Miles Taylor’s new book Blowback: A Warning To Save Democracy From the Next Trump, is already creating something of a firestorm. Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, irately said: “Miles Taylor is a loser and a lying sack of s— His book either belongs in the discount bin of the fiction section or should be repurposed as toilet paper.”
Maybe. I would like somebody to ask John Bolton about the description in Taylor’s book of Trump behaving like a child in a national security briefing. It’s been reported plenty of other places that Trump needed to have graphics and bullet pointed memos because that was the only way he could understand anything. His attention span is limited as is his reading comprehension because he doesn’t read, or use a computer. He golfs and watches TV.
So this scene with Bolton certainly sounds plausible. NBC News:
During his time in office, some senior aides worried about Trump’s treatment of state secrets. In an interview, Bolton said that when Trump would get briefings, aides would “show him graphics, and that’s where the danger came of him grabbing something and keeping it.”
Asking Trump to return material he’d been given wasn’t so easy, Bolton said.
“He’s the president of the United States,” Bolton said. “Are you supposed to say, ‘Mr. President, let’s be clear. We don’t trust you. Give us the document back.’ ”
Now give it back, Donald. If you don’t, you won’t get your two scoops of ice cream. Just like a brat keeping the neighbor kid’s toy. And this was the guy with the nuclear codes.
And John Kelly makes it sound the same way.
Kelly, a retired four-star general, said that he had cautioned Trump “that he should never, ever share classified information with anyone that does not have the proper security clearance, as U.S. national security and lives are put at risk.”
Explaining some of the practices he adopted from his military career, Kelly said that after displaying classified material as part of a briefing, White House aides were supposed to “collect it back in order to secure it properly.”
“We did not leave classified material with him, and the same procedures applied to me and the rest of the staff, as well,” Kelly added.
Read between the lines there. Kelly admitted that he had to explain to Trump about not sharing classified information with people who didn’t have a security clearance. I daresay that’s a first. I believe that anybody else ever elected to the Oval Office either had the background or the horse sense, or both, to know the general lay of the land regarding classified data.
And I totally believe the general when he says, “We did not leave classified material with him.” I’ll just bet he did not. Not for one minute. I’m sure Kelly saw the handwriting on the wall way before this matter with the boxes at Mar-a-Lago ever came to be.
Trump has called Taylor “a sleazebag who never worked in the White House” and suggests he should be prosecuted. But so far the incidents which are being teased out in articles about Taylor’s book do seem to match up with information we already have.
I wonder if this book will elaborate on my favorite incident, which is John Kelly grabbing Corey Lewandowski by the lapels and shoving him into the wall? I’m going to venture a guess that that was also a first in the White House.
Oh, if those walls could talk.
The Toddler Tyrant.
“Are you supposed to say, ‘Mr. President, let’s be clear. We don’t trust you. Give us the document back.’ ”–well, yes. Bolton calls former guy a 5 year old which is true. This could not have been news to Bolton so, yeah, you say whatever is necessary to get important documents the hell away from a toddler’s grabbing little hands.
I’m trying to remember which aide called Trump “an 8-year-old.” And we know that Tillerson said he was “a f**king moron.” McMaster had some choice words for him. What a scene in that White House. I’m glad that Miles Taylor was there to bear witness. Trump’s people can trash Taylor all they want to. Bottom line is that these incidents are not being reported for the first time. There’s plenty of evidence what a nuthouse the Trump White House was.
Sorry, meant to click tiny thumbs up, not thumbs down. Can’t take it back. Fat finger syndrome.
I would like to buy Miles’ book to support his effort but I really would prefer not to re-live that he🏒🏒 and we are not out of it yet.
People need to get their heads out of their a$$es and vote. I did phone banking for the midterms. It is depressing the number of people I talked to that did not vote because they were too busy. I begged them to vote early next time and how much we need them. I have sent postcards since 2018. Marched in local women’s marches. It’s exhausting. That toddler and his buddies destroyed this country. Without a landslide, this constant state of being under attack will never end.
You can click the downvote button again to remove it.
Even if the walls could talk, they’d still be silent because their mouths were filled with catsup!