‘Who are these idiots?’: new Michael Wolff book paints Donald Trump in panic mode

Donald Trump tried to avoid blame as he watched his supporters ransack the Capitol on January 6, according to a new Michael Wolff book.

Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol building on January 6. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump panicked as he watched his supporters ransack the Capitol on January 6, according to a book on his last months in office.

Michael Wolff’s Landslide, his third volume on Mr Trump’s four years in office, reveals that in a speech before the riot, Mr Trump had alarmed the secret service when he told a crowd of his supporters that he would march with them to try to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election victory.

After telling the crowd, “we’re going to walk down (to the Capitol to protest) – and I’ll be there with you”, the secret service ­approached Mark Meadows, the former president’s chief of staff, for an explanation. Mr Meadows told them: “No. There’s no way we are going to the Capitol,” the book claims. In the extract, published by New York Magazine, Wolff writes: “Meadows confirmed this with the president as soon as he came off the stage at 1.11pm. The president seemed unsure what Meadows was talking about. ‘You said you were going to march with them to the Capitol. Well – How would we do that? We can’t organise that. We can’t’.”

Mr Trump is said to have ­replied: “I didn’t mean it literally.”

Footage of Donald Trump and family watching the riots. Picture: Twitter

Donald Trump tried to avoid blame as he watched the riots. Picture: Twitter

As protests became violent, Wolff describes Mr Trump watching the events unfold on television in the White House and trying to avoid the blame for what was unfolding. He reportedly asked Mr Meadows: “How bad is this? This looks terrible. This is really bad. Who are these people? These aren’t our people, these idiots with these outfits. They look like ­Democrats.”

Mr Trump is said to have added: “We didn’t tell people to do something like this. We told people to be peaceful. I even said ‘peaceful’ and ‘patriotic’ in my speech!” In the violence that followed, five people, including a ­policeman, died.

Another new book on Mr Trump, by ­Michael Bender, of The Wall Street Journal, details an explosive row between Mr Trump and his most senior military officer in the White House situation room over how to handle the fallout of the killing of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis in May last year.

Concerned about unrest in some US cities, Mr Trump wanted the military to move in and suppress protests, which in some ­places had become violent.

The demand led to a shouting match between Mr Trump and Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bender claims in his book, Frankly We Did Win This Election.

“Seated in the situation room with (Attorney-General Bill) Barr, Milley, and (Defence Secretary Mark) Esper, Trump exaggerated claims about the violence and alarmed officials … by announcing he’d just put Milley ‘in charge’,” Bender writes.

“Privately, Milley confronted Trump about his role. He was an adviser, and not in command. But Trump had had enough. ‘I said you’re in f. king charge!’” Mr Trump is said to have shouted at him.

“Well, I’m not in charge!” General Milley yelled back.

“You can’t f. king talk to me like that!” Mr Trump said.

“Goddamnit,” General Milley said to others. “There’s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone ­inform him of my legal responsibilities?”

“He’s right, Mr President,” Mr Barr said. The general is right.”

Mr Trump has denied that the exchange took place, insisting he would have sacked General ­Milley had the general “yelled” at him.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this report said five people, including a policeman, were killed in the Capitol violence. In fact later investigations found the police officer died shortly after the riots from a medical condition, one protester was shot by police, two other protesters died of heart failure and one died from an amphetamine overdose.

THE TIMES