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a65d6ee But in the man and his presidency Dowd had seen the tragic flaw. In the political back-and-forth, the evasions, the denials, the tweeting, the obscuring, crying "Fake News," the indignation, Trump had one overriding problem that Dowd knew but could not bring himself to say to the president: "You're a fucking liar." -- Bob Woodward
bd96290 Obama said, 'I welcome debate among my team, but I won't tolerate division. war obama-s-war bob-woodward military government Bob Woodward
d48be9d The reality was that the United States in 2017 was tethered to the words and actions of an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader. Members of his staff had joined to purposefully block some of what they believed were the president's most dangerous impulses. It was a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world. mercurial united-states Bob Woodward
f882e82 The president was speaking as if the U.S. military was a mercenary force for hire. If a country wouldn't pay us to be there, then we didn't want to be there. As if there were no American interests in forging and keeping a peaceful world order, as if the American organizing principle was money. Bob Woodward
924559d White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who was a commander in the Naval Reserves, tried several times to persuade Mattis to appear on Sunday talk shows on behalf of the administration. The answer was always no. "Sean," Mattis finally said, "I've killed people for a living. If you call me again, I'm going to fucking send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?" Bob Woodward
e459747 Next, Cohn repeated what everyone was saying: Interest rates were going to go up over the foreseeable future. I agree, Trump said. "We should just go borrow a lot of money right now, hold it, and then sell it and make money." Cohn was astounded at Trump's lack of basic understanding. He tried to explain. If you as the federal government borrow money through issuing bonds, you are increasing the U.S. deficit. What do you mean? Trump asked. J.. Bob Woodward
549ffe1 Bannon added that Trump had another advantage. He spoke in a voice that did not sound political. This was what Barack Obama had in 2008 in the primary contest against Clinton, who spoke like the trained politician she was. Her tempo was overly practiced. Even when telling the truth, she sounded like she was lying to you. Politicians like Hillary can't talk naturally, Bannon said. It was a mechanical way of speaking, right out of the polling.. Bob Woodward
f8de0f7 Cohn and Porter worked together to derail what they believed were Trump's most impulsive and dangerous orders. That document and others like it just disappeared. When Trump had a draft on his desk to proofread, Cohn at times would just yank it, and the president would forget about it. But if it was on his desk, he'd sign it. "It's not what we did for the country," Cohn said privately. "It's what we saved him from doing." trump white-house Bob Woodward
78d2c5a Sometimes,doing nothing is the best reaction. Bob Woodward
fa42e0e When Trump called Mexicans "rapists" in the speech announcing his candidacy on June 16, 2015, Priebus called him and said, "You can't talk like that. We've been working really hard to win over Hispanics." hispanics Bob Woodward
7fa54ff Obama had campaigned against Bush's ideas and approaches. But, Donilon, for one, thought that Obama had perhaps underestimated the extent to which he had inherited George W. Bush's presidency - the apparatus, personnel and mind-set of war making. war bob-woodward obama-s-wars george-w-bush Bob Woodward
ea5a62f Cohn removed the letter draft from the Resolute Desk. He placed it in a blue folder marked "KEEP." "I stole it off his desk," he later told an associate. "I wouldn't let him see it. He's never going to see that document. Got to protect the country." Bob Woodward
2edf93c Ailes said they were there for their weekly debate prep. The first presidential debate against Hillary Clinton was a month and a half away, on September 26. "Debate prep?" Bannon said. "You, Christie and Rudy?" "This is the second one." "He's actually prepping for the debates?" Bannon said, suddenly impressed. "No, he comes and plays golf and we just talk about the campaign and stuff like that. But we're trying to get him in the habit." Bob Woodward
b460d14 Grievance was a big part of Trump's core, very much like a 14-year-old boy who felt he was being picked on unfairly. You couldn't talk to him in adult logic. Teenage logic was necessary. Bob Woodward
325ea33 I'm done doing this!' Obama said, finally erupting. 'We've all agreed on a plan. And we're all going to stick to that plan. I haven't agreed to anything beyond that.' The 30,000 was a 'hard cap,' he said forcefully. 'I don't want enablers to be used as wiggle room. The easy thing for me to do - politically - would actually be to say no' to the 30,000. Then he gestured out the Oval Office windows, across the Potomac, in the direction of the .. war chief-of-staff obama-s-war rahm-emmanuel robert-gates bob-woodward secretary-of-defense military president Bob Woodward
c9dcaa6 Nearly all economists disagreed with Trump, but he found an academic economist who hated free trade as much as he did. He brought him to the White House as both director of trade and industrial policy and director of the National Trade Council. Peter Navarro was a 67-year-old Harvard PhD in economics. "This is the president's vision," Navarro publicly said. "My function really as an economist is to try to provide the underlying analytics th.. Bob Woodward
836e03c All the air seemed to have come out of Tillerson. He could not abide Trump's attack on the generals. The president was speaking as if the U.S. military was a mercenary force for hire. If a country wouldn't pay us to be there, then we didn't want to be there. As if there were no American interests in forging and keeping a peaceful world order, as if the American organizing principle was money. Bob Woodward
d09928c Trump liked signing. It meant he was doing things, and he had an up-and-down penmanship that looked authoritative in black Magic Marker. Bob Woodward
335b15a Having failed in efforts to control or curtail the president's tweeting, Priebus searched for a way to have practical impact. Since the tweets were often triggered by the president's obsessive TV watching, he looked for ways to shut off the television. But television was Trump's default activity. Sunday nights were often the worst. Trump would come back to the White House from the weekend at one of his golf resorts just in time to catch pol.. Bob Woodward
55f5036 For Priebus, it was the worst meeting among many terrible ones. Six months into the administration, he could see vividly that they had a fundamental problem of goal setting. Where were they going? The distrust in the room had been thick and corrosive. The atmosphere was primitive; everyone was ostensibly on the same side, but they had seemed suited up in battle armor, particularly the president. This was what craziness was like, Priebus con.. Bob Woodward
fbfb5d6 As an extreme measure, Hicks, Porter, Gary Cohn and White House social media director Dan Scavino proposed they set up a committee. They would draft some tweets that they believed Trump would like. If the president had an idea for a tweet, he could write it down or get one of them in and they would vet it. Was it factually accurate? Was it spelled correctly? Did it make sense? Bob Woodward
83842cb Coming back from the G20 summit, Trump was editing an upcoming speech with Porter. Scribbling his thoughts in neat, clean penmanship, the president wrote, "TRADE IS BAD." Though he never said it in a speech, he had finally found the summarizing phrase and truest expression of his protectionism, isolationism and fervent American nationalism." Bob Woodward
7cfc2a4 Sometimes, the more you protect your force, the less secure you may be. Sometimes, the more force is used, the less effective it is. petraeus obama Bob Woodward
af05326 NAFTA was another enduring Trump target. The president had said for months he wanted to leave NAFTA and renegotiate. "The only way to get a good deal is to blow up the old deal. When I blow it up, in that six months, they'll come running back to the table." His theory of negotiation was that to get to yes, you first had to say no. "Once you blow it up," Cohn replied, "it may be over. That's the most high-risk strategy. That either works or .. Bob Woodward
a14089a Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic... leadership bob-woodward obama-s-wars idealists president Bob Woodward
a80a88a During an hour-long conversation mid-flight, he laid out his theory of the war. First, Jones said, the United States could not lose the war or be seen as losing the war. 'If we're not successful here,' Jones said, 'you'll have a staging base for global terrorism all over the world. People will say the terrorists won. And you'll see expressions of these kinds of things in Africa, South America, you name it. Any developing country is going to.. war bob-woodward obama-s-wars foreign-policy terrorism united-states Bob Woodward
b51e4d8 McMaster said that he believed Mattis and Tillerson had concluded that the president and the White House were crazy. As a result, they sought to implement and even formulate policy on their own without interference or involvement from McMaster, let alone the president. Bob Woodward
b9024f6 Cohn had a packet of Goldman Sachs-style charts and tables to educate the president on taxes. Trump was not interested and did not read it. Bob Woodward
86a1084 In another discussion with the president, Cohn unveiled a Commerce Department study showing the U.S. absolutely needed to trade with China. "If you're the Chinese and you want to really just destroy us, just stop sending us antibiotics. You know we don't really produce antibiotics in the United States?" The study also showed that nine major antibiotics were not produced in the United States, including penicillin. China sold 96.6 percent of .. Bob Woodward
9956b4f Despite almost daily reports of chaos and discord in the White House, the public did not know how bad the internal situation actually was. Trump was always shifting, rarely fixed, erratic. He would get in a bad mood, something large or small would infuriate him, and he would say about the KORUS trade agreement, "We're withdrawing today." impulsiveness Bob Woodward
b31044c Mattis and Gary Cohn had several quiet conversations about The Big Problem: The president did not understand the importance of allies overseas, the value of diplomacy or the relationship between the military, the economy and intelligence partnerships with foreign governments. Bob Woodward
2e6ae6c Conway agreed with Bannon that if the Trump campaign could make the race about Hillary, not Trump, they would win with those hidden Trump voters. If the race stayed about Trump, "we'll probably lose." hillary-clinton Bob Woodward
d321185 McChrystal had organized a jaw-dropping counterterrorism campaign inside Iraq, but the tactical successes did not translate into a strategic victory. This was why counterinsurgency - blanketing the population in safety and winning them over - was necessary. war politics obama-s-wars foreign-policy iraq terrorism Bob Woodward
37e227f Almost everything about Afghanistan was troubling Mullen. As Obama was giving intense focus on the war, Mullen was feeling more personal responsibility. Afghanistan had been marked by 'incredible neglect,' he told some of his officers. 'It's almost like you're on a hunger strike and you're on the 50th day, and all of a sudden you're going to try to feed this person. Well, they're not going to eat very quickly. I mean, every organ in the bod.. war afghanistan bob-woodward united-states-foreign-policy obama-s-wars Bob Woodward
c779b8b Paris was one of the justifications the Obama administration used as part of the regulatory record to justify the cost and benefits of the Clean Power Plan." That was an Obama-era 460-page rule to lower carbon dioxide emitted by power plants that the EPA estimated would save 4,500 lives a year. Pruitt was already moving to end the policy." Bob Woodward
56f505b Bannon, Kushner and Mnuchin, the former Goldman Sachs executive, presented Trump with a plan for him to give $25 million to the campaign. "No way," Trump said. "Fuck that. I'm not doing it." Where were the famous Republican high-donor guys? "Where the fuck's the money? Where's all this money from these guys? Jared, you're supposed to be raising all this money. Not going to do it." -- Bob Woodward
a21d89f Bannon said. As for running for president, "Zero chance. First off, those two action items. The fucker will not write one check. He's not a guy who writes checks." Bob Woodward
0849aea About 15 minutes before the Tomahawks would hit, a warning was sent to the Russians at the airfield. When the call was made, the Russian who picked up the phone at the airfield sounded intoxicated. Bob Woodward
e8160ce 1. Achieve political stability that will include a political settlement with the insurgent Taliban. 2. Push for institutional actions by the Afghan government to counter the Taliban. 3. Increase pressure on neighboring Pakistan, which was playing a double game--nominally allied with the United States, but also supporting terrorists and the Taliban. 4. Maintain international support from the 39 countries allied with the United States in a co.. Bob Woodward
dea117e It seems clear that many of the president's senior advisers, especially those in the national security realm, are extremely concerned with his erratic nature, his relative ignorance, his inability to learn, as well as what they consider his dangerous views. Bob Woodward
6805443 Sean," Mattis finally said, "I've killed people for a living. If you call me again, I'm going to fucking send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?" Bob Woodward
245f360 Those who are in the orbit, but nonetheless on the edges, can often be the real discoverers. It was why at times, the journalist, the historian and even the novelist paints the fullest picture of an era Bob Woodward
0be5313 For Mr. Trump, though, bringing in Mr. Bannon was the political equivalent of ordering comfort food." Bannon tried to sit down with Trump and walk him through refinements of the strategy and how to focus on particular states. The candidate had no interest in talking about it." steve-bannon us-elections-2016 Bob Woodward
62e4f95 The reporter had to set his or her own course, had to push back against editors at times, to roam and be free to explore, to defy the conventional wisdom if necessary. It meant the reporters, whatever they covered, had to find the bookkeepers and the Deep Throats if possible. At the same time, as we had just been reminded, reporters need editors. In the end we are collaborators and they make the final calls. Bob Woodward
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