Donald Trump’s tumultuous White House was filled with so many leakers that the type of behind-the-scenes details that usually emerge in post-presidency books were instead revealed in real-time.
Still, two new portraits of Trump’s time in office provide fresh insights into his chaotic tenure. It’s tempting to call these disclosures shocking, but Trump’s erratic behavior has inured the country to the jaw-dropping and the flat out insane.
Author Michael Wolff, who skewered the Trump administration in two previous books, is back with a third: Landslide. Somehow Trump agreed to a sit-down interview with Wolff, even though he said 2018’s Fire and Fury was filled with “lies and misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist.”
“I don’t blame you. I blame my people,” Trump told Wolff.
Trump also expressed his disappointment with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has been more moderate that conservatives hoped. “Where would he be without me? I saved his life,” Trump told Wolff, according to excepts in Axios. “He wouldn’t even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.”
Trump stuck by Kavanaugh even as his confirmation was imperiled by a sexual assault accusation.
“Practically every senator called me … and said, ‘Cut him loose, sir, cut him loose. He’s killing us, Kavanaugh.’ … I said, ‘I can’t do that.'”
But now Trump is having second thoughts, saying Kavanaugh “hasn’t had the courage you need to be a great justice.”
According to Wolff, Trump is bitter that his three Supreme Courts picks didn’t work to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Wolff reports that Trump also expressed disdain for his supporters who attended his infamous January 6th rally before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, calling them “the great unwashed.” He joked that he should invest in a line of tattoo parlors for MAGA diehards.
The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig and Phil Rucker also have a new Trump book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year. In an excerpt published Tuesday morning, the authors depict 2020’s election day in the White House, where team Trump was anticipating a big win. I can’t lose to this f—— guy,” Trump reportedly told aides in reference to Joe Biden.
As the early results were coming in, guests at the White House’s election night party started to suspect that Rudy Giuliani was drunk. He caused a commotion trying to share a new ‘strategy’ with Trump, who was locked away in the residence watching cable news.
When Giuliani quizzed aides on the tally in swing states, he implored them to “Just say we won.”
Of course, Trump lost. He began to sense the writing on the wall when Fox News called Arizona for Biden. Trump grew irate at Fox’s leadership. From the excerpt:
“What the f— is Fox doing?” Trump screamed. Then he barked orders to Kushner: “Call Rupert! Call James and Lachlan!” And to Jason Miller: “Get Sammon. Get Hemmer. They’ve got to reverse this.” The president was referring to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, as well as Bill Sammon, a top news executive at Fox.
Trump’s tirade continued. “What the f—?” he bellowed. “What the f— are these guys doing? How could they call this this early?”
Giuliani offered a solution:
“Just go declare victory right now,” Giuliani told Trump. “You’ve got to go declare victory now.”
Giuliani’s interjection of his “just-say-you-won” strategy infuriated Trump’s campaign advisers.
“It’s hard to be the responsible parent when there’s a cool uncle around taking the kid to the movies and driving him around in a Corvette,” one of these advisers recalled. “When we say the president can’t say that, being responsible is not the easiest place to be when you’ve got people telling the president what he wants to hear. It’s hard to tell the president no. It’s not an enviable place to be.”
As the night wore on and Trump’s early lead began to evaporate, his sense that the election was rigged began to grow. It’s never waned.
