Thread by @PaulaChertok

Meanwhile “Crazytown” WH per new Woodward book: After a mock Mueller interview in which Trump stumbled, contradicted himself and lied about the Russia investigation, Trump lost it and started ranting “This thing’s a goddamn hoax. I don’t want to testify” washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-w…

🤭Chyrons on Woodward’s bombshell book FEAR on the nervous breakdown of Trump’s presidency

Trump lawyer told him: Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit

Trump lawyer worried Mueller interview would expose Trump as an idiot

Mattis compares Trump to 5th/6th grader

🔥 From Bob Woodward’s new book: Current and former WH staffers, officials & lawyers describe Trump as an “idiot,” “unhinged,” “liar,” “moron,” “erotic,” “incapable of telling the truth,” “off the rails,” “has the understanding of a 5th or 6th grader”… w/ and w/o expletives.

WaPo on Woodward's new book: The book’s title is derived from a remark that then-candidate Trump made in an interview with Woodward and Post political reporter Robert Costa in 2016. Trump said, “Real power is, I don’t even want to use the word, ‘Fear.’ ”

#Woodward book: "A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead."

"Woodward describes 'an administrative coup d’etat' and a 'nervous breakdown; of the executive branch [under Trump], with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them."

#Woodward book recounts how Trump’s national security team was "shaken" by his lack of curiosity & knowledge about world affairs, questioning why US was spending resources on Korean peninsula. Top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump's actions & expressed dim views of him.

"Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis." washingtonpost.com/politics/bob-w…

Woodward: WH CoS John Kelly said he thought Trump was “unhinged.” He 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.”

Woodward: Priebus, whom Trump called a little rat, dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, “the devil’s workshop” and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the witching hour.”

#Woodward book: Trump often mocked then-national security adviser HR McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, “like a beer salesman.”

#Woodward book: Trump called AG Sessions a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. Mocking Sessions’s accent, Trump said: “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner… He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”

#Woodward book: After Assad’s chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called DoD Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them.” Mattis said he’d get right on it… and didn’t.

#Woodward book: Gary Cohn tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism on trade by literally hiding things. Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that would withdraw US from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later said Trump never noticed the letter was missing.

#WoodwardBook: Trump called Cohn a “traitor” for threatening to resign over Charlottesville and Trump’s repugnant “both sides” moral equivlance between neo-Nazi marchers and counter protesters, one of whom was murdered. Kelly shared Cohn’s fury and outrage. Trump, not so much.

#WoodwardBook: Dread and panic are all-encompassing and regular features of Trump WH, leaving staffers and Cabinet confounded by Trump’s inability & unwillingness to understand how govt functions. Porter said: “This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House.”

#Woodward: High anxiety in govt over Trump’s handling of North Korea nuclear threat. 1month into presidency, Trump asked Dunford for preemptive strike plan. Aides worried Trump rhetoric might provoke Kim. Trump said: “This is all about leader versus leader. Man vs man. Me vs Kim”

#WoodwardBook Dowd to Mueller: “I’m not going to sit there and let him [testify &] look like an idiot…The guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell.” Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. You’re not a good witness. I can’t help you.” Then resigned next day