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August 20 - August 25, 2018
I’d come to understand that he read at an eighth- or ninth-grade level. That’s fine for some, but for the leader of the free world? We went from Barack Obama, a scholar, an academic, to Donald Trump, who was just this side of functionally literate.
On day forty-three, paranoia had set in in the Oval Office. Every day, when I’d get the daily tweet alert, I’d think, Does he even realize he sent it? Because of his poor impulse control, he never paused to evaluate or consider the consequences on a global scale of sending a tweet.
Back then, he could process complex information, differences of opinion, and weigh the consequences. The Donald Trump of 2017 just went with his gut, based on a predawn call or on something he saw on TV or read online.
I seriously began to suspect that the president was delusional or had a mental condition, that made him forget from one day to the next. Was Donald like Ronald Reagan, impaired while everyone around him ran the show and covered up for him? Was Mike Pence his Nancy Reagan, with the same vapid, adoring looks?
Kellyanne was a chameleon, and she could change her camouflage depending on which candidate she supported or which room she was in.
They would give out anything, right from the bottle, no prescription needed. Say your back was hurting. You’d go in and complain, and walk out with a month’s supply of powerful pain medication. The logic behind the free flow of meds was that the cabinet and APs had to keep ticking.
As time went on, his relationship with Russia would be revealed like an onion, one layer at a time.
He’d already slipped up when he’d told the Russian ambassador in the Oval Office that he’d fired Comey for doing a poor job. And then, with Lester Holt, he changed the talking point again, saying, “I decided to fire him.”
“But regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey,” said Donald. “In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’ ”
but it seemed to me that she had overestimated her status on the campaign. It was possible that she was appointed to that role for the optics.
I guess they didn’t know that he would pocket sensitive notes or that once, after a meeting in the Oval with Michael Cohen, I saw him put a note in his mouth. Since Trump was ever the germaphobe, I was shocked he appeared to be chewing and swallowing the paper. It must have been something very, very sensitive.
Her plan, in a nutshell, is to replace public education with for-profit schools. She believes it would be better for students, but the truth is, it’s about profit. She’s so fixated on her agenda, she can’t give any consideration to building our public schools, providing financing for them, particularly their infrastructure needs.
I can tell you, after a year of sitting in those meetings and observing her, that she’s woefully inadequate and not equipped for her job. She is just as horrible as you suspect she is.
I was told later that “Goo-goo” and “FLIP,” an acronym for “f**cking little island people,” are racial slurs for Filipinos. George Conway is half Filipino. I had no idea what he meant when he’d said those words.
When I saw Donald that day, I said, “I’m sorry to hear about Don.” He said, “He is such a f**kup. He screwed up again, but this time, he’s screwing us all, big-time!”
I said, “You have to be aware of whom you’re talking to.” He said, “[The Scouts] are going to have to man up and grow some hair on their chests. They’re not little boys. They have to man up!” He kept saying “man up!” over and over, for days.
Anthony walked out, made a left by the chief of staff’s office, where all the assistants sat, stepped into a little cubby-like office, and started crying. One of the assistants saw and heard the whole thing. She described it as “a girly cry.”
told him that Kelly wanted everything to go through official channels. And I didn’t disagree. The president went back to his NYC days and said, “F**k Kelly! I will do whatever I want to do!”
“You are in a very precarious position, because you represent an administration that many of us disagree with. But I would not be loyal to what I am if I did not address those issues and ask you to go back and tell them, ‘Yes, they were respectful. . . . No, they would not allow
“Poor @OMAROSA. Offended when asked about Trump, same day as UVA Nazi rally. She had never realized that her only relevance is as Trump’s pet” —Keith Olbermann tweet, August 12, 2017, 7:45 a.m. “A PET? His animal? Keith! Really? These types of highly offensive inappropriate statements explain why you were dropped from TV! #FireHimGQ” —My response, August 13, 2017, 4:45 a.m.
My blind spot was shattered during that press conference, though. I could see with my own eyes that Trump had no idea what people were so upset about.
Trump’s greatest character flaw is his total lack of empathy, which is itself a function of his extreme narcissism.
Trump’s mental decline was on full display during this press conference. I was certain everyone would see it and that it would be the headline of every paper the next day.
I recognized by his posture and his tone that, if he’d been in private, he would have gone full DTN: “Donald Trump nuclear.”
Jenni Miller, a mother of three in Portland, Oregon, commented, “Glad we could pay for you [sic] little getaway. #deplorable.” And then Louise fired back: “I’m pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day ‘trip’ than you did. Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you’d be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours. You’re adorably out of touch.”
On the last day of that long, horrible month, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin refused to commit to the Obama-era initiative to put abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the twenty-dollar bill, replacing Andrew Jackson. His excuse was flimsy: “It’s not something I’m focused on at the moment,” he told CNBC. I know Trump wanted to dismantle Obama’s legacy, but this, too?
he came to the picture of Tubman, the woman who personally brought more than three hundred slaves to freedom, risking her own life every time, and said to me, “You want to put that face on the twenty-dollar bill?”
“Sixteen people versus in the thousands [with Katrina; the actual stat is 1,833].
He famously threw rolls of paper towels at the devastated victims who’d lost homes and didn’t have enough food or water.
Just like Charlottesville, it was all about him. The devastated people loved him!
During the campaign, Mark Burnett’s office had sent out reminders to everyone about their NDAs. The message was clear: forces were trying to protect DJT.
Personally, I think he enjoyed the Real Housewives of the White House spat. He loves to pit people against each other and watch them fight it out, even those closest to him. In
TRUMP MADE HEADLINES on November 15 when, during a speech in the map room, he awkwardly reached for a bottle of water and then used both hands to drink it. People made fun of him about it, but I found it worrisome. I had been concerned about his health for quite some time.
He also said that in February 2017, soon after Trump became president, three people had gone to his office and taken the entire Trump file, thirty-five years of medical records.
I don’t know what happened after I left, but to my untrained eye, it looked like Trump had had a small episode of some kind. I believe that Donald Trump is physically ill. His terrible health habits have caught up with him. His refusal to exercise (except golf). His addiction to Big Macs and fried chicken. His daily tanning bed sessions (he prefers to do it in the morning, so he “looks good” all day). Donald might brag about his superior genes, but even they can’t stand up to what he puts his body through.
He’s up to eight cans a day, at least. Eight cans a day, for the last fifteen years, is 43,800 cans of Diet Coke, poured into his system.
Dementia. Not being able to remember anything, confusion, loss of vocabulary and ability to process information. Stroke. Those awkward shaking
said, “Mr. President, you insulted those men. We were trying to honor them!” He said, “I didn’t insult them. I insulted Elizabeth Warren.” He couldn’t make the leap, that evoking Pocahontas to belittle Warren was, in effect, insulting to native people as a whole because of Trump’s intention of his usage. In my opinion, Trump didn’t care that he offended those men or anyone. He thought he’d gotten in a good jab at Elizabeth Warren.
In an early chapter, he described how Hope Hicks would steam-press Donald’s trousers while he was still wearing them. Hope was furious. It portrayed her in a servile demeaning light. It might have been a bit of revenge on Corey’s part for Hope’s ending their relationship to move on to a law enforcement officer.
Another highly visible assistant to the president might still be carrying on her affair right now.)
Pence was silent on the issue. He and his team are simply biding their time until Trump is impeached or resigns. He is definitely a swamp creature,
All we need to remember is that Trump loves the hate. He thrives on criticism and insults. He delights in chaos and confusion. Taking to Twitter to call him names only fuels him and riles his base. To disarm him, starve his ego: don’t feed into it.
