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#Post#: 27479--------------------------------------------------
Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the cou
ntry'
By: Highpockets Date: September 4, 2018, 12:05 pm
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Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By Jeremy Herb, Jamie Gangel and Dan Merica, CNN
Updated 12:54 PM ET, Tue September 4, 2018
(CNN)WARNING: This story contains graphic language.
President Donald Trump's closest aides have taken extraordinary
measures in the White House to try to stop what they saw as his
most dangerous impulses, going so far as to swipe and hide
papers from his desk so he wouldn't sign them, according to a
new book from legendary journalist Bob Woodward.
Woodward's 448-page book, "Fear: Trump in the White House,"
provides an unprecedented inside-the-room look through the eyes
of the President's inner circle. From the Oval Office to the
Situation Room to the White House residence, Woodward uses
confidential background interviews to illustrate how some of the
President's top advisers view him as a danger to national
security and have sought to circumvent the commander in chief.
Many of the feuds and daily clashes have been well documented,
but the picture painted by Trump's confidants, senior staff and
Cabinet officials reveal that many of them see an even more
alarming situation worse than previously known or understood.
Woodward offers a devastating portrait of a dysfunctional Trump
White House, detailing how senior aides both current and
former Trump administration officials grew exasperated with
the President and increasingly worried about his erratic
behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying.
Chief of staff John Kelly describes Trump as an "idiot" and
"unhinged," Woodward reports. Defense Secretary James Mattis
describes Trump as having the understanding of "a fifth or sixth
grader." And Trump's former personal lawyer John Dowd describes
the President as "a fucking liar," telling Trump he would end up
in an "orange jump suit" if he testified to special counsel
Robert Mueller.
"He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of
anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown," Kelly is
quoted as saying at a staff meeting in his office. "I don't even
know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever
had."
Trump irritated he wasn't interviewed by Woodward for upcoming
book
CNN obtained a copy of Woodward's book, scheduled for release
September 11. The explosive revelations about Trump from those
closest to him are likely to play into the November midterm
election battle. The book also has stunning new details about
Trump's obsession with the Russia probe, describing for the
first time confidential conversations between the President's
lawyers and Mueller. It recounts a dramatic session in the White
House residence in which Trump failed a mock Mueller interview
with his lawyers.
Woodward sums up the state of the Trump White House by writing
that Trump was an "emotionally overwrought, mercurial and
unpredictable leader." Woodward writes that the staff's decision
to circumvent the President was "a nervous breakdown of the
executive power of the most powerful country in the world."
Circumventing the President
The book opens with a dramatic scene. Former chief economic
adviser Gary Cohn saw a draft letter he considered dangerous to
national security on the Oval Office desk.
The letter would have withdrawn the US from a critical trade
agreement with South Korea. Trump's aides feared the fallout
could jeopardize a top-secret national security program: the
ability to detect a North Korean missile launch within just
seven seconds.
Woodward reports Cohn was "appalled" that Trump might sign the
letter. "I stole it off his desk," Cohn told an associate. "I
wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document.
Got to protect the country."
Bob Woodward's bizarre phone call with Trump
Bob Woodward's bizarre phone call with Trump
Cohn was not alone. Former staff secretary Rob Porter worked
with Cohn and used the same tactic on multiple occasions,
Woodward writes. In addition to literally stealing or hiding
documents from Trump's desk, they sought to stall and delay
decisions or distract Trump from orders they thought would
endanger national security.
"A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really
dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to
believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas," said Porter,
who as staff secretary handled the flow of presidential papers
until he quit amid domestic violence allegations. He and others
acted with the acquiescence of former chief of staff Reince
Priebus, Woodward reports.
Woodward describes repeated attempts to bypass Trump as "no less
than an administrative coup d'ιtat."
The Russia obsession
Woodward's book relies on hundreds of hours of taped interviews
and dozens of sources in Trump's inner circle, as well as
documents, files, diaries and memos, including a note
handwritten by Trump himself. Woodward explains that he talked
with sources on "deep background," meaning he could use all the
information but not say who provided it.
His reporting comes with the credibility of a long and storied
history that separates this book from previous efforts on Trump.
The author and Washington Post journalist has won two Pulitzer
Prizes, including one for his coverage of the Watergate scandal
that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
In one revelatory anecdote, Woodward describes a scene in the
White House residence. Trump's lawyer, convinced the President
would perjure himself, put Trump through a test a practice
interview for the one he might have with Mueller. Trump failed,
according to Dowd, but the President still insisted he should
testify.
Woodward writes that Dowd saw the "full nightmare" of a
potential Mueller interview, and felt Trump acted like an
"aggrieved Shakespearean king."
Bob Woodward's new book puts readers 'face to face with Trump'
But Trump seemed surprised at Dowd's reaction, Woodward writes.
"You think I was struggling?" Trump asked.
Then, in an even more remarkable move, Dowd and Trump's current
personal attorney Jay Sekulow went to Mueller's office and
re-enacted the mock interview. Their goal: to argue that Trump
couldn't possibly testify because he was incapable of telling
the truth.
"He just made something up. That's his nature," Dowd said to
Mueller.
The passage is an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes of
Mueller's secretive operation for the first time, Mueller's
conversations with Trump's lawyers are captured.
"I need the president's testimony," Mueller said. "What was his
intent on Comey? ... I want to see if there was corrupt intent."
Despite Dowd's efforts, Trump continued to insist he could
testify. "I think the President of the United States cannot be
seen taking the fifth," Trump said.
Dowd's argument was stark: "There's no way you can get through
these. ... Don't testify. It's either that or an orange jump
suit."
What he couldn't say to Trump, according to Woodward, was what
Dowd believed to be true: "You're a fucking liar."
Trump's insults and humiliation
Throughout the book, Woodward portrays the President as a man
obsessed with his standing in the media and with his core
supporters. Trump appears to be lonely and increasingly
paranoid, often watching hours of television in the White House
residence. "They're out to get me," Trump said of Mueller's
team.
Trump's closest advisers described him erupting in rage and
profanity, and he seemed to enjoy humiliating others.
"This guy is mentally retarded," Trump said of Sessions. "He's
this dumb southerner," Trump told Porter, mocking Sessions by
feigning a southern accent.
Trump said that Priebus is "like a little rat. He just scurries
around."
And Trump demeaned former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to his
face, when Giuliani was the only campaign surrogate willing to
defend then-candidate Trump on television after the "Access
Hollywood" tape, a bombshell video where Trump described
sexually assaulting women.
"Rudy, you're a baby," Trump told the man who is now his
attorney. "I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life.
They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby
that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?"
Trump's predecessors are not spared either. In a conversation
with Sen. Lindsey Graham, Trump called President Barack Obama a
"weak dick" for not acting in Syria, Woodward reports.
National security concerns
Woodward's book takes readers inside top-secret meetings. On
July 27, 2017, Trump's national security leaders convened a
gathering at "The Tank" in the Pentagon. The goal: an
intervention to try to educate the President on the importance
of allies and diplomacy.
Trump's philosophy on diplomacy was personal. "This is all about
leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim," he said of
North Korea.
His inner circle was worried about "The Big Problem," Woodward
writes: Trump's lack of understanding that his crusade to impose
tariffs could endanger global security.
But the meeting didn't go as planned.
Trump went off on his generals. "You should be killing guys. You
don't need a strategy to kill people," Trump said of
Afghanistan.
He questioned the wisdom of keeping US troops in South Korea.
"So Mr. President," Cohn said to Trump, "what would you need in
the region to sleep well at night?"
"I wouldn't need a fucking thing," the President said. "And I'd
sleep like a baby."
After Trump left the Tank, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
declared: "He's a fucking moron."
The book provides the context for the now-infamous quote that
marked the beginning of the end for Tillerson's tenure.
Tillerson tried to downplay the dispute -- "I'm not going to
deal with petty stuff like that," he said at a news conference
after NBC reported the remark but he was ultimately fired via
tweet.
Woodward also quotes an unnamed White House official who gave an
even more dire assessment of the meeting: "It seems clear that
many of the president's senior advisers, especially those in the
national security realm, are extremely concerned with his
erratic nature, his relative ignorance, his inability to learn,
as well as what they consider his dangerous views."
A recurrent theme in Woodward's book is Trump's seeming
disregard for national security concerns because of his
obsession with money trade deficits and the cost of troops
overseas.
In meeting after meeting, Trump questions why the US has to pay
for such a large troop presence in South Korea.
"We're doing this in order to prevent World War III," Mattis,
the defense secretary, bluntly explained to Trump at one January
2018 meeting, which prompted Mattis to tell close associates
afterward that Trump had the understanding of a "fifth or sixth
grader."
Trump still wasn't convinced. "I think we could be so rich if we
weren't stupid," he later said in the meeting, arguing the US
was being played as "suckers," Woodward reports.
The 'Ernest Hemingway' of Twitter
Trump's tweets and his infatuation with Twitter are a theme
throughout the book.
Woodward reveals that Trump ordered printouts of his tweets and
studied them to find out which ones were most popular. "The most
effective tweets were often the most shocking," Woodward writes.
Twitter was a source of great consternation for national
security leaders, who feared and warned Trump "Twitter could
get us into a war."
Appalled by some of his more outrageous posts, Trump's aides
tried to form a Twitter "committee" to vet the President's
tweets, but they failed to stop their boss.
Priebus, who was blindsided when Trump announced his firing on
Twitter, referred to the presidential bedroom as "the devil's
workshop" and called the early morning hours and Sunday night
a time of many news-breaking tweets "the witching hour."
Trump, however, saw himself as a Twitter wordsmith.
"It's a good thing," Trump said when Twitter expanded its
character count to 280, "but it's a bit of a shame because I was
the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters."
'A zoo without walls'
Finally, "Fear" is filled with slights, insults and takedowns
from both family and staff that speak to the chaos, infighting
and drama that Trump allows to fester around him.
Both Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are targeted by the inner
circle.
There is a pointed shot at Ivanka from the President's
now-ostracized chief strategist Steve Bannon, who frequently
clashed with the first daughter and her husband.
"You're nothing but a fucking staffer!" Bannon screamed at
Ivanka at a staff meeting, according to Woodward. "You walk
around this place and act like you're in charge, and you're not.
You're on staff!"
"I'm not a staffer!" she shouted back. "I'll never be a staffer.
I'm the first daughter" she really used the title, Woodward
writes "and I'm never going to be a staffer!"
Two of the harshest comments in the book are directed at Trump
and come from his chiefs of staff.
After Trump's Charlottesville, Virginia, controversy, in which
he failed to condemn white supremacists, Cohn tried to resign
but was instead dressed down by Trump and accused of "treason."
Kelly, who is Trump's current chief of staff, told Cohn
afterward, according to notes Cohn made of the exchange: "If
that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and
shoved it up his ass six different times."
And Priebus, Trump's first chief of staff, encapsulated the
White House and the thrust of Woodward's book by describing the
administration as a place with "natural predators at the table."
"When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a
shark and a seal in a zoo without walls," Priebus is quoted as
saying, "things start getting nasty and bloody."
#Post#: 27480--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: Myahny Date: September 4, 2018, 12:57 pm
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I pre-ordered my copy this morning.
#Post#: 27505--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: Seenscadmfor Date: September 4, 2018, 8:21 pm
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Anyone who works for Trump and believes they haven't been the
target of middle school name calling behind their back is
delusional. I'm buying the book too. I've read he has most
interviews on tape.
#Post#: 27507--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: Highpockets Date: September 4, 2018, 9:33 pm
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[quote author=Seenscadmfor link=topic=1772.msg27505#msg27505
date=1536110492]
Anyone who works for Trump and believes they haven't been the
target of middle school name calling behind their back is
delusional. I'm buying the book too. I've read he has most
interviews on tape.
[/quote]
Yes - he said he has many, many hours of tapes, including a
phone call with Trump that was played on the news tonight. Yet
Dotard continues to tweet that it's all a big lie.
#Post#: 27521--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: Brainysmurf Date: September 5, 2018, 8:06 am
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Mr Woodward is no rookie writer, he did his homework and can
back it up. This is one writer Trump and Co. cannot bully and
threaten.
I know there's truth in this book by the lack of attack posts
about it.
#Post#: 27524--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: ILive4This Date: September 5, 2018, 8:39 am
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Just more confirmation of what we've been hearing all along.
It's the clusterfuck administration.
#Post#: 27531--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: RedTest Date: September 5, 2018, 9:27 am
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Does anyone think this account is inaccurate? That the Trump
whitehouse is a calm place of mutual respect?
#Post#: 27604--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: Highpockets Date: September 6, 2018, 6:53 am
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[quote author=RedTest link=topic=1772.msg27531#msg27531
date=1536157664]
Does anyone think this account is inaccurate? That the Trump
whitehouse is a calm place of mutual respect?
[/quote]
There are an awful lot of sources saying essentially the same
thing. Not to mention what we see with ourown eyes and ears.
#Post#: 28170--------------------------------------------------
Re: Bob Woodward: Trump's aides stole his papers 'to protect the
country'
By: ILive4This Date: September 9, 2018, 9:00 am
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Of course not. Woodward doesn't publish without all his ducks in
a row. Everybody doubted the past accounts b/c of who they were.
Michael Wolff, Omarose...no credibility they said. Not so with
Mr. Woodward. Bank on it.
[quote author=RedTest link=topic=1772.msg27531#msg27531
date=1536157664]
Does anyone think this account is inaccurate? That the Trump
whitehouse is a calm place of mutual respect?
[/quote]
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