Five things Trump thinks about Bannon now

Exit player

Media captionFive things Trump thinks about Bannon now

Wolff writes that Bannon told him of the meeting:

"The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor - with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers. Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."

Bannon reportedly said the Justice Department investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Moscow would focus on money laundering, adding: "They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV."

Anthony Zurcher: In just a few sentences, Bannon manages to detonate a bomb under the White House's efforts to downplay the significance of that fateful June meeting in Trump Tower and their attempt to dismiss Robert Mueller's inquiry as a partisan witchhunt. It's bad, Bannon is saying, and even more unforgivably it was stupid. Taking aim at Mr Trump's own family in the most personal terms makes it all the more biting.

2. Trump 'befuddled' by his victory

In an article for NYMag adapted from his book, Wolff describes the amazement - and dismay - in the Trump camp at his November 2016 election win.

"Shortly after 8pm on Election Night, when the unexpected trend - Trump might actually win - seemed confirmed, Don Jr told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears - and not of joy. There was, in the space of little more than an hour, in Steve Bannon's not unamused observation, a befuddled Trump morphing into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump. But still to come was the final transformation: Suddenly, Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be, and was wholly capable of being, the president of the United States."

AZ: This is decidedly different from what has been recited by the Trump circle since election night. While campaign hands - at least the less-than-dedicated ones - may have been positioning themselves for a soft landing after a defeat, Mr Trump and his close allies believed in their success. A "horrified Trump" was never part of the script.

3. Trump 'angry' at inauguration

Wolff writes:

"Trump did not enjoy his own inauguration. He was angry that A-level stars had snubbed the event, disgruntled with the accommodations at Blair House, and visibly fighting with his wife, who seemed on the verge of tears. Throughout the day, he wore what some around him had taken to calling his golf face: angry and pissed off, shoulders hunched, arms swinging, brow furled, lips pursed."

But the first lady's office rejected the claims.

Communications director Stephanie Grisham said in a statement: "Mrs Trump supported her husband's decision to run for President and in fact, encouraged him to do so. She was confident he would win and was very happy when he did."

...[ Continue to next page ]

Share This Post