Fear: Trump in the White House(89)

Stephen Miller passed word from the White House to Bannon that this whole debate was now about chain migration. He calculated that the current policy would add 50 million new immigrants in 20 years if it continued.

Miller told Bannon, “The Democrats will never give up on chain migration. It’s changed the country. Chain migration is everything. That’s how they get the family unification.”

Miller turned out to be correct. Trump might continue to talk as if he would compromise, but there was no deal with Democrats.



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“I don’t have any good lawyers,” Trump said one day in the Oval Office. “I have terrible lawyers.” He singled out White House Counsel Don McGahn. “I’ve got a bunch of lawyers who are not aggressive, who are weak, who don’t have my best interests in mind, who aren’t loyal. It’s just a disaster. I can’t find a good lawyer.” He included the personal lawyers he had handling the Mueller investigation.

Porter went to Kelly’s office to give him a heads-up. It was just the two of them. “I’ve seen this movie before,” Porter said. “I’m concerned, because there have been some times in the past, including especially after the appointment of the special counsel—the Comey, Mueller period—where the president got so consumed and distracted that it was a challenge to continue to do the work and make the decisions—effectively to be president. And to give the direction that the rest of us needed to be able to carry on the work of the government.

“Thankfully we got through it. I’m concerned that there are going to be those kinds of flare-ups again, especially as the investigation takes its course. As things come to a head. I don’t know what the catalyst is going to be.”

It could even be something from the Senate and House Russia investigations. “Or who knows what. But we need to be cognizant of this. If we don’t do a better job of partitioning things, of giving him time and space to deal with some of the Mueller stuff where the president could get his head in a better place, then it is going to infect the rest of the White House.” Trump needed time “to vent and sort of emotionally stabilize himself.”

Porter urged Kelly to give this some thought, “so that you can be prepared, so that we can continue to function and this doesn’t lead to an incapacitation of the entire West Wing for days if not weeks, like it kind of did in the past.”

Kelly nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen little bits and pieces of that. And I can imagine it being that bad.”

“We barely got by the last time it happened,” Porter said. “It could be even worse than before. So we need to start to game out a plan for how we handle that.”

Kelly agreed that made sense. “Let’s try,” he said. But neither had an immediate idea.



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I. See Prologue, page xvii–xxii.





CHAPTER


33




It was not just the distraction of a wide-ranging Mueller investigation hanging over his head, but the constant media coverage that Trump had colluded with the Russians and/or obstructed justice, a real feeding frenzy—vicious, uncivil. The result, Porter said, “In some moments it was almost incapacity of the president to be president.”

McMaster noticed it. Trump normally wouldn’t listen long or very carefully to his national security adviser but it had gotten much worse, McMaster told Porter. “It’s like I can’t even get his attention.”

“Don’t take it personally,” Porter advised. “He’s clearly distracted. He’s been like that all day. Because he’s focused on this news about Russia.”

Gary Cohn told Porter, “It’s pointless to even talk to him today.”

Hope Hicks was worried. “He’s worked up about this,” she told Porter. She wanted the president to settle down, avoid doing or saying anything rash or that he would later regret. She would try to get Trump to talk about other things, get his attention away from the television, even try to make light of things.

They would get him on Air Force One to a rally. Leaving the plane for one rally, he said, “I think I’m going to spend the first 10 minutes just attacking the media.”



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On several occasions, Trump asked Porter if he was interested in being White House counsel. Porter declined.

When Trump’s personal attorney came to talk about matters relating to Special Counsel Mueller, Trump at times asked Porter to join in.

“Rob, I want you to stay. You’ve got to be a part of this.”

“I’m not your lawyer,” Porter said. “I’m not acting as a lawyer. But even if I was, I’d be a government lawyer, not one of your personal lawyers and that would break attorney-client privilege. And so I can’t be in here.”

“No, no, no,” Trump said, “that doesn’t matter.”

It would take one of Trump’s personal lawyers, like John Dowd, saying, “Rob needs to go.”



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“I don’t know how much longer I can stay,” Gary Cohn told Porter, “because things are just crazy here. They’re so chaotic. He’s never going to change. It’s pointless to prepare a meaningful, substantive briefing for the president that’s organized, where you have a bunch of slides. Because you know he’s never going to listen. We’re never going to get through it. He’s going to get through the first 10 minutes and then he’s going to want to start talking about some other topic. And so we’re going to be there for an hour, but we’re never going to get through this briefing.”