Philip Rucker > Quotes

“He’s ruined that magic,” this aide said of Trump. “The disdain he shows for our country’s foundation and its principles. The disregard he has for right and wrong. Your fist clenches. Your teeth grate. The hair goes up on the back of your neck. I have to remind myself I said an oath to a document in the National Archives. I swore to the Constitution. I didn’t swear an oath to this jackass.” As this aide saw it, there has been a silent understanding within the national security community that diplomatic, military, and intelligence officers were doing the right thing, quietly risking their lives to protect the American way of life. This aide saw Trump’s move against Brennan as one of the first steps of undercutting America’s democratic system of government and the belief system upon which it was founded. According to the aide, it was the president declaring, “It’s not okay to disagree with me. I can remove you from this work and your career. “If he wanted to, how far could he push this?” this aide asked. “Look back. Did people in the 1930s in Germany know when the government started to turn on them? Most Americans are more worried about who is going to win on America’s Got Talent and what the traffic is going to be like on I-95. They aren’t watching this closely. “I like to believe [Trump] is too self-engrossed, too incompetent and disorganized to get us to 1930,” this aide added. “But he has moved the bar. And another president that comes after him can move it a little farther. The time is coming. Our nation will be tested. Every nation is. Rome fell, remember. He is opening up vulnerabilities for this to happen. That is my fear.” —”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Lying has been part of Trump’s act all his life. “People ask me if the president lies. Are you nuts? He’s a fucking total liar,” Anthony Scaramucci said.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Tens of millions of Americans were angry, feeling forgotten by bureaucrats in Washington, derided by liberal elites, and humiliated by a global economy that had sped ahead of their skills and consigned their children to be the first American generation to fare less well than their parents. Trump crowned himself their champion. He promised them he would “make America great again,” a brilliant, one-size-fits-all mantra through which this segment of the country could channel their frustrations. They”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Trump approached staffing the administration like a casting call and sought “the look,” a fixation in keeping with the beauty pageants he had once run.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Trump’s friends and advisers had long observed that he had an amazing ability to disconnect from facts and remember experiences the way it suited him at the moment, a dangerous habit when being interviewed by federal prosecutors in a criminal investigation.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Scaramucci recalled that he then asked Trump, “Are you an act?” Trump replied, “I’m a total act and I don’t understand why people don’t get it.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“The worries of intelligence and law enforcement officials mattered little to Trump, however. He was determined to grasp onto anything, even a partisan memo, to bolster his claim that the Russia investigation was a “witch hunt.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“I’m not a loser,” the president said. “I’m not going to lose this. I’m not going to look weak. I’m not going to give in.” But on January 25, Trump gave in. The master deal maker wasn’t the wizard he claimed.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“The president-elect loved to gin up the ratings, and was quick to seize on how the presidency could benefit his personal brand and his businesses.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Kim was a pariah, arguably the world’s greatest abuser of human rights, and committed to nuclear armament. But Trump threw Kim a party, showering him with respect and declaring himself honored to be in his presence. The summit was carefully staged to put both leaders on equal footing, which normalized the authoritarian Kim.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Trump was restless. He never liked life outside the bubble of his daily life—his bed, his televisions, his steaks and burgers.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“You couldn’t get a straight answer from John Kelly,” one aide recalled. “Either he was dishonest or an old man who can’t remember things.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” he continued.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Another senior administration official said, “The guy is completely crazy. The story of Trump: a president with horrible instincts and a senior-level cabinet playing Whac-A-Mole.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Two kinds of people went to work for the administration: those who thought Trump was saving the world and those who thought the world needed to be saved from Trump.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Watching Pelosi challenge Trump, Bannon whispered to colleagues, “She’s going to get us. Total assassin. She’s an assassin.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“To be the adult in the room is to suffer the tantrum of the kid and not to take it seriously.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“I have had a two-hour meeting with Putin,” Trump told Tillerson. “That’s all I need to know. . . . I’ve sized it all up. I’ve got it.” Tillerson’s moral code and experience climbing the corporate ladder taught him to respect America’s commander in chief. In this moment, he had to deploy every diplomatic skill he had acquired to tell his boss to be careful, reminding him that Putin had a history of taking advantage if he saw an opening. Putin was a master manipulator, a former KGB agent trained to find the soft spots of his foes and to exploit them. But Trump waved him off. “I know more about this than you do,” Trump said.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“At a February 9 senior staff meeting, after he had issued two divergent public statements about Porter, Kelly said that he had taken action to remove Porter within forty minutes of learning that abuse allegations were credible. But many staffers said Kelly’s claim of swift action was dishonest, and it contradicted the public record.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“I’ve served the man for two years. I think he’s a long-term and immediate danger to the country,” a senior national security official told us.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Senator John McCain did not mince words in his statement: “Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.” The Arizona Republican senator added, “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“From the moment Trump swore an oath to defend the Constitution and commit to serve the nation, he governed largely to protect and promote himself.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Trump’s advisers offered the other governments damage-control tips: don’t be patronizing to Trump, and sprinkle in compliments of him. “It was all advice on how to handle a difficult teenager—a very sensitive, touchy teenager,” Araud recalled.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Privately, however, Trump’s top advisers were exasperated by a crisis they believed would likely recur, considering how much value this president placed in cable news musings and how little value he placed in the expertise of his own government.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Trump’s personal lawyers, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, recognized the dangers of letting their client sit down with prosecutors and how a man who had such difficulty sticking to the facts could carelessly walk into a perjury accusation.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“One by one, mourners celebrated elements of McCain’s epic life—basic decency and morality; common values that transcended ideology, class, or race; service to nation over self—that Trump most starkly lacked.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“The guy is completely crazy. The story of Trump: a president with horrible instincts”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“Mueller kicked off the meeting by pulling out a piece of paper with some notes. The attorney general and his aides believed they noticed something worrisome. Mueller’s hands shook as he held the paper. His voice was shaky, too. This was not the Bob Mueller everyone knew. As he made some perfunctory introductory remarks, Barr, Rosenstein, O’Callaghan, and Rabbitt couldn’t help but worry about Mueller’s health. They were taken aback. As Barr would later ask his colleagues, “Did he seem off to you?” Later, close friends would say they noticed Mueller had changed dramatically, but a member of Mueller’s team would insist he had no medical problems. Mueller quickly turned the meeting over to his deputies, a notable handoff. Zebley went first, summing up the Russian interference portion of the investigation. He explained that the team had already shared most of its findings in two major indictments in February and July 2018. Though they had virtually no chance of bringing the accused to trial in the United States, Mueller’s team had indicted thirteen Russian nationals who led a troll farm to flood U.S. social media with phony stories to sow division and help Trump. They also indicted twelve Russian military intelligence officers who hacked internal Democratic Party emails and leaked them to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The Trump campaign had no known role in either operation. Zebley explained they had found insufficient evidence to suggest a conspiracy, “no campaign finance [violations], no issues found. . . . We have questions about [Paul] Manafort, but we’re very comfortable saying there was no collusion, no conspiracy.” Then Quarles talked about the obstruction of justice portion. “We’re going to follow the OLC opinion and conclude it wasn’t appropriate for us to make a final determination as to whether or not there was a crime,” he said. “We’re going to report the facts, the analysis, and leave it there. We are not going to say we would indict but for the OLC opinion.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“The president-elect approached the ten-week transition as a casting call for a new season of The Apprentice, the NBC reality show that had made him a household name.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America

“The next day, November 12, Veterans’ Day was observed in the United States, but Trump opted against paying his respects at Arlington National Cemetery, a tradition for presidents—something he later acknowledged he should have done. Instead, Trump spent the holiday inside the White House sulking about the poor media coverage of his Paris trip and tweeting about “the prospect of Presidential Harassment by the Dems” once they take control of the House in January.”
― Philip Rucker, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America