Trump weighed bombing drug labs
According to book by reporter
WASHINGTON — As president, Donald Trump weighed bombing drug labs in Mexico after one of his leading public health officials came into the Oval Office, wearing a dress uniform, and said such facilities should be handled by putting "lead to target” to stop the flow of illicit substances across the border into the United States.
“He raised it several times, eventually asking a stunned Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether the United States could indeed bomb the labs,” according to a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. White House officials said the official, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, often wore his dress uniform for meetings with Trump, which confused the former president.
“The response from White House aides was not to try to change Trump’s view, but to consider asking Giroir not to wear his uniform to the Oval Office anymore,” Haberman writes in “Confidence Man,” a lengthy book about Trump’s time in New York and as president.
The 607-page tome, which has long been awaited by many of Trump’s aides, is set to be published Tuesday. A copy was obtained by The Washington Post. The book details unusual and erratic interactions between Trump and world leaders, members of Congress, as well as his aides, along with behind-thescenes accounts of his time as a businessman.
Presented with a detailed accounting of the book’s reporting, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich responded: “While coastal elites obsess over boring books chock full of anonymously sourced fairytales, America is a nation in decline. President Trump is focused on Saving America, and there’s nothing the Fake News can do about it.”
Haberman interviewed Trump three times for the book — in which he claimed to not have taken any important documents from the White House, among other statements — and it includes his written answers to her questions. The book delves into some of the most contentious episodes of his presidency, including his impeachment trials, the weeks after the election when he tried to overturn the results, and his handling of the pandemic, among other topics.
Throughout the book, Trump is portrayed as transactional and narcissistic but always attuned to his own political fortunes, no matter the issue. During his meeting in the Oval Office with Barack Obama in 2016, he asked Obama how he kept his approval ratings high, according to the book. He told advisers that he needs people such as Pennsylvania Senate nominee Mehmet Oz in office in case the election is challenged in 2024 or they try to impeach him again.
Trump was often crass and profane about world leaders and others in his orbit, according to the book, which alleges that he referred to Prime Minister Angela Merkel of Germany using an obscenity.
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg was dying in 2020, the book claims, Trump would sarcastically raise his hands to the sky in prayer and say: “Please God. Please watch over her. Every life is precious,” before asking an aide, “How much longer do you think she has?”
When former New Jersey governor Chris Christie pressed Trump to more forcefully condemn white supremacists during his 2016 campaign, Trump said he would — but he was in no rush. “A lot of these people vote,” Trump said, describing some of the white supremacists.