Fear: Trump in the White House(106)

* * *



On Friday morning, February 23, 2018, Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the most important conservative audience in the country. Relaxed and brimming with self-confidence, the president spoke for over an hour. At times he stuck to his prepared text, but he went exuberantly “off the glass” at points, speaking spontaneously.

“You’re getting the wall,” he said. “Don’t worry. Had a couple of these characters in the back say, oh, he really doesn’t want the wall. He just used that for campaigning. I said, are you—can you believe it? You know, I say every time I hear that, the wall gets 10 feet higher, you know that, every single time. Okay, now, we’re going to have the wall.”

On immigration he said, “I don’t want people that are going to come in and be accepting all the gifts of our country for the next 50 years and contribute nothing . . . And I want people that love us . . . I don’t want people coming in the way they do now.”

He then repeated one of his favorite stories, a rhyming poem about a woman who took in a snake.

On her way to work one morning, down the path along the lake,

a tender-hearted woman saw a poor, half-hearted frozen snake.

His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew.

“Poor thing,” she cried. “I’ll take you in. And I’ll take care of you.”

“Take me in, oh tender woman, take me in for heaven’s sake;

“take me in, oh tender woman,” sighed the vicious snake.

She wrapped him up all cozy in a comforter of silk,

and laid him by her fireside with some honey and some milk.

She hurried home from work that night, and soon as she arrived,

she found that pretty snake she had taken in had been revived. . . .

She stroked his pretty skin again, and kissed and held him tight.

But instead of saying thank you, that snake gave her a vicious bite. . . .

“I saved you,” cried the woman. “And you’ve bitten me, heavens why?

“You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die.”

“Oh, shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin.

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.”

“And that’s what we’re doing with our country, folks,” Trump said. “We’re letting people in. And it is going to be a lot of trouble. It is only getting worse.”

Trump had just approved a two-year spending bill for $8.6 trillion that had no money—not one red cent—for the wall.



* * *



Trump’s relationship with his secretary of state was irrevocably fractured. There were months of speculation that Tillerson was about to quit or be fired. He was in Africa when Kelly warned him in March 2018 to cut his trip short. “You may get a tweet,” Kelly said. The morning of March 13 Trump tweeted that CIA Director Pompeo was going to be the next secretary of state. “Thank you Rex Tillerson for his service!” was all he said about Tillerson.

Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, “Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time. . . . We disagreed on things. . . . We were not really thinking the same. . . . Really, it was a different mind-set, a different thinking.”





CHAPTER


40




Trump was continuing to complain to his attorney Dowd that the Mueller investigation was hampering his ability to act as president. He passed on some classified anecdotes that Dowd, who had a security clearance, could pass to Mueller and Quarles, who also had the proper clearances.

Cautioning Dowd that it was very sensitive, Trump said one had occurred in April when he had personally negotiated the release of a charity worker, Aya Hijazi, 30, a U.S. citizen who had been imprisoned in Cairo for three years.

Trump relayed his conversation with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who had an abysmal human rights record including mass detentions, security forces’ killing protesters and military trials of civilians. “Dowd, remember who I’m talking to,” he said. “The guy’s a fucking killer. This guy’s a fucking killer! I’m getting it done. He’ll make you sweat on the phone. And right before we make the deal, el-Sisi says,” and Trump assumed a deep gravelly voice, “Donald, I’m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around? Suppose I need a favor, Donald.” It was “like a kick in the nuts. It’s awful,” Trump said.



* * *



In November, Kelly called Dowd. “The president said you’re going to see Mueller.”

“Yeah, we’re going to see him in a couple hours.”

“Mattis has told the president that Putin and the Russians are just getting too dangerous, and that we’re going to have to deal with them. And I want you to convey that to Bob. Bob knows Mattis.” Mueller and the secretary of defense had both been Marines.

Dowd described to Mueller how everything Trump did with Russia was suspect. “Bob, I know you know General Mattis.” Mueller had met with Mattis during a visit to Kandahar in January 2002 when he was FBI director. Dowd reported that Mattis was worried about Russia. “And by the way, you want to check it? Pick up the phone and call him. He knows who you are. He knows you’re a Marine.”