‘ Crazytown’ White House

> Book’s revelations raise concerns about Trump

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s White House is mired in a perpetual “nervous breakdown” with staff battling to rein in the worst impulses of an angry, paranoid leader, according to a new book by veteran reporter Bob Woodward ( pix).

Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews, the respected White House chronicler describes a coalition of like-minded aides plotting to prevent Trump from destroying the world trade system, undermining national security and sparking wars.

While Woodward’s is not the first unflattering investigation into Trump’s White House, it carries particular weight coming from the man who together with Carl Bernstein authored the Watergate expose that brought down Richard Nixon.

Trump’s White House is described as having undergone “no less than an administrative coup d’etat”, according to The Washington Post which received an advance copy of Fear: Trump in the White House, which will be released on Sept 11.

The White House hit back at “fabricated stories” as the book piled fresh pressure on a president besieged by multiple investigations and a looming election that could damage his Republican Party.

Trump claimed that the quotes in the book were “made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes”.

“Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?” he added, after tweeting earlier statements by defence secretary James Mattis, White House chief of staff John Kelly and spokesman Sarah Sanders refuting the quoted statements.

Mattis and former economic adviser Gary Cohn are cited among the aides actively circumventing Trump’s orders and even stealing documents off his desk.

Woodward recounts that Mattis – having had to explain to the president that the US must keep forces in South Korea “to prevent World War III” – told colleagues Trump had the understanding of “a fifth- or sixthgrader” (a 10- or 11-year-old child).

After the 2017 chemical attack blamed on Bashar al-Assad, Woodward claims Trump called the Pentagon chief to press for the Syrian leader’s assassination.

“Let’s kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the lot of them,” Trump reportedly told him.

Mattis agreed to take action – but after hanging up ordered “more measured” steps against Syria, a punitive air strike.

While he does not name his sources, Woodward says he spoke with many currently or formerly working for Trump as he researched the book, discussing not just Trump’s personality but also major policy debates on North Korea and Afghanistan.

Woodward describes Trump regularly insulting key members of his team, branding attorney-general Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded”, and saying former chief of staff Reince Priebus is “like a little rat”.

The aides and cabinet members respond, privately, with equal disdain.

Woodward said Kelly told colleagues Trump is “unhinged” and “an idiot”.

“It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown,” Kelly is quoted as saying. – AFP