New Trump bombshells: He rarely sees his wife ...and thinks his sons are brainless
FURTHER extraordinary claims about the shambolic nature of Donald Trump’s presidency emerged yesterday in an explosive new book. In 300 pages, it describes how he remains stubbornly ignorant on a wealth of subjects, won’t listen to advice – and seems not to care. Predictably, says author Michael Wolff, the outcome is chaos and cock-ups…
FLUFFED CHINESE LEADER’S NAME
DESPITE making tackling China’s trade power a key aim of his presidency, it is claimed Trump was utterly unable to pronounce Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s name correctly. He would call him Mr ‘X’ – pause – ‘i’.
When Mr Xi came to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a summit, the book claims, it ‘required some tutoring for Trump, who referred to the Chinese leader as “Mr X-i”: the President was told to think of him as a woman and call him “she”.’
The book adds that despite Trump’s tough talk on China – which includes bizarre claims that the country is faking evidence for global warming in a huge ‘hoax’ – the Chinese fast discovered that his vanity means he is easy to schmooze. Mr Wolff writes that officials from Beijing ‘quickly figured out that if you flatter him, he flatters you’.
‘PERPLEXING MARRIAGE’
THE US president’s marriage to Melania is allegedly ‘perplexing’ to most of his inner circle as the pair rarely spend time together, the book claims.
The first lady can allegedly spend several days without seeing her husband, even when they are both staying at their New York penthouse. Mr Wolff wrote: ‘Donald Trump’s marriage was perplexing to almost everybody around him. Often she did not know where he was, or take much notice of that fact.’ He claims Melania, 47, has little interest in where her 71-year-old husband is and does not know very much about his business ventures. They are said to be the first presidential couple since John F Kennedy and Jackie to sleep in separate bedrooms.
Trump is said to proudly refer to Sloveniaborn Melania as his ‘trophy wife’ and reportedly told friends his secret to marriage is to ‘do your own thing’. He is believed to be largely absent from the life of his youngest son, Barron, who only joined him in Washington DC in June last year after finishing his school year in New York City.
Melania was also reportedly horrified at the prospect of her husband becoming president. Mr Wolff claims she spent her life before becoming first lady devoted to her only son, isolating herself from the wider Trump family.
HOW HE MOCKS HIS HEIRS
PRESIDENT Trump takes great delight in embarrassing his sons Donald Jr and Eric, and reportedly mocks their lack of intelligence, the book claims.
Mr Wolff describes the pair’s relationship with their father as ‘infantile’ as they embraced his humiliating blows.
The author claims: ‘Their father took some regular pleasure in pointing out that they were in the back of the room when God handed out brains.’
He said Ivanka, widely regarded as the president’s favourite child, was the most intelligent of the Trump children, while her husband Jared was thought of as a ‘smooth operator’.
The eldest Trump sons have taken over the family business since their father entered public office and are ‘reasonably competent’ as trustees of the Trump Organisation. While he was running for office, Trump employees were allegedly glad that he was away from the office.
But Donald Jr felt threatened by campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and wanted to carve out a role for himself in his father’s administration.
He reportedly plotted to oust the aide and met ‘dubious characters’ in Trump Tower to try and find damaging information on Hillary Clinton and win his father’s favour.
VOGUE EDITOR’S DIPLOMATIC MISSION
THE British editor of American Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour, is said to have failed to ingratiate herself with the president during an extraordinary bid to be appointed the US ambassador to London. She apparently refused to engage in what Wolff calls ‘the perp walk’ – Trump’s desire to have celebrities photographed walking into his Trump Tower skyscraper in New York – just as in America ‘perps’ or criminal ‘perpetrators’ are pictured on the ‘walk of shame’ into court.
Mr Wolff writes that Ms Wintour ‘had hoped to be named America’s ambassador to the UK under Obama and, when that didn’t happen, closely aligned herself with Hillary Clinton’. He adds: ‘Now Wintour arrived at Trump Tower (but refused to do the perp walk) and suggested she become Trump’s ambassador to the Court of St James’s.
‘And Trump was inclined to entertain the idea. Fortunately... there was no chemistry.’
LOVE YOUR SHOES
NATIONAL leaders seem to have widely discovered that it pays to praise Trump, as he so clearly enjoys having his ego massaged. But his responses to their efforts are not always statesmanlike or useful. On a key visit to Saudi Arabia last May, he was being buttered up at a lavish €62million party, including leaders from 50 Arab and Muslim nations, when Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told his US counterpart: ‘You are a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible…’
Trump allegedly replied: ‘Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man…’
THINKING ‘BIGLY’
TRUMP is often mocked for thinking the term ‘bigly’ is a word – and it seems he is obsessed with enormity. He is said to constantly believe that he can pull off a stunt that will
convince the media, and most of the public, to support him. But he believes it has to be large and impressive, and demands his staff come up with something suitable.
‘Big things, we need big things,’ he is said to say angrily and often. ‘This isn’t big. I need big. Bring me big. Do you even know what big is?’ He seems to think ‘peace in the Middle East’ is such an issue – despite in recent weeks having gone on to cause consternation by unilaterally declaring Jerusalem to be the true capital of Israel.
I’M THE SUN GOD
THE president thinks of himself as a Sun God who can control the fortunes of his closest advisers, according to Mr Wolff. The author claimed Trump would only listen to those he had spoken to last, creating a desperate struggle among his inner circle for attention.
Mr Wolff said the president sees himself as the ‘absolute centre of attention, dispensing favour and delegating power, which could, at any moment, be withdrawn’.
In a bid to influence Trump’s decisions, most of his close advisers reportedly sat and ate dinner with him at the start of his presidency.
But several months later, chief strategist Steve Bannon was the only one who would eat with the President. According to Reince Priebus, Trump’s former chief of staff, most staff avoided the dinners as they were ‘torturous’.
Mr Wolff said those who wanted to influence Trump had to be ‘all in’, which partly explains Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s move to Washington DC.
The author claims the President is not moved by particular arguments as he ‘does not actually listen’, but responds to the constant presence of a close adviser.
I’VE LOST MY MIND? YOU’VE LOST YOURS!
FORMER chief strategist Mr Bannon allegedly started to doubt the president’s state of mind in the wake of the Charlottesville race riots in August last year.
Trump provoked fury when he said there was violence on both sides of the protest in Virginia, but eventually bowed under pressure to condemn the actions of the neoNazis who attended.
After saying his boss could be ousted from office under the 25th Amendment – and had ‘lost his stuff’ – the president countered that Mr Bannon had ‘lost his mind’ after he was fired.
THINKS HE CAN GET AWAY WITH MURDER
TRUMP is openly surprised that he is not universally popular with the media, and has developed unshakeable confidence in his popularity with his core voters. Polls suggest he is consistently supported by 35% of the population, regardless of what he tweets, says or does – and they ‘would, in his estimation, let him get away with shooting someone on Fifth Avenue’.
DUBBED HIS AIDE ‘A GREAT PIECE OF TAIL’
COMMUNICATIONS chief Hope Hicks is feared to be ‘captive’ in the Trump administration, her family have claimed.
The 29-year-old, who previously worked in public relations for Ivanka, was one of the first to join the Trump campaign in 2015.
Mr Wolff wrote: ‘In time, she became as absolutely dedicated to and tolerant of Trump as anyone who had ever worked for him.’
She rose from official spokesperson to be the president’s third director of communications, succeeding Anthony Scaramucci.
Ms Hicks was also revealed to have had a relationship with Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager.
Mr Lewandowski, who had no previous national campaign experience, was later fired in June 2016 because of a strained relationship with the Trump family.
Mr Wolff claims Ms Hicks confided in the future president over her boyfriend’s treatment in the press after he was sacked.
Trump reportedly replied: ‘Why? You’ve already done enough for him. You’re the best piece of tail he’ll ever have.’ The president enjoys a close working relationship with Ms Hicks, who insiders refer to as Trump’s ‘real daughter’, according to Mr Wolff.
HIS U.N. ENVOY ‘IS AS AMBITIOUS AS LUCIFER’
NIKKI Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, has presidential ambitions of her own and was described by one senior source as being ‘as ambitious as Lucifer’.
Ms Haley, who has recently staunchly defended Trump’s wish to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, reportedly believes he can only last one term in office.
The diplomat is thought to be the president’s heir-apparent, having spent a significant amount of time alone with him on Air Force One. Despite being a devoted supporter of Trump, Mr Wolff claims Ms Haley is a more moderate Republican, like Ivanka. The UN ambassador was introduced to the Trump family by the president’s 36-year-old daughter, whom she initially became friends with.
But despite her close links to the family, Ms Haley is thought to be treated with some suspicion by Trump’s inner circle.
An insider told Mr Wolff her danger is that ‘she is so much smarter’ than the president.
Those in Trump’s inner circle who distrusted Ms Haley reportedly blocked her from being considered for the position of secretary of state before Rex Tillerson was appointed.