Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides" and initially refused to condemn white supremacy. This abdication of moral leadership was one of the lowest points in his presidency.
The white supremacist rally occurred during a time that around the country, monuments to the confederacy [were being removed]. Trump opposed what was happening. "Sad to see the history & culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments," he tweeted on Aug. 17. Trump had told his aides many times that summer, "This is a shame. They're destroying our heritage."
As with most foreign leader meetings, Trump had been briefed but didn't seem to have retained the material and instead tried to wing it. Modi tried to focus on the threats India faced from Afghanistan, China, and Pakistan. His mention of Afghanistan led Trump off on a lengthy tangent about how stupid it had been for the US to have maintained its military presence in Afghanistan.
When Modi mentioned his concerns about China's aggressions in the region, Trump revealed a stunning ignorance about geography. "It's not like you've got China on your border", seeming to dismiss the threat to India.
Each time Modi tried to get Trump to engage on the substance of US-India relations, the American president veered off on another non sequitur trade deficiencies and endless war in Afghanistan.
"We should charge them rent," Trump said of South Korea. We should make them pay for our soldiers. We should make the money off everything." Trump said U.S. troops and defense systems in South Korea did not make Americans safer. He said he could eliminate the nuclear threat on the peninsula simply by striking a deal with North Korean dictator Kim Jun Un. " This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Kim versus me, he said."
Q: "Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Daniels?
"No," Trump said.
Q: "Then why did Michael Cohen make [the payment] if there is no truth to the allegations?"
Trump replied, "Michael is my attorney; you'll have to ask Michael."
On April 9, federal agents search [Cohen's home]; simultaneously, agents showed up at his office, cordoning off the area to collect computers, servers and boxes of files, including tax returns and other financial records.
Cohen was not merely Trump's attorney. He was his virtual vault--the keeper of his secrets and executor of his wishes, from business deals to personal affairs.
[Follow-up: Cohen was disbarred and pled guilty to eight counts including campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud.]
In January 2018, a national discussion was under way about the presidents fitness for office--specifically, his mental acuity and physiological health. "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," he continued. "I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try).
Is it true that Trump became president on his first try? No! He ran in 1999-2000 (see his Jan. 2000 campaign book, The America We Deserve), for the Reform Party nomination, and ran in 2011-2012 (see his Dec. 2011 campaign book, Time to Get Tough), for the Republican Party nomination. The mainstream press forgets those two campaigns, and Trump capitalized on that complicity in 2016--which was his third try, not his first!
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The above quotations are from A Very Stable Genius Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig. Click here for other excerpts from A Very Stable Genius Donald J. Trump's Testing of America by Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig. Click here for other excerpts by Donald Trump. Click here for a profile of Donald Trump.
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