# Excerpts from new Woodward book on Trump **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 4, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745 "2018-09-04T16:01:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/1 "2018-09-04T16:01:54Z")
Not much new here , just confirms a lot of what is known from other sources. Trump throws tantrums and does not care about stuff like defense systems in S. Korea Also his former lawyer Dowd told him if he talked to Mueller he would wind up in an orange jumpsuit > **[Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency](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=.64a9a09d1b71)** > > Aides routinely stole documents off Trump’s desk. Military leaders ignored the president’s orders. And the backstabbing went both ways. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/2 "2018-09-04T16:21:15Z")
I got Ninja’d by Bijou. Was just gonna post some excerpts, like this one by John Kelly: > [@](#): > > In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.” > **[Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency](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?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b2559881b0e3)** > > Aides routinely stole documents off Trump’s desk. Military leaders ignored the president’s orders. And the backstabbing went both ways. I’d like to add that this is brilliant timing by Woodward. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/3 "2018-09-04T16:23:36Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Not much new here , just confirms a lot of what is known from other sources. Significant foreign policy initiatives–including a withdrawal from a trade pact with South Korea, and a 2017 withdrawal from NAFTA–were thwarted by the expedient of cabinet members pilfering the relevant documents from the president’s desk before he signed them, and the president forgetting that he hadn’t signed them. That’s new. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/4 "2018-09-04T16:23:36Z")
And then there’s this: > [@](#): > > Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this **dumb Southerner**. … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.” > **[Bob Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency](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?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b2559881b0e3)** > > Aides routinely stole documents off Trump’s desk. Military leaders ignored the president’s orders. And the backstabbing went both ways. How’d that one taste, Dixie? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/5 "2018-09-04T16:32:53Z")
Shitty insults to people is part of his brand. I doubt many Southerners will be shocked or all that upset by the fact that he sometimes insults someone by calling them a “dumb Southerner.” But being a clueless buffoon is part of his reality, not his brand. For people who think he’s playing 12th-dimensional chess, the idea that the Deep State is outmaneuvering him **by hiding things and hoping he forgets about them** might shake their confidence a little. Or it might not, because whatever else you might say about the True Believers, you can’t fault them for a lack of confidence. Their leader is an archetypal confidence man. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/6 "2018-09-04T16:37:02Z")
Trump’s support may not collapse outright, but it might just gradually rust and corrode. Woodward has a reputation for being a no-nonsense and generally fair reporter. I think this will do more damage than any of the previous accounts because he’s not perceived as partisan and he’s not especially sensational. He just reports facts. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/7 "2018-09-04T16:41:59Z")
It is gradually eroding but his moron supporters have brains made of basalt which takes a hell of a long time to wear away. There is hope for a tipping point though. It only takes a small majority in Congress to open up the books and exposes to the extent of his corruption. The biggest problem here is still the complacency of so many outside his base. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/8 "2018-09-04T16:52:02Z")
Much will change after the midterms. Donald may be a kingmaker in the primaries, but he’ll be the kiss of death in the general election. Once they lose total control of government, Republicans will no longer fear offending The Donald. They will start saying in public the things that Woodward has knowledge of them saying in private. I’m sure everything Woodward has written is true. The trouble is, for every thing that Woodward has written, there are other incidents that are equally damning but as yet unreported. Only in hindsight after say 10 years will we grasp the full scope of his lack of intellect, curiosity, morality, empath… you name any positive characteristic, he lacks it more than anyone you’ve ever known. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/9 "2018-09-04T16:58:07Z")
I’ll take solace in the fact that Trump didn’t win in a landslide, he didn’t win by much at all. November will let me know if I have reason to hope. With a little sanity Americans may realize that a little tip of the balance could result in big changes. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/10 "2018-09-04T17:08:59Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Not much new here , just confirms a lot of what is known from other sources. Indeed, it’s like a weather report in southern California - no change today, same as yesterday, same tomorrow! Yeah, Woodward will make a few bucks, he’ll make the rounds of the TV shows. Trump will tweet “fake!”. Fox and Trump supporters will say stoopid stuff. Nothing to see here, move along. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/11 "2018-09-04T17:45:19Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Trump’s support may not collapse outright, but it might just gradually rust and corrode. Woodward has a reputation for being a no-nonsense and generally fair reporter. I think this will do more damage than any of the previous accounts because he’s not perceived as partisan and he’s not especially sensational. He just reports facts. I wish I could say that I agree with you. The sorts of things that are in that Post excerpt are similar to the sorts of events and conversations that Michael Wolff had in “Fire and Fury,” earlier this year. The big difference, of course, is that Wolff apparently didn’t have a great reputation as a journalist even before that book, whereas Woodward has won a ton of journalism awards (including involvement in two Pulitzer-winning projects, one of which was the Watergate investigation), and is broadly seen as one of the (if not _the_) best investigative journalists of his generation. That said, I’ve come to realize that Trump’s fervent supporters have become fact-resistant humans. and at this point, they’re so deep in their adoration for him that nothing is going to sway them. I have no doubt that Trump or his proxies will shortly issue statements accusing Woodward of being complicit in the whole “rigged witch hunt,” and Trump’s supporters will dismiss anything in Woodward’s book out of hand. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/12 "2018-09-04T17:52:44Z")
Orange Anus thinks that [correcting his Charlottesville remarks](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-bob-woodward-fear_us_5b8ea3fae4b0511db3dc8956) was “the biggest fucking mistake I ever made”. > [@](#): > > After Trump said “both sides” at the Charlottesville white supremacist rally were to blame for the violence that occurred in August 2017,advisers urged him to make another speech condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis. According to Woodward, he almost immediately told aides, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given.” ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/14 "2018-09-04T18:07:48Z")
bonus Woodward/Trump phonecall about the book. The whole thing reads like an extended “dog ate my homework” excuse as to why Woodward wasn’t able to arrange an interview, after talking to seven different people. With a hilarious cameo by Kellyanne Conway. You can actually hear the gears turn in his head as he realizes that he was caught in a lie about whether Lindsey Graham told him about the interview. > **[Analysis | Transcript: Phone call between President Trump and journalist Bob...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/04/transcript-phone-call-between-president-trump-journalist-bob-woodward/?utm_term=.470604b02686)** > > The president called Bob Woodward in early August after the manuscript of his book had been completed. Here is what they said. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/15 "2018-09-04T18:17:01Z")
I have not read the book but from the excerpts I have seen there is nothing that will surprise Trump’s critics or alter the idolization by his fans. I’m glad Bob Woodward is keeping himself busy and staying relevant, but this book isn’t going to change anything, and Trump boosters aren’t even going to bother reading it. This book gets a few days in the news cycle pundit discussion circuit before going into the bargain bin. As for Trump’s support, while there has been some erosion by the middle class and conservative Hispanic voters to put him in office (and farmers in generally cannot be too happy with the impact of his tariffs even with a $12B subsidy), overall his base has not reduced that much since the initial drop in early 2017, and in fact has increased this year from its lows in mid- to late-2017. That base was never that large to begin with, and shouldn’t have guaranteed him an electoral victory in 2016, so whether or not he will be re-elected depends far more on how well the Democratic party does of selecting a viable candidate, and the candidate does of selling a message that appeals to non-Trump-base voters, but it isn’t as if coal miners, iron workers, and evangelical Christians are going to abandon Trump en masse. The impact on mid-term and 2020 Congressional elections is still unclear; the Republicans have created their own problems more or less independent of Trump in not being able to advance their promised agenda. But the extreme polarization of politics and the adverse influence of social media means that there are a lot of voters who will not abandon the GOP to vote for “the enemy” even if it is clear that Republican lawmakers are just rearranging deck chairs. The optimism for how things are going to radically change because of how bad a job the current band of scoundrels is doing should be tempered by the fact that this is analogous in many ways to Nixon and the GOP circa 1973, and they came back just fine after that Carter fellow proved to be just too darned nice. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/16 "2018-09-04T18:24:18Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > bonus Woodward/Trump phonecall about the book. The whole thing reads like an extended “dog ate my homework” excuse as to why Woodward wasn’t able to arrange an interview, after talking to seven different people. With a hilarious cameo by Kellyanne Conway. > > You can actually hear the gears turn in his head as he realizes that he was caught in a lie about whether Lindsey Graham told him about the interview. > > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/04/transcript-phone-call-between-president-trump-journalist-bob-woodward/?utm\_term=.470604b02686](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/04/transcript-phone-call-between-president-trump-journalist-bob-woodward/?utm_term=.470604b02686) Made me LOL: BW: I don’t know how things work over there in terms of… DJT: Very well! BW: …getting to you. That dude is just so insecure about how people think he runs shit. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/17 "2018-09-04T18:59:35Z")
The phone call was enormously illuminating. Who’d have thought Lindsey Graham would be the one person President Trump was afraid of? The only time, EVER, that I have seen him refuse to lie. Fascinating. And then the way he seems to think it fails to negate his overall point. Like he can just keep up the “I didn’t know” lie after admitting that Senator Graham did tell him. That’s some seriously ingrained narcissistic delusion; he even does it mid-sentence. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/18 "2018-09-04T19:02:26Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Orange Anus thinks that [correcting his Charlottesville remarks](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-bob-woodward-fear_us_5b8ea3fae4b0511db3dc8956) was “the biggest fucking mistake I ever made”. Wow! I can’t believe that the orange doofus actually admitted to making a mistake. Amazing! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/19 "2018-09-04T19:08:36Z")
And I think we can all think of a few bigger ones. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/20 "2018-09-04T21:05:37Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Orange Anus thinks that [correcting his Charlottesville remarks](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-bob-woodward-fear_us_5b8ea3fae4b0511db3dc8956) was “the biggest fucking mistake I ever made”. That’s okay. No one believed him, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745/21 "2018-09-04T21:08:27Z")
I can’t wait for the Coen Brothers movie based on this book. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excerpts-from-new-woodward-book-on-trump/820745.md?page=2)