Fear: Trump in the White House

“Peoples lives are being shattered”: View Trump’s tweet at https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/962348831789797381.

The Washington Post editorial board: “The White House Shrugged Off Domestic Violence. It’s Not Alone,” The Washington Post, February 8, 2018; Mark Landler, “Trump, Saying ‘Mere Allegation’ Ruins Lives, Appears to Doubt #MeToo Movement,” The New York Times, February 10, 2018.

More than a dozen executives showed up: Donald J. Trump, “Remarks at a Listening Session with Steel and Aluminum Industry Leaders and an Exchange with Reporters,” March 1, 2018. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=129484.

“Gary Cohn to Resign as Trump Adviser”: Justin Sink, Jennifer Jacobs, Dakin Campbell and Shannon Pettypiece, “Gary Cohn to Resign as Trump Adviser After Dispute over Tariffs,” Bloomberg, March 6, 2018.

“Gary Cohn Resigns Amid Differences”: Damian Paletta and Philip Rucker, “Gary Cohn, Trump’s Top Economic Adviser, to Resign Amid Differences on Trade Policy,” The Washington Post, March 7, 2018.

“Gary Cohn Resigns, Apparently over Tariffs”: Derek Thompson, “Gary Cohn Resigns, Apparently over Tariffs,” The Atlantic, March 6, 2018.

“Gary Cohn Resigns as White House”: Nick Timiraos, Peter Nicholas and Liz Hoffman, “Gary Cohn Resigns as White House Economic Adviser After Losing Tariffs Fight,” The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2018.

“You just upped the ante to $150 billion”: Bob Davis, “Trump Weighs Tariffs on $100 Billion More of Chinese Goods,” The Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2018. Bossert and Trump met on April 6, 2018.

The Chinese had announced they would retaliate: Ibid.

Bossert was ready with his talking points: “Transcript of This Week,” ABC News, April 8, 2018.





CHAPTER 42


The information in this chapter comes primarily from multiple deep background interviews with firsthand sources.

Dowd and Cobb had been quoted: Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman, “Mueller Is Said to Seek Interviews with West Wing in Russia Case,” The New York Times, August 12, 2017.

“You did it to Flynn, you did it to Gates”: Jeremy Herb, Evan Perez, Marshall Cohen, Pamela Brown and Shimon Prokupecz, “Ex-Trump Campaign Adviser Pleads Guilty to Making False Statement,” CNN, October 31, 2017; Carrie Johnson, “Rick Gates Pleads Guilty and Begins Cooperating with Mueller’s Russia Investigation,” NPR, February 23, 2018.

Mueller’s team, Quarles and three others: Read Mueller’s questions, obtained by The New York Times in April 2018, at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/questions-mueller-wants-to-ask-trump-russia.html.

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