Confidence Man: Key revelations from new guide on Donald Trump

Former US President Donald Trump practically fired his daughter and routinely flushed paperwork down the bathroom.

These explosive particulars and extra are revealed in New York Occasions journalist Maggie Haberman’s highly-anticipated guide Confidence Man, which is launched on Tuesday.

The guide follows Mr Trump from his time as a New York businessman to his life after the presidency. It attracts from interviews with greater than 200 sources, together with former aides in addition to three interviews with Mr Trump himself.

The previous president has attacked Haberman, writing on his social media platform that the guide incorporates “many made up tales with zero reality checking”.

Listed below are eight of Confidence Man’s largest revelations:

At a gathering with then Chief of Employees John Kelly after which White Home counsel Don McGahn, Haberman writes that Mr Trump was near tweeting that his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner – each senior White Home aides – had been leaving their positions.

He was stopped by Mr Kelly, who suggested him to talk with Ivanka and Mr Kushner first earlier than sending the tweet. Mr Trump by no means spoke with them, and so they each remained White Home aides till the top of his presidency.

The guide additionally reveals that Mr Trump ceaselessly talked down on his son-in-law, and as soon as commented that Mr Kushner “seems like a baby” after listening to a public speech he gave in 2017.

Mr Trump has denied ever wanting to fireplace Ivanka and her husband. “Pure fiction. By no means even crossed my thoughts,” he mentioned.

Haberman writes that Mr Trump raised the prospect of bombing Mexican drug labs a number of occasions – a suggestion that shocked former US Defence Secretary Mark Esper.

The thought stemmed from a dialog that Mr Trump had with Brett Giroir, a public well being officer and an admiral with the US Public Well being Service Commissioned Corps.

Mr Giroir walked into the Oval Workplace sporting a costume uniform – as is customary for public well being officers within the corps – and mentioned to Mr Trump that services producing unlawful medication in Mexico must be dealt with by placing “a result in goal” to cease illicit substances from coming over the border.

Mistaking Mr Giroir for a army officer, Mr Trump then prompt bombing the drug services. In response, the White Home requested Mr Giroir to cease sporting his uniform.

When Mr Trump fell in poor health with Covid-19 in October 2020, his situation on the White Home was worsening and he was afraid of dying.

At one level, his deputy chief of workers, Tony Ornato, warned the president that if his well being deteriorated additional he must set in movement procedures to make sure the continuity of presidency.

This worry existed regardless of a number of makes an attempt by Mr Trump to attenuate the pandemic, as he anxious the virus was negatively impacting his picture and political motivations. Haberman writes that he requested aides round him to take off their masks, and that he suggested then New York governor Andrew Cuomo to not speak in regards to the virus on TV.

“Do not make such an enormous deal out of this,” Mr Trump mentioned to Mr Cuomo, based on the guide. “You are going to make it an issue.”

Haberman’s guide particulars a number of encounters between Mr Trump and world leaders.

For example, in his first assembly with then UK Prime Minister Theresa Could, Mr Trump spoke about abortion, saying “some individuals are pro-life, some individuals are pro-choice. Think about if some animals with tattoos raped your daughter and he or she acquired pregnant?”

He then modified the topic in a dialog on Northern Eire to debate the way to block an offshore wind venture from being arrange close to his property.

When it grew to become obvious that Mr Trump was shedding the 2020 election to US President Joe Biden, he referred to as former New York Metropolis mayor and his private lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“Okay, Rudy, you are in cost. Go wild, do something you need. I do not care,” Mr Trump mentioned, after different legal professionals refused to go so far as he has requested in his bid to overturn the election outcomes.

“My legal professionals are horrible,” he mentioned to Mr Giuliani, based on the guide. He additionally ceaselessly berated White Home counsel Pat Cipollone.

The guide reveals that on the time, Mr Trump was enamoured with conspiracy theories and sought out legal professionals that his personal advisers felt had been deluded.

On a aircraft whereas campaigning in 2016, Mr Trump was requested by his marketing campaign supervisor Corey Lewandowski and his press secretary Hope Hicks to deal with his refusal to launch his tax returns – a difficulty they noticed as an issue for Mr Trump’s White Home bid.

Haberman writes that Mr Trump responded by leaning again earlier than snapping to a sudden thought: “Properly, you understand my taxes are beneath audit, I at all times get audited,” he mentioned.

“So what I imply is, properly I may simply say, ‘I will launch them once I’m not beneath audit. ‘Trigger I will by no means not be beneath audit.”

Since Richard Nixon, each US president has voluntarily launched their tax returns. A 2020 New York Occasions investigation has since revealed that Mr Trump paid $750 (£662) in federal earnings taxes the yr he grew to become president.

When Mr Trump was in workplace, White Home workers periodically found that the bathroom was clogged with printed paper and believed he had flushed paperwork.

He additionally allegedly tore up paperwork, which contravenes the Presidential Information Act – a regulation that claims paperwork created or acquired by a president are the property of the US authorities and are to be dealt with by the US Nationwide Archives as soon as the presidency ends.

The main points are revealed amid wider allegations of lacking paperwork from Mr Trump’s White Home levelled by the Nationwide Archives. Mr Trump additionally faces a legal investigation by the Division of Justice for preserving authorities information at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida after leaving workplace.

At a congressional assembly shortly after his 2017 inauguration, Haberman writes that Mr Trump turned to a racially various group of Democratic staffers and requested them to fetch canapes, mistaking them for waiters.

The guide particulars that Mr Trump made the remarks to staffers for Senator Chuck Schumer and Consultant Nancy Pelosi.

Haberman additionally paperwork a historical past of homophobic remarks allegedly uttered by Mr Trump.