The leaks are starting from the Bob Woodward book, Fear: Trump in the White House ,that is about to be released.
Via The Washington Post:
[Trump's then top economic adviser Gary]Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that the president was intending to sign to formally
withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice that it was missing.
Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: “Why aren’t we getting this done? Do your job. It’s tap, tap, tap. You’re just tapping me along. I want to do this.”
Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: “I can stop this. I’ll just take the paper off his desk.”
-RW
(ht Jay Stephenson)
UPDATE
Daily Caller reports from interview with Trump:
Trump specifically denied that senior aides, such as former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, were removing papers from his desk, saying “that’s false,” that “it’s just made up” and that “there was nobody taking anything from me.”
The president speculated that the statements could have come from “disgruntled employees or just made up.”
“It could be just made up by the author,” he said.
It's odd that these papers are even making it to his desk if his inner circle finds them dangerous. Are we told who is authoring these papers?
ReplyDeleteI don't know what is more shocking, if Cohen's actions or DJT's lack of awareness. Ok, it's Cohen's actions, because the latter shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone anymore.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta cut Donald some slack. He doesn't have a single friend in Washington DC. Other men would have withered under the pressure long ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to feel sorry or any admiration for any person who seeks and exercises that much power. No one forced him to become president, but he forces all of us to be his subjects.
Delete"he forces all of us to be his subjects" ?
DeleteA grain of salt to be taken with any of this. But I wouldn't be surprised if any or all of it were true.
DeleteTrump runs the executive, which is the enforcement arm of the state. He's ultimately responsible for the IRS enforcing tax legislation against us, the security state spying on us, the military using our confiscated income to bomb other people overseas (also leading to blowback at home), the DEA and FBI prosecuting people for victimless crimes, the TSA impeding air travel, etc. The buck stops with the president, and I'm not going to shed a tear for how difficult or stressful his life is (I would hope that the office is so stressful and awful that no person would want to hold the office).
DeleteDude. That book is fake. Its all a troll session to get public support. The liberals are going to demand the documents for the sc nomination be unclassified. Once that happens, its game over for the swamp.
ReplyDeleteAnd look what is happening. Imagine that FISA docs are going to be declassified...
DeleteHow you are enjoying the show.