Rage

by Bob Woodward

“This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency,” Robert O’Brien, the national security adviser, told Trump, expressing a jarring, contrarian view as deliberately and as strongly as possible.

develop very quickly in the United States.

O’Brien, 53, a lawyer, author and former international hostage negotiator, was Trump’s fourth national security adviser.

“I agree with that conclusion,” said Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser,

Trump knew Pottinger, 46, who had been with the National Security Council staff for three years since the beginning of the Trump presidency, was uniquely, almost perfectly, qualified to deliver such an assessment.

“Don’t think SARS 2003,” the expert replied. “Think influenza pandemic 1918.”

“Don’t think SARS 2003,” the expert replied. “Think influenza pandemic 1918.” Pottinger said he had been floored. The so-called Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide with about 675,000 deaths in the United States.

67...

He had just learned that morning it was being spread by people who didn’t show any symptoms; this is called asymptomatic spread. His best, most authoritative source said 50 percent were infected but showed no symptoms.

outbreak

focused largely on the unfairness of impeachment and his

“It goes through air,” Trump said. “That’s always tougher than the touch. You don’t have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed. And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

Trump continued, “Pretty amazing. This is more deadly” than the flu, maybe five times more so.

The other countries of NATO, these European allies, are taking us to the cleaners, Trump said. The United States didn’t need NATO. We pay and they get protected. They take us for all we’re worth and they’re not giving enough in exchange.

“You don’t always control your circumstances, but you can control your response.”

“How can you work for that man?” she asked. “Ma, last time I checked, I work for the Constitution. I’ll go back and read it again.”

“When Putin said the breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century, it wasn’t because he loved communism. It was because Russia’s stature had been destroyed.

Only one time did Russians rise up in revolution. And that didn’t turn out so well. So they look back on that and they say, Don’t do that again.”

This is not deep thinking

Putin is a terrible racist, as we all know. All Russians are, generally. And Obama had a terrible disdain for Putin.”

“Russia is an immediate challenge to you. China is a long-term challenge.”

As you’ve approached retirement you’ve become irritable, she said. Subconsciously, she believed, he was worried about that terrible question: What am I going to do?

Mattis, who had 7,000 books in his personal library and was often referred to as the “Warrior Monk.”

Clinton acquiesced. “I can’t consider anything else,” he said. “I have no choice.” Desert Fox lasted three days. The operation killed or wounded 1,400 Iraqi military personnel, according to U.S. estimates. Saddam’s ambitions were tamed for several years.

We should work together in a similar way, Mattis said. “I think our foreign policy has been militarized over the last twenty years.” Too many wars, too many military actions. “I have seen too many boys die.”

Mattis had a startling proposal for Tillerson. “I want you in the lead on foreign policy. I’ll tell you what we can do, what I can’t do. I’ll tell you the risks. But when we get done, I don’t want the White House sorting i...

State and Defense would never go into a National Security Council meeting without having worked out a common position. If an open issue existed, they would find a common position.

Mattis was surprised how simpatico he felt with Tillerson. He just knew he could work with him. Sometimes you sit down with someone and you know you can trust them.

Religion was a central force in the Coatses’ life. Dan and Marsha had met at Wheaton College, an evangelical liberal arts college in Illinois, 50 years earlier. The Wheaton College motto is “For Christ and His Kingdom.” Evangelist Billy Graham was a dominant and abiding influence at the school.

Dan Coates was a Republican Senator and former Governor of Illinois.

DNI or as the intelligence czar, had been created in the wake of the massive information and coordination failures before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This was one of the biggest jobs the president could offer—the top position in the intelligence world overseeing 17 intelligence agencies including the CIA and the National Security Agency, which intercepted worldwide communications.

One outspoken relative said of Trump, “He’s not a Christian. He’s not a nice person. He’s not a moral man.”

“I fear if we do not unite to support Donald Trump, we will again open the door for at least another four years of Washington implementing a left-wing agenda,” she wrote. “Conservatives stand to lose not only the White House and control of the executive agencies but also the Supreme Court.

“The president has no moral compass,” Mattis replied.

President Trump had delegated authority to Mattis to use a conventional interceptor missile to shoot down any North Korean missile that might be headed for the United States. “If the word had come that it was inbound for Seattle, we were already launching interceptors,” Mattis privately told others. If the North Koreans realized the United States had shot down their missile, or had even tried to, they would likely prepare to fire more missiles. “The potential we’d have to shoot to prevent a second launch was real,” according to Mattis.

He did not think that President Trump would launch a preemptive strike on North Korea, although plans for such a war were on the shelf. The Strategic Command in Omaha had carefully reviewed and studied OPLAN 5027 for regime change in North Korea—the U.S. response to an attack that could include the use of 80 nuclear weapons. A plan for a leadership strike, OPLAN 5015, had also been updated.

With approval from Mattis, General Vincent Brooks, the commander of the U.S. and South Korean alliance, ordered a U.S. Army tactical missile fired as a demonstration and warning. The missile was launched

from the beach along a path running parallel to the North-South border and traveled 186 miles into the East Sea. That was the exact distance between the launching point of the U.S. missile and the North Korean missile test site, as well as a tent where satellite photos showed Kim Jong Un was watching the missile launch. The meaning was meant to be clear: Kim Jong Un needed to worry about his personal safety. But no intelligence was picked up that indicated the North Koreans realized the U.S. missile could have easily been aimed north at the test site or at Kim. Western news coverage of the U.S. and South Korean demonstration was sparse. General Brooks said in a provocative public statement, “Self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war.”