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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Trump Believes There's a Coup": Freaked by the Times Op-Ed, the President Is Seeing Enemies Everywh
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/trump-ny-times-op-ed-bob-woodward-fearTrump Believes Theres a Coup: Freaked by the Times Op-Ed, the President Is Seeing Enemies Everywhere
With Anonymous still on the loose and the administrative state unchecked, the last person Trump trusts is Stephen Miller.
by Gabriel Sherman
September 13, 2018 12:45 pm
As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, Donald Trumps West Wing is still struggling to recover from yet another deluge of horrible news. Yesterday, Bob Woodwards publisher Simon & Schuster announced that Woodwards new book, Fear, has sold more than 750,000 copies and is on its way to a ninth printing. A CNN poll released this week showed Trumps approval rating plummeting to 36 percent. With the midterm elections less than two months away, the West Wing is girding for Republicans to lose the House and even the Senate, sources said. Ivanka Trump is even worried about impeachment, a source close to her told me. Its just horrible, a former White House official said.
As the parade of former allies and employees whove turned on him gets longer, Trump is increasingly embittered. According to sources, Trump has been furious at former economic adviser Gary Cohn and staff secretary Rob Porter for their apparent cooperation with Woodwards book. Trump thinks he took Gary in and gave him a job when he was going nowhere at Goldman, a Trump adviser told me. According to the adviser, Trump let it be known to Cohn and Porter that he would attack them publicly if they didnt disavow the book. (On Tuesday, they both did.) The president has had it, a former West Wing official said. When books like this come out, he tends to shut down and calls up people he sees on TV saying good things about him.
But Trumps anger over Woodwards book is dwarfed by his continuing fixation on the anonymous New York Times op-ed. Sources told me Trump is obsessed, lathered, and freaked out that the leaker is still in his midst. His son Don Jr. has told people hes worried Trump isnt sleeping because of it, a source said. Meetings have been derailed by Trumps suspicion. If you look at him the wrong way, hell spend the next hour thinking you wrote it, a Republican close to the White House said. Much of whats fueling Trumps paranoia is that he has no clear way to identify the author. One adviser said Trump has instructed aides to call the anonymous author a coward in public to shame him or her. Hes going to continue to shame this person, a person close to Trump said. The author will break under pressure or will eventually say, fuck it, its me. Plans to administer polygraph tests to staff have seemingly died. Nobody knows who it is, a former official said.
Besides family, one of the only people Trump continues to trust is Stephen Miller. The op-ed has validated Millers view, which was also Steve Bannons, that theres an administrative state out to get Trump, a Republican close to the White House said. There is a coup, and its not slow-rolling or concealed, Bannon told me. Trump believes theres a coup, a person familiar with his thinking said. Trumps relationship with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, which was already strained, has become almost nonexistent, a former official said.
The West Wing is bracing for the climate to worsen. The increasing likelihood that Democrats will make big gains in the midterms is frustrating the White Houses efforts to get nominations confirmed in the Senate. According to a source, Johnny DeStefano, whos in charge of personnel, has complained that Mitch McConnells staff will only focus on confirming judges before the midterms, leaving many important appointments, such as ones in the Export-Import Bank, unfilled. Ivanka and Jared Kushner, meanwhile, continue to agitate for Trump to replace Chief of Staff John Kelly with a more pliable manager. Ivanka recently asked a friend about Republican political adviser and former lobbyist Wayne Berman, a source briefed on the conversation said. Another name Ivanka has discussed is former federal prosecutor Matt Whitaker, whos serving as Attorney General Jeff Sessionss chief of staff (Axios reported Whitaker is also a candidate to replace White House counsel Don McGahn).
Turbineguy
(37,312 posts)if he looks in the mirror.
FSogol
(45,468 posts)bdamomma
(63,821 posts)he's like a wounded animal in a corner, who has access to nuclear codes.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)sunonmars
(8,656 posts)janterry
(4,429 posts)Dr. Johnny Fever, WKRP
Solly Mack
(90,762 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,376 posts)malaise
(268,850 posts)He and his goons orchestrated the coup in November 2016
stopbush
(24,395 posts)Fuck you, tRump!
TheBlackAdder
(28,180 posts)ProfessorGAC
(64,968 posts)Right and wrong at the same time.
Right because nobody is sure just how many.
Wrong because, a bunch of people know exactly who it is, because it's more than one person. One person put their name on it, but several people were involved in writing it.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Unsurprisingly, neither does Trump. When someone pens an anonymous slam and you can't narrow down the author to fewer than 100 names, you probably aren't running a well-oiled machine.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)even his kids are out to get him and Ivanka is planning on locking her bedroom door at night now.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)the Kushners are gaslighting him?
struggle4progress
(118,270 posts)with a minority of votes, without people everywhere plotting secretly against you!"
rickford66
(5,522 posts)Use your imagination please.