The anonymous senior Trump administration official who penned the 2018 New York Times opinion essay titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” now has a full-length book. A Warning, a political memoir about serving in the White House, is set to be released on Nov. 19, but a number of news outlets have obtained an early look.
According to the Times, the author explains in the book that the thesis of the original op-ed was “dead wrong.” At the time of the essay, the author wrote that senior officials were “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of [Trump’s] agenda and his worst inclinations.” Now, the author writes that attempts to impose discipline in the White House were “just a wet Band-Aid that wouldn’t hold together a gaping wound.” Similarly The Washington Post reports that the author wrote, “I was wrong about the ‘quiet resistance’ inside the Trump administration… He is who he is.” The author now calls on voters to stop Trump by making sure he doesn’t get re-elected.
In response to the book, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the Huffington Post, “The coward who wrote this book didn’t put their name on it because it is nothing but lies.”
Below, a compilation of the wildest accusations from the book so far.
Trump can’t handle lengthy memos.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow read excerpts from the book on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” including a section that alleges briefers were told early in Trump’s administration that Trump wouldn’t read any lengthy memos. “PowerPoint was preferred because [Trump] is a visual learner,” the anonymous author writes. “Then officials were told that the PowerPoint decks needed to be slimmed down. The president couldn’t digest too many slides. He needed more images to keep his interest–and fewer words.”
Later, briefers were told to cut back to only three main points, and finally, it was concluded the best practice was to “come in with one main point and repeat it–over and over again, even if the president inevitably goes off on tangents–until he gets it.”
Once, when given a traditional memo, Trump allegedly shot back, “What the fuck is this? These are just words. A bunch of words. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Trump makes racist and misogynistic comments.
According to The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the book prior to its release, the anonymous author alleges that they have “listened in uncomfortable silence as [Trump] talks about a woman’s appearance or performance.”
The author explains: “He comments on makeup. He makes jokes about weight. He critiques clothing. He questions the toughness of women in and around his orbit. He uses words like ‘sweetie’ and ‘honey’ to address accomplished professionals.”
The author also claims that Trump tried doing a Hispanic accent while complaining about migrants crossing into the United States, writing that Trump said: “We get these women coming in with like seven children. They are saying, ‘Oh, please help! My husband left me!’ They are useless. They don’t do anything for our country. At least if they came in with a husband we could put him in the fields to pick corn or something.”
Trump did not want to stand up to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Washington Post reports that the book says after Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents in 2018, Trump allegedly told advisers, “Do you know how stupid it would be to pick this fight? Oil would go up to one hundred fifty dollars a barrel. Jesus. How [expletive] stupid would I be?”
Senior Trump officials once considered all resigning together.
The Post also reports that, according to the author, senior Trump administration officials considered resigning together in 2018 in a “midnight self-massacre.” The idea was to sound a public alarm about Trump, but they decided, instead, a mass departure would only cause further destabilization.
Trump considers presidential pardons “Get Out of Jail Free” cards and once asked about reducing federal judges.
The author alleges that Trump likened presidential pardons to unlimited “Get Out of Jail Free” cards in Monopoly. Also after complaining about federal courts ruling against some of his policies, Trump allegedly once asked White House lawyers to send Congress a bill that would reduce the number of federal judges, saying, “Let’s get rid of the [expletive] judges. There shouldn’t be any at all, really.”
Oh, and the author writes that Trump once yelled at an aide that was taking notes during a meeting, saying, “What the [expletive] are you doing? Are you [expletive] taking notes?”