The most stunning revelations from Bob Woodward’s book on the Trump administration

AT ONE of the darkest points of Donald Trump’s political career, one of his supporters went on TV to defend him. The President’s reaction was astonishing.

US President Donald Trump isn’t happy with the imminent release of Bob Woodward’s new book. Picture: Mandel Ngan/AFP

AN EXPLOSIVE new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward is already causing nightmares for US President Donald Trump, and it hasn’t even been released yet.

Fear: Trump In The White House will be published on September 11, and some of its juicier details are now making it into the media.

According to the Washington Post, the book “paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency”. Mr Woodward says the information within is drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews, along with notes, diaries and government documents.

Journalist and author Bob Woodward. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

That isn’t good enough for the President.

“It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems,” Mr Trump told The Daily Caller today.

“It’s just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him.”

Mr Trump said the book’s allegations “could be just made up by the author”.

“This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, echoing her boss’s remarks.

Mr Trump strikes a lonely figure as he disembarks from Air Force One. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

The White House responded similarly to two previous books that claimed to reveal damaging accounts from inside the Trump administration. But both of those authors — Michael Wolff and Omarosa Manigault Newman — had problems with credibility.

Mr Woodward, a famously fastidious reporter with two Pulitzer prizes who broke the story which forced President Richard Nixon to resign, has an impressive reputation backing him up.

Here are the biggest revelations from his book so far, as reported by the Washington Post and CNN.

• According to Mr Woodward, White House chief of staff John Kelly called Mr Trump “unhinged”. The book includes one particularly extraordinary quote from Mr Kelly.

“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.”

In a statement today, Mr Kelly denied saying that, calling it “total BS”.

• Mr Trump’s former lawyer John Dowd went to extraordinary lengths to prevent him from sitting down for an interview with special counsel Robert Mueller, believing it would — at best — make the President “look like an idiot”.

Mr Dowd staged a mock interview with Mr Trump, and was left thinking the President was incapable of being honest.

“There’s no way you can get through these,” the lawyer told his boss. “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”

Desperate, Mr Dowd and another of Mr Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, actually went to Mr Mueller.

“I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish the transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’” he supposedly said.

Mr Dowd has also denied Mr Woodward’s account, saying it was “an honour and privilege” to work for Mr Trump.

• When Mr Trump asked why the United States was spending money to maintain a military presence in South Korea, Defence Secretary James Mattis was “exasperated and alarmed”.

“We’re doing this to prevent World War III,” General Mattis reportedly told the President.

Later, he told associates Mr Trump “acted like — and had the understanding of — a fifth or sixth-grader”.

Like the other subjects of Mr Woodward’s book mentioned so far, Gen Mattis has denied ever uttering the quotes attributed to him.

Statement from Secretary of Defense, James Mattis: pic.twitter.com/OneaxKCneV

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2018

• Mr Trump has publicly vented about his Attorney-General Jeff Sessions on many occasions, but in private, he was reportedly even more venomous.

The President called Mr Sessions a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, a move Mr Trump has long regarded as a personal betrayal.

“This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner,” Mr Trump said. “He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”

The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions “mentally retarded” and “a dumb southerner.” I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018

• Back in 2016, when the infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” tape was leaked, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani went on TV to defend Mr Trump. The then-candidate was not impressed.

“Rudy, you’re a baby. I’ve never seen a worse defence of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You’re like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?” Mr Trump said.

It is unclear whether Mr Giuliani ever became a man, but he is now serving as Mr Turmp’s personal lawyer.

• In April last year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was accused of attacking his own people with chemical weapons (again). Mr Trump reacted with a radical order.

“Let’s f***ing kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the f***ing lot of them,” he told General Mattis on the phone.

The Defence Secretary hung up and effectively disregarded his boss’s wishes, telling an aide: “We’re not going to do any of that.”

The administration ended up launching an air strike, but did not, as Mr Trump put it, “kill the lot of them”.

• Mr Trump regretted his belated condemnation of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the aftermath of the drama in Charlottesville.

“That was the biggest f***ing mistake I’ve made,” he said.

The President had initially said there were “good people” among the white supremacist marchers and “both sides” were to blame for the violence.

• Gary Cohn, who served as Mr Trump’s top economic adviser, “stole” documents off the President’s desk to stop him from ditching trade agreements.

Mr Woodward cites the example of a letter Mr Trump was planning to sign, pulling out of an agreement with South Korea. Mr Cohn removed it before that could happen.

“I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country,” Mr Cohn told an associate.

Mr Trump reportedly didn’t notice.

We can expect more damaging stories to emerge in the coming days as the release of Mr Woodward’s book draws nearer.