Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency wapo.st/2LVev45?tid=ss…
John Dowd was convinced that Trump would commit perjury if he talked to Mueller. He staged a practice session to try to make his point. Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia probe, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until Trump eventually lost his cool. 
A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.
After Trump left a National Security Council meeting, Woodward recounts, “Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like — and had the understanding of — ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.’ ”
In one small group meeting, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”
Reince Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, “the devil’s workshop,” and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the witching hour.”
Trump told Porter that Sessions was a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”
After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.
Gary Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that Trump was intending to sign to formally withdraw the U.S. from a trade agreement with South Korea.
Trump was sharply criticized for his handling of the Charlottesville rally. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given.”
When Cohn handed Trump his resignation letter, Trump told him, “This is treason,” and persuaded him to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn’s horror. “I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,” Kelly told Cohn.
Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump’s handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.
Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: “Donald, I’m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?”
John Dowd explained to Mueller why he was trying to keep Trump from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell."
Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.” But Trump, convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.
“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd.
The next morning, Dowd resigned.
“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd.
The next morning, Dowd resigned.
