“We have known
since nearly the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency that he believes his
first attorney general was a dangerous idiot. We have known for nearly as long
that his first secretaries of state and defense think the same thing about
Trump.
“We know, because
Bob Woodward told us in a book two years ago, that some advisers are
so anxious that the president could do something impulsive or boneheaded that
they skulk into the Oval Office to take papers off his desk. We know, because
former national security adviser John Bolton told us this month in a book of
his own, that Trump allegedly shreds ethical lines between the nation’s foreign
policy and his personal considerations, proposing crude bargains with the
dictator of China to help his reelection or trying to help the dictator of
Turkey to shut down a bothersome criminal case.
“We know that the
president lives in a state of agitated grievance, spending countless dark hours
when most people are sleeping fulminating against his enemies and bemoaning that
he is being insufficiently praised. We know this, of course, because Trump
compulsively narrates his own thought stream in real time on Twitter.
Three and a half
years into his presidency we know so much that it raises the question: What
do we not yet know about Donald Trump?... It's as though Trump has turned
history itself into an amphetamine addict—disoriented and sleep-deprived,
craving more stimulation, no longer able to get high off standard dosages…
“Here are a
half-dozen Trump bombshells that have yet to go off—but almost certainly will
someday…
“The business of the presidency/the presidency
of the business: Historians
reconstructing the Trump years will need to work long and deep to understand ‘the
unprecedented nature of a business presidency,’ said Jonathan Karp, chief
executive officer of Simon & Schuster, who edited the memoirs of Senate
legends Edward M. Kennedy and John McCain.
“Unfortunately,
those writers will get less of a head start from daily journalism than ideally
would be the case. Trump was elected president on the strength of his
self-proclaimed business mastery. But he reneged on his 2016 pledge to release
his taxes, as every presidential nominee in the modern era has done. The New
York Times has done landmark projects on the Trump family’s tax
history, and the president’s long and complex relationship with Deutsche Bank.
“But questions
swirl about the exact size of Trump’s fortune and whether the reality matches
Trump’s claims; the nature of the family’s past and current business dealings
overseas; the extent to which foreign interests seek to influence Trump through
favorable dealings with his holdings or those of family members; the degree to
which his hotels and other business operations have reaped enhanced revenue
because of Trump’s presidency. For historical context, consider that Bill
Clinton was investigated by an independent prosecutor for most of his
presidency over comparatively small business dealings that took place a decade
or more before he came to Washington…
“The Russia mystery: Prosecutor Robert Mueller could not
prove a criminal conspiracy in which Trump colluded with Russia to affect the
election. But that conclusion does not mean that questions about Russia’s role
in Trump’s election or presidency are ‘a hoax,’ as Trump often says.
“It is ‘not a
hoax,’ but a critical line of inquiry to understand the president’s relationship
with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, said Peter Baker, a New York Times White
House reporter who has written books dealing extensively with the Clinton,
Obama, and both Bush presidencies.
“Someday, just as
happened with Moscow’s view of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there will be Russian
documents and Russian officials to help explain why Russia promoted email
break-ins and social media propaganda to help Trump over Hillary Clinton in
2016. Or, once elected, why Trump kicked out U.S. official note takers in a meeting with
Putin. ‘We don’t have the explanation why’ on multiple questions,
Baker said, in an interview. ‘Why is Trump so seemingly enamored of Putin? He
so desperately wants his approval.’
“The real inner circle: On different occasions, people close
to Trump in an official sense have been described in books or
journalistic accounts referring to their boss as an ‘idiot’ (former
chief of staff John Kelly and former national security adviser H.R. McMaster),
a ‘moron,’ (former secretary of state Rex Tillerson), ‘like an 11-year-old
child’ (former aide Steve Bannon) with an understanding of world affairs akin
to ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader’ (former defense secretary James Mattis).
“But here’s who
you have not heard spilling secrets about Trump: Ex-spouses, or children, or
other people who love Trump or once loved him, or even people like household
staff who had occasion to observe him in intimate settings.
“Washington Post
writer Mary Jordan this month published ‘The Art of Her Deal,’ on Melania
Trump. The book came with a noteworthy scoop: That the first lady had renegotiated
her prenuptial agreement with the president after his election.
“But the book
also underscored how little is understood about Trump’s most personal
relationships and their dynamics, and what Trump is genuinely like when he’s
not on television or Twitter. We know that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kusher are
influential, of course, but have insight into barely a fraction of their
interactions with the president.
“Jordan told me
she was struck by how much time Trump spends alone, up late or early, without ‘real
friends.’ The relationships he does have are often shielded by a wave of
nondisclosure agreements or other financial or legal incentives. Jordan
recalled once approaching someone who had been around Trump in family settings
and the person ‘was shaking like a leaf’ for fear that he would be punished for
being a source.
“Silence rarely
lasts forever, especially once a president is out of office or is deceased, and
these recollections promise to be a rich vein for understanding a president who
is startlingly transparent about some aspects of his psychology and unnervingly
opaque about others.
“When the documents speak: The modern presidency keeps a lot of
records, which is why modern presidents have often worked hard to keep those
records secret as long as possible. When they do open up, they tell stories.
The journalist Richard Reeves used them from the Kennedy years to write a book
reconstructing in sometimes minute-by-minute detail key days of JFK’s
presidency.
“When supplemented with oral histories, or
contemporaneous journals (some people still keep them) there are lots of stories
the documents might tell even if Trump wishes they never get told. Who
does Trump meet with and talk to on the phone? This might illuminate one of the
major stories of the Trump years, which is the real relationships between an
anti-establishment president with many establishment Republicans and corporate
leaders who either publicly or privately profess to loathe him.
“What is the role
of Vice President Mike Pence, who never conveys anything but unqualified
support for Trump, and what can we learn about his real views and how he put
them into practice? Did senior officials who have made clear they regard Trump
as erratic ever take steps that we don’t currently know about to implement the
25th Amendment challenging his fitness for office?
“Have we come
closer than is currently known to an impulsive military action? How much
knowledge and active engagement does Trump have with daily functions of the
executive branch that don’t get played up on cable news? Many key policy and
regulatory jobs are held by conservatives who have strong views and wide
latitude to act on them, whether or not the president is interested in the
details.
“What is the real state of Trump’s health?: If Trump’s health is more troubled
than usually terse official statements are letting on, he would not be the
first president for whom this is the case. The physical and cognitive condition
of presidents has been a key avenue of inquiry for historians of Woodrow
Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.
“What was that
unscheduled trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center last November all about?
What explains Trump’s unsteady appearance drinking water or walking down a ramp
at West Point earlier this month?
“Reading the thought bubbles: ‘We will find out eventually all the
things that they do, even their taxes,’ Jordan said of the
Trumps. ‘The questions we don’t know the answer to are about what’s in their
minds.’
“‘Does he have
unexpressed thoughts?’ asked presidential historian Jon Meacham. The tendency
to assume that Trump has no introspection or strategic sense beyond what he
shares on Twitter may itself be too superficial, he added.
“In the world
abroad, Meacham asked, what explains the tension between Trump’s blustery talk
but seemingly dovish instincts on use of military force? Here at home, since
his early New York days, Trump has been skilled at manipulating his image and
penetrating establishment circles while remaining independent of them. Does he
operate from a theory of power or on improvisational instinct alone?
“‘He’s so good at
making us focus on the part of the iceberg we can see,’ Meacham said. ‘I’m
not suggesting there are great hidden depths to him, but there is stuff we
don’t know.’ And there are things about America during the Trump years, we
don’t know. ‘I’m more interested in what he says about the country than what
happened moment-to-moment in the Oval Office. His grip on 40 percent of us is
fascinating.’
“Until the deeper
dimensions of the Trump years are illuminated, his closer-to-the-surface
ruminations are keeping the daily historians busy. ‘Imagine if the Nixon tapes
were played every night on Walter Cronkite,’ Baker observed. ‘We are seeing all
the stuff that is usually hidden play out in real time’” (The Six Trump Bombshells Still Waiting to Explode by John F. Harris, Politico).
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