Assassinate Assad!
New book on ‘Crazytown’ White House by Watergate reporter reveals how ‘schoolboy’ Trump stunned aides with Syria solution
‘He’s gone off the rails’ ‘Let’ sf ****** kill him. Let’ s go in. Let’ s kill thef ****** lot of them ’
DONALD Trump once ordered the assassination of Bashar assad by saying: ‘let’s f****** kill him!’, a new book claims.
He is said to have given the order to defence secretary James Mattis last year after the Syrian dictator used chemical weapons on civilians.
The encounter left Mr Mattis thinking his boss had the intelligence of ‘a fifth or sixth grader’ – an 11-year-old.
The explosive claims are revealed in a book by Bob Woodward – the reporter who helped expose the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard nixon.
Fear: Inside the Trump White House claims the President’s own staff constantly mock his stupidity. Chief of staff John Kelly said Mr Trump was an ‘idiot’ who had ‘gone off the rails’ and his Presidency was in ‘crazytown’.
The US leader’s first chief of staff Reince Priebus summed up the Trump White House as a place with ‘natural predators at the table’.
He said: ‘When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody’. The jaw-dropping anecdotes were revealed in extracts published by the Washington Post. The book is out next Tuesday.
Unlike previous books about the Trump White House, Mr Woodward’s work was extensively researched with dozens of taped interviews, making it harder for the President to dispute the allegations.
Mr Woodward writes that Mr Trump was presiding over ‘ a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world’.
Mr Trump’s ignorance of foreign affairs left senior foreign policy advisers baffled, it is claimed. according to the book the President was dismissive about having the american military on the Korean peninsula, even though it allowed the US to detect a north Korean missile launch in seven seconds rather than 15 minutes from alaska.
Defence chief Mr Mattis explained that troops were there ‘in order to prevent World War III’. after assad launched a chemical attack on his own people in april, Mr Trump is said to have called Mr Mattis and told him: ‘let’s f****** kill him! let’s go in. let’s kill the f****** lot of them’. Mr Mattis hung up the phone and told a senior aide: ‘We’re not going to do any of that.’ Mr Trump later authorised a conventional air strike on Syria.
according to Mr Woodward’s book, White House aides became so exasperated they gave withering assessments of their boss to each other.
at one point Mr Kelly, the chief of staff, said of the President: ‘He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails.
‘We’re in crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.’
The abuse flowed both ways and Mr Trump allegedly mocked the Southern accent of attorney General Jeff Sessions, describing him to a staffer as ‘mentally retarded’. The book claims the President told commerce secretary Wilbur Ross: ‘I don’t trust you. You’re past your prime. I don’t want you doing any more negotiations’.
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster is said to have dressed ‘like a beer salesman’, while Mr Priebus was ‘a little rat’.
The President also lashed out at former new York Mayor Rudy Giuliani – now his legal advisor – and said he was a ‘baby’ after criticising his performance on TV.
Mr Trump allegedly told him: ‘They took your diaper off right there. You’re like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?’
one of the darkest days of the Trump Presidency was his handling of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, when he said ‘both sides’ were to blame. Mr Trump eventually apologised but according to Mr Woodward he privately thought it was the ‘biggest f****** mistake I’ve made’.
The book also has eye-popping details about the investigation into Russian involvement in US elections. In January, lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow staged a mock questioning session to prepare the President for cross-examination – but it was a disaster. They are later said to have claimed there was no way Mr Trump would avoid perjuring himself.
Mr Dowd said: ‘I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot...’ Days later Mr Dowd told the President he would end up in an ‘ orange jumpsuit’ if he testified. Mr Trump insisted he would be a good witness – and the next morning Mr Dowd resigned.
Mr Woodward’s book also details a row between the President’s eldest daughter Ivanka and Steve Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.
Mr Bannon screamed at her: ‘You walk around this place and act like you’re in charge, and you’re not. You’re on staff!’ Ivanka allegedly replied: ‘ I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.’