Trump ‘bullied’ May during calls
Donald Trump regularly ‘‘bullied and humiliated’’ Theresa May on phone calls, calling her a ‘‘fool’’ and ‘‘spineless’’ on Brexit, according to officials privy to the conversations.
The United States president reportedly attacked the thenBritish prime minister for her stance on the European Union, Nato, immigration, and other issues the pair disagreed on.
The details of the conversations have been published by Carl Bernstein, one of two reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, quoting White House and intelligence officials who are aware of the contents of Trump’s calls with world leaders.
‘‘He’d get agitated about something with Theresa May, then he’d get nasty with her on the phone call,’’ Bernstein wrote for CNN, quoting an official who described the verbal assaults as ‘‘near-sadistic’’.
‘‘It’s the same interaction in every setting with just no filter applied,’’ one of the sources said.
Trump’s relationship with
May was notoriously fraught, with both taking vastly different approaches to issues that once bonded the two countries.
Bernstein’s sources say Trump reserved his most vicious attacks for female leaders. He reportedly denigrated May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but was cordial – even reDverential – to strongman leaders Vladimir Putin of Russia and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ‘‘He’s toughest [on the phone] with those he looks at as weaklings and weakest with the ones he ought to be tough with.’’
While the insults were ‘‘water off a duck’s back’’ for Merkel, May became ‘‘flustered and nervous’’ on the calls. ‘‘He clearly intimidated her and meant to," they said.
The claims made to Bernstein, a former reporter who together with Bob Woodward revealed scandals that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon as president, are similar to some made in former national security adviser John Bolton’s new book. However, the phone calls described to CNN cover a far longer period than Bolton’s White House stint and are more comprehensive, according to Bernstein.
When asked to comment, Downing Street referred reporters to its website, which lists brief descriptions of the content of some of the calls.
The news came as a judge in New York issued a temporary restraining order against a book written by Trump’s niece, Mary. Her book, due to be published next month, presents an unflattering account of life in the Trump family.