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Donald Trump nearly kicked his daughter and son-in-law out of their White House advisory role via Twitter, a new excerpt on Wednesday suggests.
An excerpt from Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and The Breaking of America,” which was published in the Washington Postdescribes how the former president would go out of his way to drive wedges between his famously tumultuous staff.
That included repeated attempts to get then Chief of Staff John Kelly to fire Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the report said.
Haberman also claims that Trump, as president, would floor even high-ranking officials, such as his Pentagon chief, with suggestions such as bombing “Mexican drug labs” to help stop the flow of illegal drugs through the US southwestern border.
He raised it several times and eventually asked a bewildered Secretary of Defense Mark Esper if the United States could indeed bomb the labs.
Trump reportedly said the illegal drug crisis would be solved by putting “lead to target.”
The upcoming book from New York Times journalists also paints a very different picture of the close public relationship the ex-president seemed to share with his family members who became White House advisers.
‘In encounters with Kelly and [White House Counsel Don] McGahn, instructed Trump to essentially fire the couple,” Ivanka and Jared’s book reads.
Donald Trump reportedly tried to drive a wedge between staffers in his famously tumultuous White House
That included pressuring then Chief of Staff John Kelly and former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But the officials reportedly feared Trump would hang them to dry if his children fought back for their jobs.
“At one point, Trump was about to write on Twitter that his daughter and son-in-law were leaving the White House,” Haberman claims.
Kelly stopped him and told Trump to talk to them directly before she did. Trump agreed, but never continued the conversation.”
It’s not clear when the exchanges took place, but McGahn left the White House in 2018 while Kelly left in 2019.
Trump also reportedly told his then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani about promoting his allegations of voter fraud: “Okay, Rudy, you’re in charge. Go wild, do whatever you want. I do not give a hoot.’
The revelations come from New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman’s upcoming book on Trump’s rise in the business world and later in the political sphere.
Giuliani is now embroiled in multiple legal investigations over those efforts, as well as a billion-dollar libel lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
Another fragment, which was obtained by the Daily Beastsuggests Trump made a vulgar remark about transgender genitalia while preparing for a debate with Hillary Clinton in 2016.
To prepare for the town hall-style forum, Trump’s then-advisor Reince Priebus role-played as a female transgender student and asked Trump if that student should be allowed to use the girl’s bathroom.
Trump asked if, in theory, the student still had a penis.
‘C***ed or dec***ed?’ he reportedly asked.
He was reportedly trying to explain himself with “a chopping gesture” when he was greeted with “empty” confusion.
‘With c*** or without c***?’ Trump asked again.
When counselors asked why it mattered which genitals the student had, the former president replied, “What if there was a girl in the bathroom and someone came in, lifted a skirt and had a trunk hanging out of it?”
Haberman’s book reportedly details a long history of Trump’s homophobic and hypersexualized comments, with many reportedly believing that he was “trying to shock” in his interactions.
A more recent excerpt claims he went out of his way to point out the extent of his former adviser Jason Miller’s heterosexuality.
He apparently said Miller “likes the ladies” when meeting them and former Vice President Mike Pence.
‘You know how sometimes someone turns out to be gay and you knew it? This guy isn’t even one percent gay,” Trump reportedly said of Miller.