Rage

by Bob Woodward

In our previous conversation, the president had accused me of drinking the Kool-Aid when I asked him about the idea of white privilege and the anger and pain of Black people. “My question to you,” I said, “and this is the Kool-Aid question, do you understand people who feel passionately—I mean, the Black Lives Matter movement is real. There are a lot of people who are angry and feel pain. You were saying, hey look, I can’t be those people. That’s quite true. But I think it’s really important to step out of your shoes.” “That’s okay,” he said. “I get it. I’m okay with that.” I reminded him I had my tape recorder on. “That’s okay. I don’t mind. You can have it on. I’m a straight shooter.” I said I thought people wanted to hear “the president talking to Black people in this country about what you understand they’ve gone through. And, you know, we can get to what your remedy is and what you’re going to fix. But do you understand you’re a person of white privilege just like I am? And the question is, can somebody like you—because of your position—step out and say, you know, I’ve got some breaks, I’ve had advantages? There are people out there who have not, and I understand their anger and their fierce, fierce resentment of people like you and people like me.” “I feel I do understand it,” Trump said. “But if I didn’t understand it, I would not have done criminal justice reform that nobody was able to do but me. I would not have done opportunity zones which have had a tremendousl...