Exclusive audio: Phone call between President Trump and Bob Woodward<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\nThe book\u2019s title is derived from a remark that then-candidate Trump made in an interview with Woodward and Post political reporter Robert Costa in 2016. Trump said, \u201cReal power is, I don\u2019t even want to use the word, \u2018Fear.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n
A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump\u2019s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.<\/p>\n
Woodward describes \u201can administrative coup d\u2019etat\u201d and a \u201cnervous breakdown\u201d of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president\u2019s desk so he couldn\u2019t see or sign them.<\/p>\n
Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump\u2019s national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.<\/p>\n
At a National Security Council meeting on Jan.\u00a019, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds vs. 15 minutes from Alaska, according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing this in order to prevent World War III,\u201d Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.<\/p>\n
After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, \u201cMattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like \u2014 and had the understanding of \u2014 \u2018a fifth- or sixth-grader.\u2019\u200a\u201d<\/p>\n
In Woodward\u2019s telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump\u2019s actions and expressed dim views of him. \u201cSecretaries of defense don\u2019t always get to choose the president they work for,\u201d Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trump\u2019s tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media.<\/p>\n
Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was \u201cunhinged,\u201d Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: \u201cHe\u2019s an idiot. It\u2019s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He\u2019s gone off the rails. We\u2019re in Crazytown. I don\u2019t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reince Priebus, Kelly\u2019s predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, \u201cthe devil\u2019s workshop\u201d and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were \u201cthe witching hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was \u201c\u2018like a little rat. He just scurries around.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n
Few in Trump\u2019s orbit were protected from the president\u2019s insults. He often mocked then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, \u201clike a beer salesman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: \u201cI don\u2019t trust you. I don\u2019t want you doing any more negotiations. .\u2009.\u2009. You\u2019re past your prime.\u201d<\/p>\n
A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a \u201ctraitor\u201d for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions\u2019s accent, Trump added: \u201cThis guy is mentally retarded. He\u2019s this dumb Southerner. .\u2009.\u2009. He couldn\u2019t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He painted the former Navy pilot as cowardly, falsely suggesting he took an early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father\u2019s military rank and left others behind.<\/p>\n
Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: \u201cNo, Mr. President, I think you\u2019ve got it reversed.\u201d The defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug.\u00a025, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the \u201cHanoi Hilton.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, okay,\u201d Trump replied, according to Woodward\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
With Trump\u2019s rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trump\u2019s traditionalists \u2014 including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the president\u2019s former top economic adviser \u2014 to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually,\u201d Porter is quoted as saying. \u201cOther times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. \u201cLet\u2019s fucking kill him! Let\u2019s go in. Let\u2019s kill the fucking lot of them,\u201d Trump said, according to Woodward.<\/p>\n
Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to do any of that. We\u2019re going to be much more measured.\u201d The national security team developed options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.<\/p>\n
Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump\u2019s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn \u201cstole a letter off Trump\u2019s desk\u201d that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing.<\/p>\n
Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we getting this done? Do your job. It\u2019s tap, tap, tap. You\u2019re just tapping me along. I want to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: \u201cI can stop this. I\u2019ll just take the paper off his desk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
Cohn came to regard the president as \u201ca professional liar\u201d and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump\u2019s handling of a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.<\/p>\n
Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that \u201cboth sides\u201d were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis but almost immediately told aides, \u201cThat was the biggest fucking mistake I\u2019ve made\u201d and the \u201cworst speech I\u2019ve ever given,\u201d according to Woodward\u2019s account.<\/p>\n
When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, \u201cThis is treason,\u201d and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn\u2019s horror at Trump\u2019s handling of the tragedy \u2014 and shared Cohn\u2019s fury with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,\u201d Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times but has not done so.<\/p>\n
Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trump\u2019s orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trump\u2019s first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the president\u2019s lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.<\/p>\n
At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, \u201cThis was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such moments of panic are a routine feature but not the thrust of Woodward\u2019s book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump\u2019s handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.<\/p>\n
In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Korea\u2019s dictator \u201cLittle Rocket Man\u201d in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president might be provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: \u201cThis is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book also details Trump\u2019s impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become the United States\u2019 longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you,\u201d Trump told them. \u201cThey could do a much better job. I don\u2019t know what the hell we\u2019re doing.\u201d He went on to ask: \u201cHow many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?\u201d<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodward\u2019s account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.<\/p>\n
Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the president\u2019s eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, then the chief White House strategist.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a goddamn staffer!\u201d Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. \u201cYou walk around this place and act like you\u2019re in charge, and you\u2019re not. You\u2019re on staff!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: \u201cI\u2019m not a staffer! I\u2019ll never be a staffer. I\u2019m the first daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such tensions boiled among many of Trump\u2019s core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as \u201cnatural predators.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody,\u201d Priebus says.<\/p>\n
Hovering over the White House was Mueller\u2019s inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: \u201cDonald, I\u2019m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was \u201clike a kick in the nuts,\u201d according to Woodward.<\/p>\n
The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his attorneys about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller\u2019s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump\u2019s January practice session.<\/p>\n
Woodward\u2019s book recounts the debate between Trump and his lawyers, including John Dowd, regarding whether the president will sit for an interview with special counsel Robert. S. Mueller III. (Richard Drew\/AP)<\/span><\/p>\nDowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: \u201cI\u2019m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, \u2018I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn, I understand,\u201d Mueller replied, according to Woodward.<\/p>\n
Later that month, Dowd told Trump: \u201cDon\u2019t testify. It\u2019s either that or an orange jumpsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller\u2019s questions, had by then decided otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be a real good witness,\u201d Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are not a good witness,\u201d Dowd replied. \u201cMr. President, I\u2019m afraid I just can\u2019t help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning, Dowd resigned.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Phillip Rucker and Robert Costas, September 4, 2018 John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. So, on Jan.\u00a027, the president\u2019s then-personal attorney staged a practice session to try to make his point. In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4412,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions\/4412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}