WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s comments on the threat of the new coronavirus attracted widespread attention after excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward’s book “Rage” were published. The excerpts also provide new details on the president’s thoughts on North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the race riots, and a mysterious new weapon that Trump claims other world powers are unaware of.
Some of the other topics covered in the book, which was based on 18 interviews Woodward conducted with Trump between December and July and with others (The Washington Post, where Woodward is editor, and CNN reported excerpts from the book):
North Korea
Woodward wrote that Trump said he was impressed with Kim when he met the North Korean leader in Singapore in 2018 and that Kim was “far beyond smart.” Trump also said that Kim “tells me everything” and even gave the president a graphic account of how Kim had his own uncle killed.
While entering nuclear weapons talks with Kim, Trump dismissed assessments by intelligence officials that North Korea would never give up its nuclear weapons. Trump told Woodward that the CIA “has no idea” how to handle Pyongyang.
Trump also dismissed criticism about his three meetings with Kim, claiming the summits were no big deal. Critics said that by meeting with Kim, Trump gave the North Korean leader legitimacy on the world stage.
“It took me two days. I met. I didn’t give up anything,” said the president, who compared North Korea’s attachment to their nuclear arsenal to someone who is in love with a house and “they just can’t sell it.”
Kim welcomed Trump’s attention and called the president “his excellency” in a letter. Kim wrote to Trump that he believed that “the deep and special friendship between us will function as a magical force.”
Racial riots
In June, after federal agents forcibly removed protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, near the White House, to make way for Trump to present a photo opportunity outside a church where he was holding a Bible, Trump called to Woodward for boasting that he was in favor of “law and order.”
“We’re going to get ready to send the National Guard military cut to some of these poor bastards who don’t know what they’re doing, these poor left-wing radicals,” Trump told Woodward, who videotaped Trump.
Later that month, Woodward asked the president if, as a white man, he had a responsibility to “better understand the anger and pain” felt by African Americans.
“No,” Trump replied. “I don’t feel that at all.”
As Woodward lobbied Trump about discrimination and inequalities suffered by blacks over the years, the president pointed out how the unemployment rate for black Americans fell before the pandemic.
When the two spoke again about race relations on June 22, Woodward asked Trump if he thought there was systemic racism in America.
“Well, I think it’s everywhere,” Trump said. “I think probably less here than in most places. Or less here than in many places.”
When asked by Woodward if racism “is here” in the United States in a way that affects people’s lives, Trump responded, “I think so. And it’s unfortunate. But I think so.”
Mysterious weapon
In conversations with Woodward about the rising tensions in 2017 between the US and North Korea, Trump said: “I have built a nuclear system, a weapons system that nobody has had before in this country. We have things that you haven’t even had before. seen or heard about. We have things that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Chinese President Jinping) Xi have never heard of before. There is no one, what we have is incredible. ”
Woodward writes that the sources, who spoke to him on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the US military had a “new secret weapons system.” But sources did not provide details, telling Woodward, according to the book, that they were surprised Trump had revealed it.
Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Fox News “Special Report” on Wednesday that the president did not discuss any specific weapons system. “We are always at the forefront and we always have something that our adversaries don’t know about,” O’Brien said.
Former top Trump administration officials
Woodward’s book quotes Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, as saying, “The most dangerous people around the president are overconfident idiots.” The book also quotes Kushner as saying that he advised people to think of “Alice in Wonderland” when trying to understand the Trump presidency. The novel is about a girl who falls through a rabbit hole and Kushner, according to Woodward, singled out the Cheshire cat, who he said had stamina and persistence, not direction.
Woodward’s book also looks at how some high-level administration officials contemplated resigning.
Then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis went to the Washington National Cathedral to pray for the future of the nation under Trump as commander-in-chief. According to Woodward’s book, Mattis once told then-National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, “There may come a time when we have to take collective action” because Trump is “dangerous” and “unfit” to be president.
Woodward says Mattis told Coats, “The president has no moral compass.”
Coats, the book says, replied: “It’s true. For him, a lie is not a lie. It’s just what he thinks. He doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie.”
Coats is a former senator from Indiana and was drafted into the administration by Vice President Mike Pence, who is also a Hoosier. Marsha, Coats’s wife, once asked Pence at a White House dinner, “How about” the Trump presidency?
“I think he (Pence) understood. And he just whispered in my ear, ‘Stay the course.’
Some of the other topics covered in the book, which was based on 18 interviews Woodward conducted with Trump between December and July and with others (The Washington Post, where Woodward is editor, and CNN reported excerpts from the book):
North Korea
Woodward wrote that Trump said he was impressed with Kim when he met the North Korean leader in Singapore in 2018 and that Kim was “far beyond smart.” Trump also said that Kim “tells me everything” and even gave the president a graphic account of how Kim had his own uncle killed.
While entering nuclear weapons talks with Kim, Trump dismissed assessments by intelligence officials that North Korea would never give up its nuclear weapons. Trump told Woodward that the CIA “has no idea” how to handle Pyongyang.
Trump also dismissed criticism about his three meetings with Kim, claiming the summits were no big deal. Critics said that by meeting with Kim, Trump gave the North Korean leader legitimacy on the world stage.
“It took me two days. I met. I didn’t give up anything,” said the president, who compared North Korea’s attachment to their nuclear arsenal to someone who is in love with a house and “they just can’t sell it.”
Kim welcomed Trump’s attention and called the president “his excellency” in a letter. Kim wrote to Trump that he believed that “the deep and special friendship between us will function as a magical force.”
Racial riots
In June, after federal agents forcibly removed protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, near the White House, to make way for Trump to present a photo opportunity outside a church where he was holding a Bible, Trump called to Woodward for boasting that he was in favor of “law and order.”
“We’re going to get ready to send the National Guard military cut to some of these poor bastards who don’t know what they’re doing, these poor left-wing radicals,” Trump told Woodward, who videotaped Trump.
Later that month, Woodward asked the president if, as a white man, he had a responsibility to “better understand the anger and pain” felt by African Americans.
“No,” Trump replied. “I don’t feel that at all.”
As Woodward lobbied Trump about discrimination and inequalities suffered by blacks over the years, the president pointed out how the unemployment rate for black Americans fell before the pandemic.
When the two spoke again about race relations on June 22, Woodward asked Trump if he thought there was systemic racism in America.
“Well, I think it’s everywhere,” Trump said. “I think probably less here than in most places. Or less here than in many places.”
When asked by Woodward if racism “is here” in the United States in a way that affects people’s lives, Trump responded, “I think so. And it’s unfortunate. But I think so.”
Mysterious weapon
In conversations with Woodward about the rising tensions in 2017 between the US and North Korea, Trump said: “I have built a nuclear system, a weapons system that nobody has had before in this country. We have things that you haven’t even had before. seen or heard about. We have things that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Chinese President Jinping) Xi have never heard of before. There is no one, what we have is incredible. ”
Woodward writes that the sources, who spoke to him on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the US military had a “new secret weapons system.” But sources did not provide details, telling Woodward, according to the book, that they were surprised Trump had revealed it.
Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Fox News “Special Report” on Wednesday that the president did not discuss any specific weapons system. “We are always at the forefront and we always have something that our adversaries don’t know about,” O’Brien said.
Former top Trump administration officials
Woodward’s book quotes Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, as saying, “The most dangerous people around the president are overconfident idiots.” The book also quotes Kushner as saying that he advised people to think of “Alice in Wonderland” when trying to understand the Trump presidency. The novel is about a girl who falls through a rabbit hole and Kushner, according to Woodward, singled out the Cheshire cat, who he said had stamina and persistence, not direction.
Woodward’s book also looks at how some high-level administration officials contemplated resigning.
Then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis went to the Washington National Cathedral to pray for the future of the nation under Trump as commander-in-chief. According to Woodward’s book, Mattis once told then-National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, “There may come a time when we have to take collective action” because Trump is “dangerous” and “unfit” to be president.
Woodward says Mattis told Coats, “The president has no moral compass.”
Coats, the book says, replied: “It’s true. For him, a lie is not a lie. It’s just what he thinks. He doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie.”
Coats is a former senator from Indiana and was drafted into the administration by Vice President Mike Pence, who is also a Hoosier. Marsha, Coats’s wife, once asked Pence at a White House dinner, “How about” the Trump presidency?
“I think he (Pence) understood. And he just whispered in my ear, ‘Stay the course.’
.
