Oh Nothing, Just Trump Calling Generals 'Pussies' And Spilling Nuclear State Secrets
More Bob Woodward!
Time for Part Two of the Bob Woodward book report on Rage, which is the new Bob Woodward book!
You read the parts about Bob's secret recordings of his interviews with Donald Trump, who admitted early and often that he was lying about the coronavirus pandemic. These come from excerpts (AND AUDIO RECORDINGS!) posted by CNN and the Washington Post. There are probably more excerpts by now!
Let's focus on the national security stuff, and also Trump's racism:
'My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies'
Well then! Let's just keep confirming The Atlantic and its story about how Trump hates the troops.
This isn't an audio recording (FAKE NEWS!), but rather something one of former Defense secretary Jim Mattis's aides heard Trump say to trade idiot Peter Navarro. "My fucking generals are a bunch of pussies. They care more about their alliances than they care about trade deals." Which ... sounds like how generals tend to be!
Then again, on top of hating the troops, Trump doesn't understand the troops, or generals, or what the military does, or that they don't exist solely to serve his whims.
Turns out Mattis has quite a few thoughts to share in Woodward's book. Apparently he went to Washington National Cathedral to pray a lot about all the terribleness. One time he told former director of national intelligence Dan Coats, "There may come a time when we have to take collective action," on account of how Trump is "dangerous" and "unfit" and has "no moral compass." (They did not take collective action.)
He called Trump's original plan to abandon our allies the Kurds in Syria — which is what led Mattis to resign — "something that i thought went beyond stupid to felony stupid."
Maybe if General Mattis had been more concerned about trade deals and not such a pussy!
Obama is dumb, but Kim Jong-un is 'far beyond smart'! Erdogan loves Trump! Trump is Putin's favorite!
Just like Michael Cohen shared Trump's racism toward Barack Obama with Rachel Maddow, so too does Woodward:
"I don't think Obama's smart," Trump told Woodward. "I think he's highly overrated. And I don't think he's a great speaker." Trump added that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un thought Obama was "an asshole."
Do we care what Kim Jong-un thinks of Barack Obama? No, we don't, because we're actual Americans who love this country. Trump, though, he really respects that guy. They exchanged 27 love letters, after all!
Trump remarked that he was awestruck meeting Kim for the first time in 2018 in Singapore, thinking to himself, "Holy shit," and finding Kim to be "far beyond smart." Trump also boasted to Woodward that Kim "tells me everything," including a graphic account of Kim having his uncle killed.
We imagine Trump's Mario Kart dick really liked that story. He was also reportedly really boned up that Kim called him "Excellency." He even bragged that Kim doesn't smile for anybody but him. Really.
Woodward reports that Trump further says the CIA has "no idea" how to deal with North Korea, not the way he knows, and that Trump bragged about how he "gave up nothing" when he met with Kim in 2018.
Of course, he did not give up nothing. He got rolled. So hard. Just like he gets rolled by all dictators. But they're SOOOOOO cool, you guys!
Trump reflected on his relationships with authoritarian leaders generally, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "It's funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them," he told Woodward. "You know? Explain that to me someday, okay?"
Pretty sure a lot of psychologists have already tackled that one, champ.
Speaking of dictators, Trump told Woodward that he STILL doesn't think his Saudi buddy Mohammad bin Salman had Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered. "He says very strongly that he didn't do it," you know, just like Trump said Putin said "very strongly" in Helsinki that he didn't attack the election to help steal it for Trump.
Trump's DNI literally thought he was compromised by Russia. Trump's DNI literally thought he was compromised by Russia. Trump's DNI literally thought he
And speaking of Putin, former DNI Dan Coats was pretty sure Trump was compromised by Putin, which might have been cool for him to have said out loud at some point:
Coats "continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump."
"Coats saw how extraordinary it was for the president's top intelligence official to harbor such deep suspicions about the president's relationship with Putin. But he could not shake them."
Neither can we, DAN.
Oh, and we may have come way closer to nuclear war with North Korea in 2017 than anybody ever knew. Jim Mattis was literally sleeping in his clothes , that's how scared he was that nuclear war was going to break out. So that's comforting to know.
And speaking of nuclear ...
'I have built a nuclear — a weapons system that nobody's ever had in this country before. We have stuff that you haven't even seen or heard about. We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before. There's nobody — what we have is incredible.'
Oh nothing, that's just Trump accidentally blabbing to Bob Woodward about a secret weapons system that's supposed to be a secret.
No big, probably.
Maybe just started a wee nuclear arms race or something, but otherwise, pffffffft .
'You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you?'
This is another audio clip, of Woodward and Trump talking about Black Lives Matter, and Black people in general, on June 19.
WOODWARD: But let me ask you this. I mean, we share one thing in common. We're White, privileged, who- my father was a lawyer and a judge in Illinois, and we know what your dad did.
Do you have any sense that that privilege has isolated and put you in a cave to a certain extent, as it put me, and I think lots of White, privileged people in a cave. And that we have to work our way out of it to understand the anger and the pain, particularly Black people feel in this country. Do you feel–
TRUMP: No. You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don't feel that at all.
Bob Woodward "drank the Kool-Aid" because he thinks white privileged people should try to understand the anger and the pain Black people feel. That's how much of a bigot Trump is.
After that, Trump bragged more about Black unemployment numbers and said that fucking Abraham Lincoln thing he can't stop saying. The Washington Post 's excerpt notes a July 8 Woodward/Trump interview where Trump bitched that after all he's done for Black people, "Honestly, I'm not feeling any love."
Poor baby.
There's some shit in there about Jared Kushner idolizing the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland ...
You don't care.
In summary and in conclusion!
There are so many fucking books coming out, oh my God, we are exhausted by books, long live books!
[ CNN / Washington Post ]
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I may remember that. I've listened to all the Dimension X and X Minus One shows I was able to get my hands on.
I picked the wrong time to be finishing PhD coursework. I can't read any of these books. I can barely keep up with my program books. Someday when I have time I will read these all and think "we lived this". I hope we survive this so I ca read them all.