Donald Trump feared dying of covid-19 in October 2020, when he contracted coronavirus; and he asked officials like then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo not to pay as much attention to the disease.
This is one of the eight revelations that appear in the long-awaited book about the former president of the United States that the journalist from New York Times Maggie Haberman wrote and it went on sale Tuesday.
The book, titled Confidence Man, chronicles Trump’s life from his time as a real estate developer until after the presidency. To elaborate it, the communicator spoke with more than 200 peopleincluding former aides to the former president, and held three interviews with Trump himself.
The former president has attacked Haberman, writing on his social media platform that the book contains “many made-up stories with zero fact-checking.”
1. Fear of death
On October 2, 2020, Trump tested positive for covid-19 and as his condition worsened, not only was he transferred from the White House to the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington, but he even feared for his life.
According to the book, the then deputy chief of staff, Tony Ornato, warned the president that if his health deteriorated further they would have to put in place procedures to guarantee the continuity of the government; namely, transfer his powers to the vice president.
Trump not only feared for his life, but also for the repercussions that his contagion could have for his image. The reason? During the beginning of the pandemic he tried to minimize the severity of the coronavirus.
Haberman claims that the then-president asked his aides to remove their masks and that he advised then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo not to speak publicly about the virus on television.
“Don’t make a big deal out of this,” Trump told Cuomo, according to the book. “You’re going to make a problem out of it”I would have said.
2. He wanted to fire Ivanka and her husband
Haberman, in the book, also assures that Trump was about to announce, on Twitter, the firing of his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, both his advisers.
The decision would have been made by the controversial politician during a meeting with then-chief of staff John Kelly and then-White House counselor Don McGahn.
However, Kelly’s intervention stopped him. The retired general advised Trump to I will talk to both of you first before taking this action..
Trump never spoke to his daughter and son-in-law, and both remained in their official positions until the end of his presidency in January 2021.
The book also reveals that Trump frequently spoke disparagingly of his son-in-law, whom he once said “sounds like a child” after listening to a speech he gave in 2017.
The former president has denied that he had thought of firing Ivanka and her husband. “It is pure fiction. It never crossed my mind,” he has said.
3. He thought about bombing laboratories in Mexico
Haberman says Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of bombing Mexican drug labs, a suggestion that stunned former US Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
The idea arose from a conversation the then-White House tenant had with Brett Giroir, a public health official and admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
Giroir entered the Oval Office wearing a full dress uniform – as is customary for the force’s public health officers – and told Trump that facilities that produce illegal drugs in Mexico should be treated as “white” to prevent illicit substances from reaching the country.
Trump then suggested to Giroir, whom he apparently mistook for a military man, to bomb the facility.
From there, the White House asked Giroir to stop wearing his uniform to meetings with the president.
Trump and his supporters boast that during his controversial tenure the US military did not embark on wars.
4. Pressure on Theresa May
Haberman’s book details various meetings between Trump and world leaders, including his first meeting with then-British Prime Minister Theresa May.
During the appointment, Trump spoke about abortion in the following terms: “Some people are in favor of life, some people are in favor of abortion. Imagine that some animals with tattoos raped your daughter and she got pregnant.”
However, he then changed the subject and talked about how to block an offshore wind project that would be installed near his property in the United Kingdom.
5. “Anything” for nullifying the 2020 election
When it became clear that Trump was going to lose the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, the then president called the former mayor of New York and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
“Okay, Rudy, you’re in charge. do crazy things, do what you want. I don’t care,” Trump said, after other lawyers refused to go as far as he did in their calls to overturn the election results, according to the book.
“My lawyers are terrible,” Giuliani told him.
6. Excuse on the go
While campaigning in 2016, Trump was asked by his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and his press secretary, Hope Hicks, about how to address his refusal to release his tax returns, an issue they saw as a problem for his candidacy.
Haberman says Trump responded: “Well, you know my taxes are under audit, I’m always audited.”
“So I could say: ‘I will publish them when I am no longer under audit’. Because I will never be out of audit.”
Since Richard Nixon, every US president has voluntarily released their tax returns.
An investigation of New York Times of 2020 revealed that Trump paid US$750 in income taxes the year he became president.
7. He flushed documents down the toilet
While he was president, White House staff discovered that the toilet Trump used was frequently clogged with paper, leading to suspicions that he was disposing of official documents that way.
Politician and businessman too would have shredded documentswhich contravenes the Presidential Records Act, which establishes that documents created or received by a president are the property of the US government and must be safeguarded by the National Archives once their term ends.
The details of the book coincide with the accusations about the disappearance of documents during the Trump administration made by the National Archives.
The former president also faces a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice for keeping government papers at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
8. He mistook ethnic minority officials for waiters
Haberman recounts that at a congressional meeting held shortly after his 2017 inauguration, Trump mistook a racially diverse group of Democratic lawmakers’ employees for waiters, asking them to bring canapés and drinks.
The book details that Trump made the comments to employees of Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Haberman also documented a history of homophobic comments allegedly made by Trump.
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
