ALL THE PRESIDENT’S CLANGERS
▶ Woodward book paints picture of chaotic life inside the White House
Bob Woodward has written books about every American president since Richard Nixon. But despite a stellar reputation and many attempts to gain access, Woodward hit a wall when he tried to speak to Donald Trump about life inside the White House.
The transcript of a phone call he was granted, released on Tuesday, provides an insight into a government where only one man’s decision counts.
In the conversation, Mr Trump initially claims he would have been open to an interview but knew nothing about Woodward’s requests and blamed his staff.
Fear, to be published on Tuesday, describes a White House racing towards a “nervous breakdown”, where aides have taken to removing papers from Mr Trump’s desk to prevent reckless policy decisions, and where senior figures, such as John Kelly, the chief of staff, refer to Mr Trump as an “idiot”.
The recording of his 11-minute call with Woodward reveals how the president squirmed when asked his side of the story.
The reporter – who had permission to record the conversation – explains how he passed requests through a string of senators and senior aides.
“It’s really too bad, because nobody told me about it,” the president said. “You know I’m very open to you. I think you’ve always been fair.”
He then admits that Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina, had raised the request, and puts Counsellor to the President Kellyanne Conway directly on the line after she entered the Oval Office.
“I put in the request,” she said. “But you know, they – it was rejected. I can only take it so far.”
By the end of the call the mood had soured.
“We’re going to have a very inaccurate book, and that’s too bad,” Mr Trump said.
The result was that the White House appeared to be badly wrong-footed on Tuesday as the first excerpts of the book emerged.
Based on hours of interviews with second-hand sources, Woodward claims that Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Mr Trump had the understanding of a “fifth or sixth grader”, and reveals that Mr Trump failed a practice interview about the Russia investigation – “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit,” his lawyer at the time, John Dowd, is reported to have said.
“The operations of the Oval Office and White House were less the Art of the Deal and more often the Unravelling of the Deal,” Woodward writes. “The unravelling was often right before your eyes, a Trump rally on continuous loop. There was no way not to look.”
Mr Mattis tried to spin Woodward’s picture of chaos as a symptom of healthy debate.
“While responsible policy making in the real world is inherently messy, it is also essential that we challenge every assumption to find the best option,” he said. “I embrace such debate and the open competition of ideas.”
Philip Rucker, White House bureau chief for The Washington Post, said denials failed to address other lines in the book, such as Mr Kelly saying the presidency was in “crazytown”.
“There’s a feeling inside that the president is really upset about this – verging on paranoia – that he’s very bothered about what’s been said about him to Woodward,” he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
While focused on the key characters in the Trump White House, Woodward’s book sheds light on foreign policy.
The US president wanted to have Syrian President Bashar Al Assad assassinated last year, according to testimony.
Mr Mattis, however, ignored the request, disregarding orders to limit what they saw as dangerous behaviour.
According to the book, Mr Trump told Mr Mattis that he wanted to have Mr Al Assad killed after the Syrian leader was accused of launching a chemical attack on civilians.
Mr Mattis told Mr Trump he would “get right on it”, but developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Mr Al Assad personally.
The attack in April last year killed dozens and prompted a US missile strike against a Syrian airbase Washington claimed was used to launch the assault on civilians.