How Donald Trump ‘bullied and humiliated’ world leaders

‘Near-sadistic verbal assaults’ reserved for women leaders, renowned Watergate investigative journalist tells CNN

Donald Trump regularly “bullied and humiliated” Theresa May on the phone, saying she was “spineless” on Brexit, one of the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal has claimed.

The US president attacked the then British prime minister as “a fool” for her pro-Remain stance on the European Union, ties with Nato and other issues the pair disagreed on, Carl Bernstein reported for CNN.

“He’d get agitated about something with Theresa May, then he’d get nasty with her on the phone call,” wrote Bernstein, quoting a source who described the verbal assaults as “near-sadistic”.

“It’s the same interaction in every setting with just no filter applied,” the source said.

Trump’s relationship with May was notoriously fraught, with both taking very different approaches to issues which once bonded the two countries.

Observers described the special relationship during the period May served as premier as arguably at its lowest point since the Suez Crisis of 1956

According to Bernstein’s sources, Trump reserved his most vicious verbal attacks for female leaders and heads of state.

He reportedly denigrated May and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, while he was always cordial — even reverential — to strongman leaders such presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

“Some of the things he said to Angela Merkel are just unbelievable: he called her ‘stupid,’ and accused her of being in the pocket of the Russians,” the source claimed.

“He’s toughest [in the phone calls] with those he looks at as weaklings and weakest with the ones he ought to be tough with.”

While Merkel managed to outwardly appear unruffled during the conversations, Bernstein’s source said that May, in contrast, became “flustered and nervous”. “He clearly intimidated her and meant to,” the source said.

Trump was also said to have resisted asking Merkel — at the UK’s urging — to publicly hold Putin accountable for the Salisbury poisonings of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

The claims made to Bernstein, who together with Bob Woodward revealed scandals that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, were similar to some of those made in former national security adviser John Bolton’s newly released book The Room Where it

Happened.

However, the calls described to CNN cover a far longer period than Bolton’s tenure and are much more comprehensive, according to Bernstein.

Bolton also said he noticed his former boss was much harsher with female leaders than with male ones.

Bolton, conversely, has claimed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom Trump sees as a natural ally, played the president “like a fiddle”.

“I’ve known Boris before he was prime minister,” Bolton said.

“I think he’s got a good sense of humour and I had the sense that behind those twinkling eyes he was playing Trump like a fiddle too.

“There was a sea change in the personal relationship that existed between Trump and May when Johnson came in. ”—