A Very Stable Genius ranked first on bestseller lists from The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly, and received generally positive reviews in international media.

[2][3][4] Rucker and Leonnig have suggested that A Very Stable Genius is an effort to make sense of conflicting images of Donald Trump as "a success, a master in some ways, and also a chaotic, undisciplined, impulsive leader".

For example, the book highlights a July 2017 meeting at the Pentagon at which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, among other senior advisors and generals, attempted to brief the president on the current state and projection of military power, with Trump responding negatively to their approach and reportedly calling them "losers", "dopes", and "babies",[6] then abruptly leaving the meeting, prompting Tillerson to reportedly refer to him as a "fucking moron".

'"[5] The book suggests that this consistent pattern of reliance on personal loyalty, combined with a disregard for consequences, has placed Trump in opposition to conventional democratic power structures in Washington, D.C., with apparently chaotic results.

[10] Rucker and Leonnig particularly criticize Robert Mueller and his report on possible obstruction of justice, which they cite as an example of how bureaucracy and fact-finding have failed to provide effective external restraints on Trump's behavior.

[15] One day prior to the book's release, Trump accused Rucker and Leonnig of fabricating most of the stories in A Very Stable Genius, calling the authors "two stone cold losers".

In The New York Times, Dwight Garner called the authors "meticulous journalists", noting that "this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date.