Shelby Talcott on November 7, 2019
The anonymous book being published in November by a “senior Trump administration official” details a tumultuous administration led by a president who is “unfit for the job” and unable to focus on any one task, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said Thursday as she read excerpts from the book.
The anonymous author wrote in The New York Times in 2018 that there is a group of administration officials working against Trump’s interests. The person added that senior officials within the Trump administration “are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations,” according to the op-ed.
The person will soon publish a tell-all detailing “an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency,” The Washington Post reported. The book, titled “A Warning,” details that the president was unable to focus on basic tasks and reportedly forced the administration to “dumb down” its work, Maddow read Thursday, citing the excerpt.
“Come in with one main point and repeat it over and over again, even if the president inevitably goes off on tangents — repeat it until he gets it,” the anonymous book reads, Maddow reported. “Just keep steering the subject back to it. One point, just that one point, because you cannot focus the commander-in-chief’s attention on more than one gosh darn thing over the course of a meeting, okay? Some officials refused to believe this is how it worked.”
“‘Are you serious?’ they asked, quizzing others who briefed the president. ‘How could they dumb down their work to this level?’”
The book also stated that Trump is “a visual learner” who requested that PowerPoint slideshows be slimmed down.
“Then officials were told that PowerPoint decks needed to be slimmed down,” the author wrote, although does not provide specific instances. “The president couldn’t digest too many slides. He needed more images to keep his interest and fewer words. Then they were told to cut back the overall message … to just three main points. Eh, that was still too much.”
The anonymous author wrote that those within the administration were frustrated and confused by Trump’s alleged lack of focus and intelligence, and had discussions on the best way to approach him.
“But if the aim was to educate this new commander-in-chief, they couldn’t submit a 50-page report … and expect him to read it and then discuss it,” Maddow read. “That would be like speaking Aramaic to Trump through a pillow. Even if he tried very hard to pay attention, which he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to understand what the hell he was hearing.”
The book stated that “it took a lot of trial and error” for staffers to understand that a change was needed in the White House briefing process. Until then, Trump’s personality caused many to leave briefings frustrated, the author wrote.
“‘He is the most distracted person I’ve ever met,’ one of the president’s security lieutenants confessed. ‘He has no fucking clue what we are talking about!’” the author added.
The anonymous author will be interviewed by at least one journalist when the book is published, Axios reported. The specific details of the interview have not been announced, but no topic will be off-limits.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
