By ROBERT P. BOMBOY
By Robert P. Bomboy
Awful things are going on inside the Trump White House. Plots and schemes – buy Greenland for its rare-earth metals, betray the Kurdish men and women who fought for us in Syria, co-opt the president of Ukraine, snatch immigrant children from their weeping mothers – horrors that match the evils of an English Richard.
A book coming out this month sees what is going on, day to day, inside the White House – and is appalled. Written by a Trump-appointed Republican official, the book, called “Warning,” describes the dangerous and inane stupidity that takes place in the Oval Office every day and every night.
I know that not everyone will see the book when it’s published. Who has the time? But I have laid out here a Trump official’s true description of the chaos and danger as a play-by-play account. And I quote:
“People who compared notes in the workday and in the normal course of business realized that the administration‘s problems were more than fleeting. They were systemic, they emanated from the top, because of the President’s inattentiveness and his impulsiveness.”
“But coming to terms with these characteristics for the first time had a powerful impact on the people serving in the Trump administration. Take, for instance, the process of briefing the president of the United States, which is an experience that no description can fully capture. In any administration, advisers would rightfully want to be prepared for such a moment.”
“This is the most powerful person on earth that we‘re talking about. But before a conversation with him, you‘d want to make sure you’ve got your main points lined up in a crisp agenda you‘re about to present. You‘re about to discuss life and death matters with the leader of the free world, a matter of utmost sobriety and purpose.”
“The process does not unfold that way in the Trump administration. Briefings with Donald Trump are of an entirely different nature. Early on, briefers were told not to send lengthy documents; Trump wouldn’t read them.”
“Nor should they bring summaries to the Oval Office. If they must bring paper, then PowerPoint was preferred, because he‘s a visual learner. Okay, that‘s fine, many thought; megalomaniacal leaders like to absorb information in different ways.”
“Then officials were told that PowerPoint decks needed to be slimmed down. 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 – on complicated issues from military readiness to the federal budget – to just three main points. But that was still too much.”
“The most salient advice: forget the three points. Come in with one main point and repeat it over and over again; even if the president inevitably goes off on tangents, repeat until he gets it. 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? They were facilitating presidential decisions on major issues, not debates about where to go out for dinner.”
“I saw a number of appointees as they dismissed the advice of the more experienced hands and went in to see President Trump, prepared for robust policy discussions on momentous national topics, and a peppery give-and-take.”
“Those people invariably paid the price.”
“‘What the ‘F’ is this!’ the president would shout, looking at a document one of them handed him. ‘These are just words, a bunch of words; it doesn’t mean anything.’”
“Sometimes he would throw the papers back on the table. He definitely wouldn’t read them.”
This is the way it is, inside the megalomaniacal White House of Donald Trump. As the Kurds found out, it’s very dangerous.
Robert P. Bomboy has written for more than 60 national magazines and is the author of six books, including the novel “Smart Boys Swimming in the River Styx.” He taught for more than 30 years in colleges and universities, and he has been a Ford Foundation Fellow at the University of Chicago and in Washington, D.C.
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