A Very Stable Genius describes a cabinet meeting in May 2018 where Trump assailed Nielsen in front of about two dozen administration officials over an increase in illegal border crossings. The president was “red faced” and launched an “explosive, extended tirade”, according to the book.
The president furiously berated Nielsen, the authors go on. “Trump was so worked up that some attendees thought he looked manic. Kelly silently shook his head at Nielsen to signal to her to stop engaging with the president. [Jared] Kushner made eye contact with Nielsen and moved his finger across his neck to signal to her to cut it off.”
For the rest of the year, according to the book, Trump’s bullying behavior towards Nielsen continued. He “harassed” her with angry phone calls, sometimes waking her at 5am, and “pestered” her late at night. He often called her after watching the Fox Business host Lou Dobbs complain about illegal immigration and offer wildly unrealistic policy prescriptions.
“The president would routinely call Nielsen to say a version of ‘Did you see Lou Dobbs? You’re totally fucking embarrassing me. This is my issue!’… Sometimes, Trump would refer to one of Dobbs’s proposals and say, ‘Kirstjen, just do it. Just do it.’ ‘But we can’t do it,’ Nielsen would explain, usually because whatever Dobbs had uttered on TV was against the law.”
After one flashpoint, Nielsen called Dobbs and politely offered to help his reporting. Hours later, Trump phoned Nielsen. “Did you call Lou Dobbs?” he asked. She said yes. Trump replied: “That’s great. Lou says you’re very smart!”
I don’t know what’s worse; the year long “red faced…manic…explosive, extended tirades” against a former staffer at 5 a.m., or caring about what Lou Dobbs thinks?
This is your strong man alpha?
In the spring of 2017, Trump was at a briefing with Rex Tillerson, then the secretary of state, and aides in the Oval Office. At the mention of a bribery allegation, Trump “perked up” and told Tillerson that he wanted his help in scrapping the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the authors write.
Trump said that it was “just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” according to the book, “A Very Stable Genius,” by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.
“I need you to get rid of that law,” Trump told Tillerson.
Tillerson explained to the president that he could not simply repeal the legislation, according to Rucker and Leonnig. He pointed out that Congress would need to be involved in any effort to strike it down.
Undeterred, Trump told Stephen Miller, a senior policy adviser, to draft an executive action to repeal the law. Tillerson, the authors write, later caught up with Miller in the hallway, where Miller said he had some skepticism about whether that plan for unilateral executive action could work.
Imagine being so against laws that when told you can’t get rid of bribery laws you try to break the law just so you can break more laws.
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| Oh in some good news for once: you know how Trump wanted Ukraine to open an investigation in order to help his reelection? He didn’t care about the results or anything, he just wanted the soundbite announcements? The very thing that made him go down in history as the third president to be impeached? Well Ukraine is finally opening an investigation…into Trump. |
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| Ahem. |
