Some more books on President Trump

[lpetrich]

'A Very Stable Genius' portrays Trump as erratic, 'at times dangerously uninformed' - The Washington Post about an upcoming book about him.

This "stable genius" often shows himself ignorant of history and geography, like India and China bordering each other and what the USS Arizona Memorial was in honor of. "He toys with awarding himself the Medal of Freedom."

Many of the key moments reported in the book are rife with foreign policy implications, portraying a novice commander in chief plowing through normal protocols and alarming many both inside the administration and in other governments.

Like wanting to meet Vladimir Putin right away, and considering himself an expert on the Russian leader, more than former Sec'y of State Rex Tillerson.

Some details are more harmless than disconcerting. Early in his presidency, Trump agrees to participate in an HBO documentary that features judges and lawmakers — as well as all the living presidents — reading aloud from the Constitution. But Trump struggles and stumbles over the text, blaming others in the room for his mistakes and griping, “It’s like a foreign language.”

 

[lpetrich]

'A Very Stable Genius' book excerpt: Inside Trump's stunning tirade against generals - The Washington Post

By that point, six months into his administration, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had grown alarmed by gaping holes in Trump’s knowledge of history, especially the key alliances forged following World War II. Trump had dismissed allies as worthless, cozied up to authoritarian regimes in Russia and elsewhere, and advocated withdrawing troops from strategic outposts and active theaters alike.

He is an "America First" isolationist. Early in his admin, some high-level officials tried to explain to him the structure of alliances and military commitments that the US has.

For the next 90 minutes, Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn took turns trying to emphasize their points, pointing to their charts and diagrams. They showed where U.S. personnel were positioned, at military bases, CIA stations, and embassies, and how U.S. deployments fended off the threats of terror cells, nuclear blasts, and destabilizing enemies in places including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Korea Peninsula, and Syria. Cohn spoke for about 20 minutes about the value of free trade with America’s allies, emphasizing how he saw each trade agreement working together as part of an overall structure to solidify U.S. economic and national security.

Mattis, Cohn, and Tillerson and their aides decided to use maps, graphics, and charts to tutor the president, figuring they would help keep him from getting bored. Mattis opened with a slide show punctuated by lots of dollar signs. Mattis devised a strategy to use terms the impatient president, schooled in real estate, would appreciate to impress upon him the value of U.S. investments abroad. He sought to explain why U.S. troops were deployed in so many regions and why America’s safety hinged on a complex web of trade deals, alliances, and bases across the globe.

An opening line flashed on the screen, setting the tone: “The post-war international rules-based order is the greatest gift of the greatest generation. ...

For the next 90 minutes, Mattis, Tillerson, and Cohn took turns trying to emphasize their points, pointing to their charts and diagrams. They showed where U.S. personnel were positioned, at military bases, CIA stations, and embassies, and how U.S. deployments fended off the threats of terror cells, nuclear blasts, and destabilizing enemies in places including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the Korea Peninsula, and Syria.

They described the value of NATO and free trade to him, and he would seize on some word they said and insert some comment. About the word "base", he'd say how "crazy" and "stupid" it was to have bases in some countries.

He considered South Korea and NATO allies to be deadbeats, not paying for the protection that the US spends so much on. He demanded that South Korea pay for a $10 billion missile-defense system, stating that “We should charge them rent. We should make them pay for our soldiers. We should make money off of everything.” About the NATO allies, “They’re in arrears,” “We are owed money you haven’t been collecting!” “You would totally go bankrupt if you had to run your own business.”

He refused to accept that NATO protects the US as well as Europe, and he called Obama's Iran deal "the worst deal in history". He called the US's Afghanistan war a "loser war", and he asked why the US hasn't won it. Then what the US didn't get out of stationing troops on the Persian Gulf. “We spent $7 trillion; they’re ripping us off. Where is the f---ing oil?”

When one of the generals described Obama's strategy of reducing troops while building up a stable government, “I want to win. We don’t win any wars anymore . . . We spend $7 trillion, everybody else got the oil and we’re not winning anymore.”

Trump by now was in one of his rages. He was so angry that he wasn’t taking many breaths. All morning, he had been coarse and cavalier, but the next several things he bellowed went beyond that description. They stunned nearly everyone in the room, and some vowed that they would never repeat them. Indeed, they have not been reported until now.

“I wouldn’t go to war with you people,” Trump told the assembled brass.

Addressing the room, the commander in chief barked, “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”

His tirade took an emotional toll on the other people in the room. Here was someone with no military experience, someone who was arguably a draft dodger because of his alleged bone spurs, someone who was dressing down people who devoted their lives to military service, including risking their own lives.

Rex Tillerson visibly seethed, then burst in:

His voice broke into Trump’s tirade, this one about trying to make money off U.S. troops.

“No, that’s just wrong,” the secretary of state said. “Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.”

Tillerson’s father and uncle had both been combat veterans, and he was deeply proud of their service.

“The men and women who put on a uniform don’t do it to become soldiers of fortune,” Tillerson said. “That’s not why they put on a uniform and go out and die . . . They do it to protect our freedom.”

Several military officers were grateful to RT for defending them, and after Trump's departure, RT told some people he trusted that “He’s a f---ing moron.”

Their attempt to teach Trump a lesson had backfired. He dug in his heels and became more of an "America First" isolationist. Trump fired RT, and Gen. Mattis departed, and Trump's replacement staffers became a bunch of yes-people.

 

[lpetrich]

THE MAN WHO SOLD AMERICA by Joy-Ann Reid | Kirkus Reviews - "Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story"

Joy-Ann Reid is a political analyst for MSNBC

In fiery prose, Reid delivers a well-researched narrative about how Trump methodically overcame establishment Republican opponents to dominate a political party he had shunned for most of his life. The author terms the new partisan reality the “Trump Republican Party.”

...
She scrutinizes Trump’s dealings with nations both friendly and hostile, delineating the president’s ugly attraction to “strongmen” in other nations. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is the most prominent example, but others include the dictators of the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Hungary, and Poland.

She has a chapter on "What America Can Learn From South Africa". Though her father came from the Congo, he spent much of his life working in South Africa, and that nation had a policy of racial reconciliation after the end of apartheid there. She describes how that "frankness about race, from black and white South Africans, felt refreshing and surprisingly healthy."

Reid contrasts the selflessness she saw in South Africa with Trump’s self-centered approach of dividing and conquering, especially along racial and cultural faults. Another chapter that moves beyond relating oft-repeated allegations about Trump highlights the author’s frustration at the news media for more or less normalizing his unique cruelty as president.

A searing indictment and a good choice for readers who have never delved into Trump’s pre-presidential background.

I doubt that such divisiveness is specifically a Trump policy - it is at least as old as Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy: divide the nation then take the bigger part.