Woodward’s Trump book brings denials

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump so alarmed his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, during a discussion in January of the nuclear standoff with North Korea that an exasperated Mattis told colleagues that “the president acted like — and had the understanding — of a ‘fifth- or A full transcript of President Donald Trump’s phone call with journalist Bob Woodward is available at Dispatch.com.

sixth-grader.”’

At another moment, Trump’s aides became so worried about his judgment that Gary Cohn, the chief economic adviser, took a letter from the president’s desk authorizing the withdrawal of the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn told an associate that Trump never realized it was missing.

These anecdotes are in a sprawling, highly anticipated new book by Bob Woodward, which depicts the Trump White House as a byzantine, treacherous, often out-of-control operation — “crazytown,” in the words of the chief of staff, John Kelly — hostage to the whims of an impulsive, ill-informed and undisciplined president.

Trump later pushed back in an interview with The Daily Caller, saying: “It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems.”

The president denied accounts that senior aides snatched sensitive documents off his desk to keep him from making impulsive decisions.