Bob Woodward book on Trump

[yoink 321]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodwards-new-book-reveals-a-nervous-breakdown-of-trumps-presidency/2018/09/04/b27a389e-ac60-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.212c07818f98

Yet another 'tell all' book...



But overall a pointless book - those who believe Trump's a nutcase will say 'well, yes. It's obvious', while those who are Trump fans will scream 'lies by someone bitter for being criticized!!'

The idea that staffers are taking papers away from the president so he can't see or sign them is terrifying though.

[billvon 3,118]

>Yet another 'tell all' book by a Trump insider, this time by someone who specifically
>stopped Trump testifying because he was certain that the president would perjure
>himself . . .

I don't think Bob Woodward was ever a Trump "insider" or that he tried to stop him from testifying.

[yoink 321]

billvon

>Yet another 'tell all' book by a Trump insider, this time by someone who specifically
>stopped Trump testifying because he was certain that the president would perjure
>himself . . .

I don't think Bob Woodward was ever a Trump "insider" or that he tried to stop him from testifying.

No - I screwed up that post.

Book by a reporter with access to insiders, one of whom stopped him from testifying.

[jakee 1,595]

yoink

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodwards-new-book-reveals-a-nervous-breakdown-of-trumps-presidency/2018/09/04/b27a389e-ac60-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.212c07818f98

Yet another 'tell all' book by a Trump insider, this time by someone who specifically stopped Trump testifying because he was certain that the president would perjure himself and tried to prove it to the president during a practice session...

The book is by Bob Woodward, some of the stories in it are about John Dowd.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[yoink 321]

jakee

***https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodwards-new-book-reveals-a-nervous-breakdown-of-trumps-presidency/2018/09/04/b27a389e-ac60-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.212c07818f98

Yet another 'tell all' book by a Trump insider, this time by someone who specifically stopped Trump testifying because he was certain that the president would perjure himself and tried to prove it to the president during a practice session...

The book is by Bob Woodward, some of the stories in it are about John Dowd.



OK OK!

This is what I get for posting before having coffee.




Moving on, I get that staffers think they're doing the best for the White House by limiting the presidents access to papers, but to me that's a real worry. If this is true, these are people I don't know who are effectively and unilaterally deciding policy. That's wrong - even if the policy itself is wrong.

[billvon 3,118]

Quote

If this is true, these are people I don't know are effectively unilaterally deciding policy. That's wrong - even if the policy itself is wrong.

Agreed. It's a question of the best of two bad options.

[billvon 3,118]

Trump proves it's not a "rigged witch hunt" with a simple tweet:

======
According to the Failing New York Times, the FBI started a major effort to flip Putin loyalists in 2014-2016. “It wasn’t about Trump, he wasn’t even close to a candidate yet.” Rigged Witch Hunt!
======

So if the investigation started in 2014 (which it did) then it could not possibly be a "witch hunt" intended to discredit Trump, who had not even announced his candidacy at that point.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

billvon

Trump proves it's not a "rigged witch hunt" with a simple tweet:

======
According to the Failing New York Times, the FBI started a major effort to flip Putin loyalists in 2014-2016. “It wasn’t about Trump, he wasn’t even close to a candidate yet.” Rigged Witch Hunt!
======

So if the investigation started in 2014 (which it did) then it could not possibly be a "witch hunt" intended to discredit Trump, who had not even announced his candidacy at that point.

This tweet clearly illustrates that Trump is unable to see or grasp anything that reaches beyond just him. He only looks at issues with a lense of how it affects him. Nothing else.

[ryoder 1,590]

yoink

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodwards-new-book-reveals-a-nervous-breakdown-of-trumps-presidency/2018/09/04/b27a389e-ac60-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.212c07818f98

Yet another 'tell all' book...



But overall a pointless book - those who believe Trump's a nutcase will say 'well, yes. It's obvious', while those who are Trump fans will scream 'lies by someone bitter for being criticized!!'

The idea that staffers are taking papers away from the president so he can't see or sign them is terrifying though.

Ah, ha!!!
That explains why his desk in the oval office is always bare of papers!

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[LeeroyJenkins 3]

ryoder

***https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-woodwards-new-book-reveals-a-nervous-breakdown-of-trumps-presidency/2018/09/04/b27a389e-ac60-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.212c07818f98

Yet another 'tell all' book...



The oval office is for show. The president has another office for doing the dirty work.

But overall a pointless book - those who believe Trump's a nutcase will say 'well, yes. It's obvious', while those who are Trump fans will scream 'lies by someone bitter for being criticized!!'

The idea that staffers are taking papers away from the president so he can't see or sign them is terrifying though.

Ah, ha!!!
That explains why his desk in the oval office is always bare of papers!

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Quote

The idea that staffers are taking papers away from the president so he can't see or sign them is terrifying though.

The idea that a President wouldn't know what papers are coming to him to sign is terrifying.

At that level things on his desk for signature shouldn't be a surprise and documents not arriving should be a surprise.

There is just so much incredibly scary about all of that.

[ryoder 1,590]

SkyDekker

Quote

The idea that staffers are taking papers away from the president so he can't see or sign them is terrifying though.

The idea that a President wouldn't know what papers are coming to him to sign is terrifying.

At that level things on his desk for signature shouldn't be a surprise and documents not arriving should be a surprise.

There is just so much incredibly scary about all of that.

But to be fair, what would it matter if papers did not reach him?
We all know the only thing he reads is a teleprompter.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[billvon 3,118]

>At that level things on his desk for signature shouldn't be a surprise and documents
>not arriving should be a surprise.

I have a feeling they're not a surprise to him, given that he likely doesn't even read them.

Michael Wolff: “He didn’t process information in any conventional sense. He didn’t read. He didn’t really even skim. Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-­literate.”

Gary Cohn: “It’s worse than you can imagine … Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers, nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored.”

The Atlantic: Trump “appears not to read.”

Trump: “I like bullets or I like as little as possible. I don't need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you.”

Keep in mind that aides have resorted to sprinkling Trump's name in one page documents in hopes his eye will be attracted to his own name, and he might end up reading the material next to his name.

[jakee 1,595]

yoink

Moving on, I get that staffers think they're doing the best for the White House by limiting the presidents access to papers, but to me that's a real worry. If this is true, these are people I don't know who are effectively and unilaterally deciding policy. That's wrong - even if the policy itself is wrong.

Sure, but it's a direct and forseeable consequence of the election. When people get elected on a platform of filling the administration with outsiders, you end up with a West Wing full of people who don't know the right way to run a government.

Also, as pointed out, why wasn't it a surprise that the documents didn't turn up? You shouldn't be able to stop a policy just by hiding a document. Trump could just ask for another one to be printed out and sign that. The inference to be drawn is that Trump just forgot all about it because it wasn't in front of his face.

So what's preferable - an unelected aid unilaterally deciding to preserve the status quo, or a President, against all advice, unilaterally making a new policy to which he had given so little thought he didn't even remember that he had requested it by the time it was ready?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[yoink 321]

billvon

Trump: “I like bullets or I like as little as possible. I don't need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you.”

To be fair I agree with him on this, in principle.

Summarize what can be summarized.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Quote

Book by a reporter with access to insiders, one of whom stopped him from testifying.

A reporter with two Pulitzers as part of a team contribution. This isn't some dude at Buzzfeed who read something on Reddit.


edited to be more correct

[ryoder 1,590]

billvon

>At that level things on his desk for signature shouldn't be a surprise and documents
>not arriving should be a surprise.

I have a feeling they're not a surprise to him, given that he likely doesn't even read them.

Michael Wolff: “He didn’t process information in any conventional sense. He didn’t read. He didn’t really even skim. Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-­literate.”

Gary Cohn: “It’s worse than you can imagine … Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers, nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored.”

The Atlantic: Trump “appears not to read.”

Trump: “I like bullets or I like as little as possible. I don't need, you know, 200-page reports on something that can be handled on a page. That I can tell you.”

Keep in mind that aides have resorted to sprinkling Trump's name in one page documents in hopes his eye will be attracted to his own name, and he might end up reading the material next to his name.

Samantha Bee covered this well, just a week before the 2016 election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LFkN7QGp2c

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[JerryBaumchen 1,468]

Hi Bill,

Quote

he might end up reading the material next to his name.

There is still the problem of his understanding what he might actually read.

Jerry Baumchen

[billvon 3,118]

Note - I have moved this thread out of the Russiagate thread because it's really not about the Russian investigation.

Update on this topic - after Trump claimed the book was all lies, Woodward released a copy of the letter that Cohn swiped off Trump's desk. See below.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Everything is fake, nothing is true. Fake News, Trump is the best, nothing matters.

[billvon 3,118]

Good news everyone! Things are now going great in the Trump administration. No one popular wrote that scathing editorial. Everything is beautiful. From today:

================
Reporter: Do you trust the people around you?

Trump: I do. … Everyone who is at the major meetings with me are on the front page of the newspapers today with beautiful notes that I did not ask them for. We have a really well run, smooth running White House. It’s a well oiled machine. It is running beautifully.
================

Well, except for Gates and Manafort, of course. And Flynn, the lying scumbag. And Cohen, that criminal tape-recording backstabber. And Papadopoulos, that ingrate. And Omarosa! What a crazed, crying lowlife dog.

But other than Gates, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Ol' Papa, and Omarosa, everyone ELSE in my inner circle is beautiful. Well, except for that filthy leaker. And Tillerson and McMaster, of course. No one calls me a moron! And Porter. And Bannon. Ol' Bam-Bam was fun until he started trying to upstage ME! Same for Scaramucci. And of course Comey! How could I forget that criminal.

But besides Gates, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Papa, Omarosa, Tillerson, McMaster, Porter, Bam-Bam, Scaramooch, Comey and that filthy, cowardly leaker whoever he is, everyone who is in my major meetings with me is beautiful.