John Dowd was convinced that President Trump would
commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
So, on Jan. 27, the president’s then-personal attorney staged a practice
session to try to make his point.
In the White
House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia
investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the
president eventually lost his cool.
“This
thing’s a goddamn hoax,” Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant
that finished with him saying, “I don’t really want to testify.”
The
dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in “Fear,” a
forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the
Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration
officials and other principals.
…
Woodward
depicts Trump’s anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as
unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for entire days. Learning
of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, “Everybody’s
trying to get me”— part of a venting period that shellshocked aides
compared to Richard Nixon’s final days as president.
…
The
book’s 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, “Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word,
‘Fear.’ ”
A
central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in
Trump’s 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.
Woodward describes “an
administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive
branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the
president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.
Again
and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump’s 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.
At a National Security
Council meeting on Jan. 19, 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.
“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.
After
Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, “Mattis was particularly
exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president
acted like — and had the understanding of — ‘a fifth- or
sixth-grader.’ ”
…
White
House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told
colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward
writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “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.”
Reince
Priebus, Kelly’s 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, “the devil’s workshop” and said early mornings and Sunday
evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the
witching hour.”
…
With
Trump’s rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and
other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an
alliance among Trump’s traditionalists — including Mattis and Gary Cohn,
the president’s former top economic adviser — to stymie what they
considered dangerous acts.
“It felt like we
were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually,” Porter is quoted
as saying. “Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action
would be taken.”
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. “Let’s
fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,”
Trump said, according to Woodward.
Mattis told
the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the
phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re
going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed
options for the more conventional airstrike that Trump ultimately
ordered.
Cohn,
a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism
regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s
desk” 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.
…
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’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles,
where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.
Dowd
then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the
president from testifying: “I’m 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, ‘I told you he
was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing
with this idiot for?’ ”
“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.
Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”
But
Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify
and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then
decided otherwise.
“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.
“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”
The next morning, Dowd resigned.
Procrastination Station 