Trump wanted to have Assad assassinated last yr: Woodward

US President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defence secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behaviour.

Excerpts from the book, Fear: Trump in the White House, by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the

Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, scheduled for release on Septemebr 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump’s 20month-old presidency.

The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an “administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch.

According to the book, Trump told Defence Secretary Jim Mattis he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian President launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.

Mattis told Trump he would “get right on it,” but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally. Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like “a fifth- or sixth-grader,” according to the book.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the book is “nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.” The Pentagon declined to comment.

Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a series of books that provide behind-thescenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said.

Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost. Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws? —US President Donald Trump