Fear: Trump in the White House(59)
Trump was worried about wiretaps that might have been authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Porter told others Trump was “very bothered by the possibility of FISA wiretaps in the campaign . . . a sense of sort of feeling violated. But that there was someone that had some power over him where he wasn’t the top dog.”
Trump had another objection to Mueller. “I can’t be president,” he said. “It’s like I have my hands tied behind my back because I can’t do anything that looks like it’s favorable to Russia or to Putin because of Mueller.”
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West Wingers and those who traveled regularly with Trump noticed that he and Melania seemed to have some sincere affection for each other despite media speculation. But she operated independently. They ate dinner together at times, spent some time together; but they never really seemed to merge their lives.
Melania’s primary concern was their son, Barron. “She’s obsessed with Barron,” one person said. “That is her focus 100 percent.”
Trump gave some private advice to a friend who had acknowledged some bad behavior toward women. Real power is fear. It’s all about strength. Never show weakness. You’ve always got to be strong. Don’t be bullied. There is no choice.
“You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women,” he said. “If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead. That was a big mistake you made. You didn’t come out guns blazing and just challenge them. You showed weakness. You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to push back hard. You’ve got to deny anything that’s said about you. Never admit.”
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Trump debated tariffs for months. He wanted to impose a 25 percent tariff on auto imports. “I want an executive order,” he said.
He did not have the legal authority to do that, Porter said.
“Fine, we’ll challenge it in court. But I don’t care. Let’s just do it!”
Another time the president told Porter, “Go down to your office right now. Get it all written up. Bring me my tariffs!”
One day in the Oval Office, Cohn brought in the latest job numbers to Trump and Pence.
“I have the most perfect job numbers you’re ever going to see,” Cohn said.
“It’s all because of my tariffs,” Trump said. “They’re working.”
Trump had yet to impose any tariffs, but he believed they were a good idea and knew Cohn disagreed with him.
“You’re a fucking asshole,” Cohn said, half-joking and smacking Trump gently on the arm.
Cohn turned to a Secret Service agent. “I just hit the president. If you want to shoot me, go ahead.”
Cohn wrote a joke for Trump to use at the Gridiron Dinner: “We’ve made enormous progress on the wall. All the drawings are done. All the excavating’s done. All the engineering is done. The only thing we’ve been stumbling with is we haven’t been able to figure out how to stretch the word ‘Trump’ over 1,200 miles.”
Trump wouldn’t use it.
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Porter observed that anytime anybody challenged Trump—in a policy debate, in court, in the public square—his natural instinct seemed to be that if he was not exerting strength, he was failing.
He stopped counting the times that Trump vented about Sessions. His anger never went away. Sessions’s recusal was a wound that remained open.
Jeff Sessions, Trump said in one of many versions, was an abject failure. He was not loyal. If he had any balls, if he had been a strong guy, he would’ve just said, I’m not going to recuse. I’m the attorney general. I can do whatever I want.
CHAPTER
22
Within the intelligence and military world there exist what President Obama once told me are “our deep secrets.” These are matters so sensitive, involving sources and methods, that only a handful of people including the president and key military and intelligence officials know about them.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks the American espionage establishment ballooned, making secret surveillance a way of life.
Near the end of May 2017, I learned of one such “deep secret.” North Korea was accelerating both its missile and nuclear weapons programs at an astonishing rate, and would “well within a year” have a ballistic missile with a nuclear weapon that perhaps could reach the United States mainland. Previously the intelligence showed North Korea would not have that capability for at least two years if not longer. This new intelligence was a rare earthquake in the intelligence world, but it did not travel far. It was to be protected at almost any cost.
In response, a preliminary Top Secret Pentagon war plan called for the United States to send escalation signals to put the country on a war footing: reinforce the Korean Peninsula with two or three aircraft carriers; keep more U.S. Navy attack submarines in the region (capable of firing barrages of Tomahawk missiles); add another squadron of F-22s and more B-2 stealth bombers. Perhaps even withdraw U.S. dependents, family members of the 28,500 U.S. military in South Korea. Add more ground forces, thicken the theater missile defense systems, disperse troops to make them less vulnerable, harden infrastructure to help withstand artillery attacks.