Former Trump aides take aim at Woodward’s book
WASHINGTON — Two former Trump administration officials on Tuesday criticized journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, “Fear,” as the president continues to fume over its portrayal of a White House in disarray.
Former White House staff secretary Rob Porter and former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn issued statements on the book Tuesday. Both were first reported by the news site Axios.
“Having now read Bob Woodward’s ‘Fear,’ I am struck by the selective and often misleading portrait it paints of the President and his administration,” Porter said.
In one anecdote reported by Woodward, Trump ordered Porter to draft a letter on withdrawing the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement in the spring of 2017. Fearing that such a move would lead to economic and diplomatic calamity, Porter reportedly spoke with Cohn, who told him he would “just take the paper off his desk,” referring to Trump.
In his statement, Porter did not address any specific episodes reported in the book but said the suggestion that materials were “stolen” from Trump’s desk “misunderstands how the White House document review process works.”
He also defended his role as staff secretary, which he described as a position that required him to “ensure that relevant viewpoints were considered” by Trump.
“Fulfilling this responsibility does not make someone part of a ‘resistance’ or mean they are seeking to ‘thwart’ the President’s agenda. Quite the opposite,” Porter said.
Cohn did not dispute any Copies of Bob Woodward’s book “Fear,” depicting chaos in the White House, go on sale at a Costco in Arlington, Va. specific details reported by Woodward, issuing a statement that took aim at the book as a whole. “This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House. I am proud of my service in the Trump Administration, and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda,” Cohn said.
In an exchange with reporters in the Oval Office after a briefing on Hurricane Florence, Trump said he appreciated the statements by Cohn and Porter, which he argued show that Woodward’s book “is just a piece of fiction.”
“Ah, well, you shouldn’t be talking about that right now because it doesn’t matter,” Trump told the reporter who asked the question. “But I really appreciate their statement. Their statement was excellent.”
Porter resigned from his position in February after his two ex-wives accused him of physical and emotional abuse. Cohn announced his resignation in March, citing major differences with Trump over trade policy.
Woodward has said that he stands by his reporting, even as Trump has sharply criticized him in the week since excerpts of the book were first released.
In an interview broadcast Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged that his father can trust fewer people around him than he would like in the wake of an anonymous commentary published last week in The New York Times that was written by a senior Trump administration official, according to The New York Times.
It depicts a “two-track presidency” in which Trump acts according to his own whims while many of his top aides, in the author’s words, work to thwart his “more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”
“I think there are people in there that he can trust, it’s just — it’s a much smaller group than I would like it to be,” the president’s eldest son said.
Asked who he trusts, Trump Jr. declined to answer but suggested family members working in the White House remain in the fold. The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, are White House advisers. “I’m talking outside family. That goes without saying,” Trump Jr. said.
He added: “It would be easier to get things done if you’re able to fully trust everyone around you.”