- In another book by journalist Bob Woodward about President Donald Trump’s administration, Trump was quoted in March as saying that he was deliberately reducing the risk of coronavirus.
- Trump also rejected the idea of white privilege in the book, accusing Woodward of drinking “cool-aid” for “taking advantage of himself.”
- Some of the president’s top current and former allies have called him “dangerous”, “incompetent” as “commander-in-chief”, lacks a “moral compass” and potentially compromised by Russia.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Journalist Bob Woodward’s second book on President Donald Trump’s tenure at the White House, entitled “Rage,” includes several bomb shell revelations, including Trump’s confession that he misled the American public about the threat of a coronavirus epidemic.
Trump made significant and controversial statements during 18 on-the-record interviews with Woodward during December and July. And Woodward notes some of the president’s most powerful former advisers, including former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and National Intelligence Director Dan Coates, who have condemned Trump’s leadership.
Trump admitted he played the epidemic
In a recorded conversation with Woodward in February, Trump said the coronavirus is “even more deadly than your hard flu” and that people can transmit the virus as soon as they breathe in the air.
Until the week after that conversation, Trump repeatedly told people that coronavirus is no worse than seasonal flu.
Trump told Fox News in late March, “We have a terrible flu. I mean, think about it. We’re an average of 36,000 people – deaths, deaths,” Trump told Fox News in late March. “I’m not talking about the case. I’m talking about death. There are 36,000 deaths a year. People die from the flu, – 36 – but we have never closed the country to the flu.”
The president told Woodward in a March 19 conversation that he was “knowingly” playing on the dangers and threats of coronavirus in his message to the public. Trump has been widely accused of reducing the risk of the virus to boost financial markets.
“I always wanted to play him,” Trump said in a recorded call. “I still love playing it because I don’t want to panic.”
The president added that “not just the elderly, but plenty of young people are” susceptible to the virus. “
U.S. There are now more than 6.3 million cases of the virus and about 1,000,000 deaths have been confirmed.
An Manu Raju (@mkeraju) September 9, 2020
Letters to the North Korean dictator
The book also details Trump’s self-described love for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Woodward first quoted excerpts from Trump and Kim’s letters in “Rage,” as well as quotes from Trump about his relationship with Kim.
After they first met at the Singapore Summit in 2018, Kim wrote to Trump that they were “a historic meeting between me and your Maharashtra, reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy film.”
U.S. Kim’s use of “your superiority” when referring to the president was a recurring motive.
According to Woodward, Kim wrote in another letter, “I am delighted to have a good relationship with such a powerful and prominent politician as your great man.”
Kim also praised Trump in another letter to Woodward, “remembering that moment in history when I held your hand in beauty and sanctuary, as the whole world watched with great interest and hoped to revive the honor of that day.” Is. “
Trump responded affectionately to Woodward, saying he found Kim “much more than smart.”
According to Woodward, Trump lashed out at how Kim “tells me everything”, including a story about how he managed to assassinate his uncle.
Trump lashed out at secret nuclear weapons
In one of his interviews, Woodward says Trump made him proud of his secret nuclear weapon, and aides later told him anonymously that they were surprised Trump revealed it all.
Trump’s nuclear dodge came with his usual set of tangents.
Woodward quotes Trump as saying, “I’ve built a nuclear-weapon system like never before in this country.” “We have stuff you’ve never seen or heard. We have stuff Putin and Xia have never heard of before. There’s none – what we have is incredible.”
A Defense Department official told CNN in July that the president had previously mentioned a Super Duper missile, which uses hypersonic technology.
One principle, according to Inside Defense, is that “the weapon in question is a low-yield submarine-launch ballistic missile equipped with a W. War war-2 weapon.”
Trump has called the generals “a bunch of P-ice.”
According to Woodward, an aide to Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense heard the president say in a meeting, “My F — IRG generals are a bunch of P — I.”
The Pte reporter says in the book that the president clashed with his military advisers because they preferred international alliances over their trade efforts.
Bombingshell allegations were reported by the Atlantic last week that Trump repeatedly offended members of the U.S. military and called soldiers who died on the battlefield “losers” and “suckers.”
Trump’s former defense secretary called him “dangerous.”
Mattis told Woodward that Trump was “dangerous,” “unfit” to be commander-in-chief, and that he had “no moral compass.” Mattis resigned in December 2018 after strongly disagreeing with Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from Syria and Afghanistan.
“I basically had to do something that I think has moved from stupidity to stupidity,” Mattis said, recalling the book.
On another occasion, Mattis told the then director of the National Intelligence Court, “There may come a time when we have to take collective action,” Woodward writes.
Coates, Trump’s former director of national intelligence, suspects ‘Putin had something on Trump’
Coates came to the White House as a former Indiana senator recruited by fellow Hussein, Vice President Mike Pence.
While Pence urged Coates to put aside concerns about Trump’s spontaneity with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Woodward called Coates a doctor on the basis of delayed suspicions.
According to Woodward, Coates “maintained a secret belief, it evolved into a lesser one, although not confirmed by intelligence evidence, that Putin has something on Trump.”
Woodward adds, “How to explain the president’s behavior? Coates could see no other explanation.”
Trump rejected the idea of white privilege
Woodward also asked Trump about the national count with racism following the police assassination of George Floyd.
In some audio duos from Woodward’s interviews, he tells Trump, “We share one thing in general: we’re white, we’re privileged …
“Does it make any sense to you that that privilege has been taken away and put you in a cave to some extent, as it puts me and I think there are a lot of white privileged people in the cave, and we have to find our way to understand that Will there be work? Anger and pain, especially black people in this country? “
“No,” Trump replies with a chuckle. “You drank really cool-ed, didn’t you? You just listen.”
Fauqi has condemned Trump’s meditation period and the response to the virus
Dr. Anthony Fawcett has also participated in Woodward’s book with the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist complaining to the president’s allies.
“His sole purpose is to get re-elected,” Fauci told a colleague, according to Woodward.
According to quotes previously published in the Washington Post, Fauqi also dismissed Trump’s “rudderless” leadership, saying “their focus is like a minus number period.”
In a Fox News appearance later Wednesday afternoon, Fauci said he did not remember making those comments.
“You know, if you pay attention, that’s what other people said,” Fawcett said. “So, you know, you should ask someone else. I don’t remember exactly that.”
