OF DONALD H. RUMSFELD by William Cooper

THE TRIAL OF DONALD H. RUMSFELD by William Cooper (DNLP, September 12, 2025) E-Book, 290 pages. ASIN # B0FCG4M4N3 

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Donald Rumsfeld was a major player in American history. In this riveting alternative history, he's put on trial for his role in the United States 2003 invasion of Iraq. The story charts Rumsfeld's rise to fame and power, the fight with President Donald Trump that leads to his prosecution, and his spellbinding trial at the International Criminal Court. Told through the eyes of a mysterious narrator whose identity—and pivotal role in Rumsfeld’s downfall—are eventually revealed, The Trial of Donald H. Rumsfeld is a tale of politics, betrayal, and the explosive mix of unbridled ambition and absolute power.

My Four-Star review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Cooper's novel is a deft blend of historical facts, speculation, and complete fiction. He takes historical events and posits an alternative history where Donald H. Rumsfeld becomes the 45th President of The United States following first the resignation of George W. Bush, the succession of Vice President Dick Cheney to POTUS, and then the ascendance of Rumsfeld when Cheney dies in office.

This book contains the kind of "insider" insights into White House politics behind close doors that you would expect to read in a nonfiction book by Robert Woodward. The first part of the novel is a biography of sorts of the life of Donald Rumsfeld, up until that point when Bush resigns and then the alternative history begins. 

The biography tracing the political career of Rumsfeld reads like it is being told to a co-writer. It is amazing to me that Cooper researched his subject so thoroughly and then details it so that it reads like a memoir dictated to a friend rather than a straight news account of what happened. The conversations seem authentic enough that it made me wonder at several points if Cooper ever spent any time on the White House staff. 

Reading the fictional parts of the novel (most of the latter half) made me wonder why Cooper chose this subject matter. I've always been a news junkie and followed the events before and after the Iraq war closely. The novel postulates that Rumsfeld could not obtain any solid evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that he withheld contradictory evidence in order to push Bush into going to war anyway. I've often thought this to be true, and Cooper seems to share that belief. Out of respect for the late Dick Cheney, I'm not going to mention his role. 

So, if you share my suspicions you may be as pleased as I was with the outcome of the trial. Having the identity of the narrator of the novel withheld until the final chapter was a nice touch that made the impact of the story even stronger (even though I guessed who it was). 

Thanks to William Cooper for a digital review copy of this book. I was not under any obligation to write a review, but chose to do so.