By Bob Woodward.
Finally got this at the library.
This isn't quite as fun and dishy as say, other memoirs of the horrors of this administration. Mostly it just focuses on the policy decisions and how everything sucks every time Trump communicates. Clearly Bob got a lot of, to quote from the Source Notes in the back on every single chapter, "multiple deep background interviews with firsthand sources." Which is to say, a lot of the folks who left unhappy. It's pretty clear that say, Lindsay Graham, Steve Bannon, Rob Porter, Reince Priebus and Gary Cohn must have had a lot to say, whereas folks like Sean Spicer and Hope Hicks must not have contributed because they are barely mentioned in this shitshow. The author mentions that his assistant "made sure we built the story around specific scenes with specific dates, named participants and accounts of what happened."
The Note to Readers specifies:
"Interviews for this book were conducted under the journalist ground rule of "deep background." This means that all the information could be used but I would not say who provided it. The book is drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses to these events. Nearly all allowed me to tape-record our interviews so the story could be told with more precision. When I have attributed exact quotations, thoughts or conclusions to the participants, that information comes from the person, a colleague with direct knowledge, or from meeting notes, personal diaries, files and government or personal documents. President Trump declined to be interviews for this book."
Fun facts and quotes time!
As you've probably heard by now, this book starts with a prologue in which Gary Cohn, "top economic adviser in the White House," managed to save us all by hiding a piece of paper from Trump so he didn't sign it. That piece of paper being the one that would terminate our free trade with South Korea. "Got to protect the country." Or alternately, "It's not what we did for the country, it's what we saved him from doing." Rob Porter "told an associate" that a third of his 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."
After that fun excerpt, we move on to the start of the idea of Trump really running for president, and Bannon's reaction to the words "He's thinking of running for president." "Of what country?" Followed by "I don't have time to jerk off, dude."
David Bossie, a conservative activist/Republican investigator, told Trump that he had to be pro-life but he's been very pro-choice. Trump changed immediately. When told he has a track record, he said, "That can be fixed." Also, Bossie pointed out there's a public record of when people vote and you've voted ONCE. Bossie tells Trump to start writing checks to congressmen and senators and write a policy book (HAHAHAHAHA). Bannon's reaction afterwards is "Zero chance. ... The fucker will not write one check," and "He'll never do a policy book. Give me a fucking break. First off, nobody will buy it. It was a waste of time except for the fact that it was insanely entertaining."
Priebus tried to get Trump not to call Mexicans rapists and told him that "we've been working really hard to win over Hispanics." So that worked well.
For all the crap about Scaramucci (not a source for this, I'm guessing) and Bannon's dick-sucking, Bannon later said, "I reached out and sucked Reince Priebus' dick on August 15 and told the establishment, we can't win without you."
There is a term for going on all five Sunday morning talk shows: "the full Ginsburg" (after Monica Lewinsky's lawyer who did it in 1998). Poor ol' Giuliani achieved this dubious feat about the Access Hollywood tapes, and his reward from Trump was to be called a baby, by Trump. Was it really worth it, Rudy? Is it EVER?
When interviewing for the national security adviser job, McMaster was told by Bannon to wear his uniform and not lecture Trump: Trump was the guy who never went to class, took a note or got a syllabus. "The night before the final, he comes in at midnight from the fraternity house, puts on a pot of coffee, takes your notes, memorizes as much as he can, walks in at 8 in the morning and gets a C. And that's good enough. He's going to be a billionaire." McMaster pretty much does the dead opposite--lectures Trump and shows up in a regular suit because he called around and was told it wouldn't be appropriate because he's retired. Trump's commentary on his outfit was "He's dressed like a beer salesman." The author snarks, "Bannon, noted for his terrible wardrobe, agreed."
Dear lord, the ass kissing of Lindsay Graham. "Trump said he shouldn't have publicly given out Graham's cell phone number." "That was the highlight of my campaign," Graham joked. "What's your new number?" Trump asked." DON'T GIVE IT OUT, DON'T GIVE IT.... oh damn, you gave it out. You moron. Lindsay also refers to his buddy McCain as "A media whore like me."
"Tweeting, that's the way I operate." -Trump
One of Sean Spicer's few mentions here is that he tried several times to get Mattis to go on Sunday talk shows. Mattis continued to say no and finally, "Sean, I've killed people for a living. If you call me again, I'm going to fucking send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?"
Cohn used to try to communicate to Trump that people want to leave manufacturing. "He realized he was being an asshole by rubbing it in because each month was basically the same, but he didn't care."
"Several times Cohn just asked the president, "Why do you have these views?" "I just do," Trump replied. "I've had these views for 30 years." "That doesn't mean they're right," Cohn said. "I had the view for 15 years I could play professional football. It doesn't mean I was right."
Meet Rob Porter, staff secretary, and what happened after he introduced himself to Trump: "It was clear Trump had no clue what that was or who Porter was. Jared told Trump that Porter was going to structure and order Trump's life. Trump looked at the two of them as if to say, What are you talking about? You're not doing anything like that. No one's going to do that. The president walked away without saying anything to find a TV screen."
"Trump would go from A to G to L to Z. Or double back into D or S."
More not-quite-commentary from Rob Porter: "But the hours of raging reminded Porter of what he had read about Nixon's final days in office--praying, pounding the carpet, talking to the pictures of past presidents on the walls."
"I am the president. I can fire anybody that I want." -Trump
In chapter 21, we meet John Dowd, Trumps lawyer, who starts out as happy to get the gig. "It's no day at the beach," he's warned. "I think I've figured that out," Dowd said. OH YOU POOR SWEET SUMMER CHILD. YOU KNOW NOTHING, JOHN DOWD.
Here's an unattributed bit in which Trump "gave some private advice to a friend who had acknowledged some bad behavior towards women" (uh, Rob Porter, I assume): "You've got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you're dead. That was a big mistake you made. You didn't come out guns blazing and just challenge them. You showed weakness. You've got to be strong. You've got to be aggressive. You've got to push back hard. You've got to deny anything that's said about you. Never admit."
"Jared remained a mission Priebus failed to accomplish."
Priebus's other mission: trying to shut off Trump's TV time. He called the presidential bedroom "the devil's workshop" and his favorite early morning/Sunday night TV times "the witching hour." All Priebus can do is make sure Trump doesn't get home until after 9 p.m. Sunday nights.
On the transgender ban: Priebus lists the four options from "leave it alone" to "ban 'em all," pointing out that the last one increased their likelihood of being sued, and we want to walk you through it on paper." Trump supposedly agrees to talk about it at 10 a.m., but by 8:55 a.m. he's banning them all.
I'm rolling my eyes at the start of chapter 25, in which we're told all of Rob Porter's high credentials, that he has a better resume than Gorsuch, and he reports that Trump called Priebus a little rat that just scurries around and can be ignored.
"I go out and give a speech and it's covered by CNN and nobody's watching, nobody cares. I tweet something and it's my megaphone to the world." -Trump
Priebus called Trump's "bleeding from a facelilft" comments "going bananas." Trump was all, "I know what you are going to say. It's not presidential. And guess what? I know it. But I had to do it anyway."
This book recaps the Priebus firing, and we find out that Kelly had "had to call his wife and explain that he had no choice but to accept after being offered one of the most important jobs in the world via tweet."
"As a general rule, in relations with Trump, the closer you were, the further away you got. You started with 100 points. You couldn't get more. Kelly had started with 100 points in his jar, and they'd gone down. Being close to Trump, especially in the chief of staff role, meant going down in points. It meant you paid."
"Because 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, things start getting nasty and bloody. That's what happens." -Priebus.
Rob Porter reports that he spent hours working on a nice speech for Trump to give about Charlottesville, Trump gives it and gets praise, Porter reports that he felt like it was a moment of victory, he had served the president well, this made the endless hours of nonstop work worth it... and then after the news makes it sound like he admitted he did something wrong, he chews out Porter because "I didn't do anything wrong in the first place." Porter later reports that Trump thought "Little Rocket Man" was his best nickname yet and Porter was all, "It is funny, and it certainly seems to have gotten under Kim's skin," but what's the endgame here?
Pence isn't mentioned much. "As usual, Pence was staying out of the way. He didn't want to be tweeted about or called an idiot. If he were advising Pence, Cohn would have had him do exactly that--stay out of it."
Kelly: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had." That said, he did make it longer than Priebus.
Bannon's advice to Trump: "Cut the fucking thing off" (about Trump's 8 hours of TV a day) and "Go play some slap and tickle with Melania."
Lindsay Graham continues to suck it up, but not the 100% of sucking up that Trump is demanding, apparently. Graham supposedly said, "Why would you want me to tell you you're right when I think you're wrong? Presidents need people that can tell them the truth as they see it. It's up to you to see if I'm full of shit."
Trump's lawyer Dowd reports that "It was quite a sight seeing the president of the United States fuming like some aggrieved Shakespearean king."
After Cohn quits: "He's never been wrong yet. He's 71. He's not going to admit he's wrong, ever."
Dowd reports about his talking with Mueller about the possibility of Mueller talking to Trump. Dowd and Jay Sekulow role-play in front of him. "Jay, how many times did he say I don't know when we talked to him?" "Oh, a dozen, twenty." ... "Bob, here's my point. You're asking me to sit next to a president who'll get to the third question, screw it up and thereafter, because I'm going to counsel him, he just doesn't know and he doesn't remember. So he's going to say he doesn't remember 20 times..... And the reason he doesn't remember is very simple. One, these facts and these events are of little moment in his life." Woodward then snarks, "Most had taken place early in his presidency."
The end of the book features Dowd quitting. "He could not say what he knew was true: "You're a fucking liar." That was the problem." Dowd gives him a giant speech about how he feels like he failed as his lawyer because he was unable to persuade Trump to take his advice. "And if I go and sit with you and let you do something that I think is bad for you and will get you in further trouble, then I ought to lose my license." The very last words of the book are, in fact, "You're a fucking liar."
Four stars. It's not quite as much fun dish, but it sure sounds like Certain People let it all hang out here, and it sounds like Woodward was as comprehensive as he could get with who he could get.