 |
| US President Donald Trump |
President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes sidestepping instructions to limit what they see as his damaging and dangerous behavior.
Excerpts from the book, entitled โFearโ and written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which has not yet been released, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trumpโs 20-month-old presidency.
The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that Woodward says amounts to an โadministrative coup dโetatโ and a โnervous breakdownโ of the executive branch.
According to the book, Trump told Defense Secretary Jim Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.
Mattis told Trump he would โget right on it,โ but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally.
Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like โa fifth- or sixth-grader,โ according to the book.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this or other aspects of the excerpts. The Pentagon declined to comment.
Woodward, who gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, talked to top aides for the book with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, the Post said.
Among his other revelations: former top economic adviser Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trumpโs desk that the president planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea.
Cohn, who tried to rein in Trumpโs protectionist impulses, also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote.
โIโll just take the paper off his desk,โ Cohn told another White House aide, according to the book.
The United States remains part of both trade agreements as it negotiates new terms.
Other aides insulted Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff John Kelly called Trump an โidiot,โ and said โWeโre in Crazytown โฆ This is the worst job Iโve ever had.โ
Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions โmentally retarded.โ
Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in Moscowโs alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, prompting aides to compare him to former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported.
Trumpโs former lawyer, John Dowd, conducted a mock interview with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, the book says.
Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was complete, the paper said. โSo I have another bad book coming out. Big deal,โ Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript of a telephone call released by the Post.
