The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency

The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions—and inactions—have defined the course of our country.

What do Dick Cheney and Rahm Emanuel have in common? Aside from polarizing personalities, both served as chief of staff to the president of the United States—as did Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta, and a relative handful of others. The chiefs of staff, often referred to as "the gatekeepers," wield tremendous power in Washington and beyond; they decide who is allowed to see the president, negotiate with Congress to push POTUS's agenda, and—most crucially—enjoy unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks. 

Through extensive, intimate interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker’s expert managing of the White House, the press, and Capitol Hill paved the way for the Reagan Revolution—and, conversely, how Watergate, the Iraq War, and even the bungled Obamacare rollout might have been prevented by a more effective chief. 

Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, The Gatekeepers offers an essential portrait of the toughest job in Washington.

• Chief Of Staff: The Strategic Partner Who Will Revolutionize Your Organization
• Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics! Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life
• The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
• The Politics of Diplomacy
• A Warning
• The Nerve Center: Lessons in Governing from the White House Chiefs of Staff (Joseph V. Hughes Jr. and Holly O. Hughes Series on the Presidency and Leadership)
• The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism
• Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover
• The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House
• Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House