On Tuesday, I dismissed the cottage industry of books the Trump presidency spawned because each one invariably reveals things we already know. This is why I was loath to comment on the latest, Rage, by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.
Except that media coverage gives the impression that each revelation in this book is as shocking as the most damning thing Woodward revealed during Watergate. Granted, Trump’s lies, high crimes and misdemeanors make Nixon’s look like fibs and jaywalking. It’s just that, media frenzy over selective leaks from this book is so unwarranted, it obliges me to comment.
And frenzy is apt. In fact, as I watched the coverage, I was reminded of my daddy sharing the time he experienced utter consternation watching a Louis Armstrong performance.
Because he said that, as soon as Armstrong walked on stage, the audience erupted in a frenzied ovation. But it was so sustained that he ended up blowing nothing more than a few notes, which nobody could possibly hear, before leaving to even louder applause.
Such was Armstrong’s reputation. And, I respectfully submit, such is Woodward’s.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Because here, courtesy of yesterday’s edition of The New York Times (but paraphrased in my own words), are “5 Takeaways From ‘Rage,’ Bob Woodward’s New Book About Trump” – followed by my take on them:
- Trump downplayed the severity of the coronavirus.
Except that this has been his open and notorious re-election strategy from day one. Hell, he repeatedly told the American people that the virus will disappear like a miracle.
This, despite members of his own coronavirus task force telling him that it will not disappear; furthermore, that he had to lead the nation in wearing masks and practicing other social/physical-distancing measures to have any chance of combating it. But he willfully and steadfastly ignored them.
Even more telling, though, is his infamous, mask-free campaign rally in Tulsa, which he’s compounding by continuing to hold similar ones. Because these rallies show everyone that he’s perfectly willing to have his own supporters risk their lives just to stroke his ego. I decried this in “Supporting (aka Worshiping) Trump Now a Deadly Proposition,” June 13, 2020.
For the record, Trump said the coronavirus would disappear in April. According to the universally respected IHME data center, by April 30 it had already killed nearly 65,000 Americans. Today, the number of Covid-19 deaths is over 190,000, and the IHME is modeling that number to exceed 400,000 by December 31, 2020.
- Two cabinet members found Trump so dangerous they considered sounding public alarm.
Except that the following from Politico (on September 4, 2018) is the headline from just one of many reports that revealed this and more:
‘Idiot,’ ‘Dope,’ ‘Moron’: How Trump’s aides have insulted the boss
Not to mention the following headline from The Atlantic (on June 3, 2020), which directly scoops Woodward’s revelation about cabinet member James Mattis, the former defense secretary:
James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution
More to the point, The Atlantic quoted Mattis saying, among other things, that Trump is “dangerous,” “unfit for the office,” and “has no moral compass.”
- Trump repeatedly denigrated members of the military, including top generals.
Except that the whole world knows that, during the 2016 presidential campaign, he denigrated war hero John McCain and Gold Star parents, and repeatedly said that he knows more about the military than the generals.
- Trump proudly asserted that he has no sympathy for the anger and pain Blacks feel over racial injustice and does not think white privilege had anything to do with his success in life.
Except that he got the moniker “Birther in Chief” the old fashioned way … And do these racially insensitive utterances ring a bell: “What have you got to lose,” “fine people on both sides,” “sh*thole countries,” “when the looting starts the shooting starts”…?
- Trump has a cringe-inducing school-girl crush on North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Except that this headline from one of my own commentaries (on October 1, 2018) said as much:
Trump Loves Kim. Kim Loves Nukes. And Never the Twain Shall Greet.
Enough said…?
Okay, here are 2 bonus takeaways:
- Trump’s own former director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, felt certain that Russia has compromising information on him.
Except that I’ve expressed similar suspicions in a number of commentaries. For example, in “‘Putin Told Me,’ Said Trump, His ‘Useful Idiot,’” December 21, 2019, I wrote:
________
There’s no denying the reasonable suspicion that Putin has cast a spell on him. Specifically, that fear of Putin releasing compromising information has something to do with his antic presidential behavior.
________
And in “Treasonous Trump Releasing Fake Memo to Frame FBI and Hide Russian Ties,” February 1, 2018, I wrote:
________
No doubt Putin is intimately familiar with every tidbit of ‘kompromat’ his intelligence agencies gathered over years, if not decades, on Trump. Therefore, he would’ve known all too well how to stroke Trump’s fragile ego or provoke his manifest insecurities.
________
- Trump spilled the beans about a new top-secret, nuclear-weapons system, boasting that neither Russia’s Putin or China’s Xi had any clue.
Except that the following from Woodward’s own paper presaged this purported revelation:
President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State. …
‘This is code-word information,’ said a U.S. official familiar with the matter, using terminology that refers to one of the highest classification levels used by American spy agencies. Trump ‘revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.’
(The Washington Post, May 15, 2017)
More to the point, you can bet this useful idiot spilled the beans about this weapons system in one of his many “secret one-on-one talks” with Putin. And, if you don’t think this is something he would do, I suggest you crawl back to that rock you’ve been living under for the past four years.
In any event, thanks for nothing, Bob.
As I said at the end of Tuesday’s commentary, Trump revealed so much about himself during the 2016 presidential campaign that nobody should be shocked or outraged by revelations in this or any other book. But God help America (and much of the world) if he wins rigs another term as president of the United States.
Related commentaries:
cottage industry… worshiping Trump… Trump loves Kim… useful idiot… treasonous Trump…