Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency
80 replies, posted
I don't know if I should think of his aides as the one thing stopping Trump from destroying the US, and world, or the thing helping him keep a tenuous hold on his office.
This is just depressing. Godspeed to those who continue to get in his way and steal his papers.
https://apnews.com/0337c3636c544a9d9d7931c9858047f7/Trump,-others-dispute-book's-description-of-unhinged-leader
Mattis, Dowd, and Kelly all deny the quotes from the book. Trump also denied of course.
How truthful do you guys think those three are being? Why would they be lying if they are?
Pre-ordered it. The first non-technical book I've bought in a long time. Looking forward to reading it.
They all want to keep their jobs - but Woodward has all of the things he's written literally backed up by tapes - from which these transcripts were derived. They're deep background, which means he was cleared to use those tapes on the one condition that the sources would not be identified in any way - even on condition of anonymity.
He's a very credible man, he's known to tape things, and he put out a tape and transcript accompanying this release (included in this article I believe) which shows that, in fact, he does have those tapes and his transcripts are built directly from those tapes.
Nobody is gonna believe the Whitehouse's claims that Woodward's fabricating things wholesale because they've thoroughly poisoned the well on honesty
Wow, Sarah, it’s like having a retarded cheer squad like you and Fox means any fuck up is irrelevant because you can just banish any facts to the cornfield, so his success is just a product of lies and manipulation.
Trump wouldn't be "as successful as he's been."
Hasn't Trump gone bankrupt about 4-6 times in the past?
What you just described is fascism as envisioned by Ivan Ilyin, a Russian philosopher revered by Vladimir Putin.
Ilyin believed that all factuality was irrelevant, and the only truth was his country’s profound historical innocence. In other words, if you frame national politics as being about defending your country’s “civilization” against a permanent, worldwide threat (for Russia, the decadent West) then you can justify your own actions (and sweep any mistakes or atrocities under the rug) as being a reaction to that threat. War literally becomes peace, as in Ukraine in 2014. (For Putin, justifying the Ukraine invasion was about recovering a supposedly lost unity between the two nations.)
Trump is taking the exact same road as Vladimir Putin, for the exact same reasons. If you can reframe your politics within the notion of national innocence (or in Trump’s language, success and winning) then your every action is justified, and you never need to confront your own corruption.
They don't want to admit to the person employing them that he's fucking retarded, basically.
As much as they probably hate him he's not gonna go anywhere so they're balancing out between keeping their jobs to keep an eye on him and stopping him from doing stupid shit.
So basically it's a necessary evil in this case. Gotta maintain deniability.
Yep, in the end he's the person the US democratic system voted for and they have to deal with his shit.
Hell after reading some of the entries who knows how much fucked up shit Trump would have done by now if it weren't for his own aides getting in his way, Jesus he wanted to just go out and have Assad assassinated in a fit of dumb rage.
I trust James Mattis' word more than anyone else in the White House right now. Sure, maybe he's covering for a remark he made out of frustration one day. But if there's anyway to respect the Presidency as his superior, it's him.
https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/1037739279248748544
IT'S GETTING JUICY BOYS
Jesus
https://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/1037743745557557249
Now I'm really looking forward to getting the book on Tuesday.
The fact that I trust James Mattis to do the right thing is why believe he would be willing to lie in this particular case (or just let the Whitehouse release a fabricated statement with his name on it), just so Trump doesn't toss him as he has tossed so many other people. Because Mattis surely knows he is the only thing standing between Trump and the Nuclear football - and if he's sacked and replaced with a Trump stooge, the whole world is fucked.
