Barack and Michelle Obama Buy Rights to Book About the Chaos of Trump's Presidency

Earlier this year, Barack and Michelle Obama signed a multi-year deal with the popular streaming service Netflix. And one of their Netflix projects might be a series based on financial journalist Michael Lewis’ book, “The Fifth Risk,” which depicts the chaos of the Trump Administration.

Slate and Vice are reporting that although a project based on “The Fifth Risk” isn’t definite, it is a project the Obamas—who recently acquired the rights to Lewis’ book—are considering.  

“The Fifth Risk,” Lewis’ most recent book, depicts President Donald Trump’s administration as one that has been in a state of chaos and disorganization from the beginning. For example, in an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, Lewis described the Obama Administration’s efforts to help the Trump Administration make a transition with the Department of Agriculture. Members of the Obama Administration’s staff, according to Lewis, were fully prepared to help the Trump Administration make the transition in early 2017 but were “left waiting for a long time.”

Lewis told Gross, “It was actually the better part of two months before anybody shows up who’s going to be—who’s going to represent—Trump’s transition to the Department of Agriculture.”

In “The Fifth Risk,” Lewis asks, “What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works?”