by Bob Woodward
Porter could see before him the two Donald Trumps—two impulses. He was clearly torn. He would not bend to political correctness, yet he did need to bring people together. He soon saw this and did not object to the language.
“All right, okay,” he said as Porter scrolled through the draft, making changes that Trump approved. “All right,” he finally said. “We’ll do this.”
Porter could see the struggle. Not one to mask his emotions or conclusions, it was clear that Trump wasn’t thrilled. Yet he wasn’t upset. He wasn’t angry. Porter had the final, approved version of about 12 paragraphs loaded into the TelePrompTer. Trump was going to give it from the Diplomatic Reception Room.
Shortly after 12:30 p.m. Trump walked to the podium set between the American flag and the presidential flag. He grabbed the podium fiercely with both hands. He frowned. He looked grim, and said he was here in Washington to meet with his economic team about trade policy and tax reform. He touted the strong economy, high stock market and low unemployment rate, and said he was going to provide an update on Charlottesville.
The Department of Justice had opened a civil rights investigation, he told the national television audience. “To anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence,” Trump said, “you will be held fully accountable.”
Looking stiff and uncomfortable, like someone coerced to speak in a hostage video, the president went on. “No matter the color of our skin, we all live under the same laws, we all salute the same great flag. We must love each other, show affection for each other and unite together in condemnation of hatred, bigotry and violence. We must rediscover the bonds of love and loyalty that bring us together as Americans.
“Racism is evil,” he said, singling out the “KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups.
“We will defend and protect the sacred rights of all Americans” so every citizen “is free to follow their dreams in their hearts and to express the love and joy in their souls.”
It was a five-minute speech that could have been given by President Reagan or Obama.
“Make sure you tell him how great it was,” General Kelly told the senior staff. He had been chief of staff less than three weeks.
Steve Mnuchin and Gary Cohn were there to greet Trump at the elevator back to the residence. They showered praise on him. “That was a great speech,” Cohn said. “This was one of your finest moments as president.” It was in the grand tradition of unifying and taking the high road of racial healing. Later they told Porter they didn’t know how he had managed to convince Trump.
Porter felt it was a moment of victory, of actually doing some good for the country. He had served the president well. This made the endless hours of nonstop work worth it.
Trump left to watch some Fox. Rob O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL Team Six leader and author, generally praised Trump for being specific but added, “That’s almost an admission of okay, I was wrong. And I’m sort of negotiating on this.”
Fox correspondent Kevin Corke said, “Some 48 hours into the biggest domestic challenge of his young presidency, Mr. Trump has made a course correction.”
The suggestion that he had admitted doing wrong and was unsteady infuriated the president. “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made,” the president told Porter. “You never make those concessions. You never apologize. I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?”
Though Porter had not written the original draft, he had spent almost four hours editing it with Trump, providing the accommodating language. But strangely Trump did not direct his rage at Porter. “I can’t believe I got forced to do that,” Trump said, apparently still not blaming Porter but venting directly to him. “That’s the worst speech I’ve ever given. I’m never going to do anything like that again.” He continued to stew about what he had said and how it was a huge mistake.
CHAPTER
30
The next day, Tuesday, Trump had meetings in New York to discuss his infrastructure proposal for spending on roads, bridges and schools. In the afternoon he was scheduled to give a press briefing in the lobby of Trump Tower. A blue curtain had been draped over the Ivanka Trump brand display in the lobby. Before going down he asked for printouts of “the really good lines” from the two Charlottesville statements he had made. He said he wanted the precise language he had used in case he was asked.
Don’t take any questions, all the staff told him with urgency. Trump said he did not plan on taking any.
At the press briefing, he took questions, and the questions were about Charlottesville. He took out his Saturday statement. “As I said on—remember Saturday—we condemn in the strongest possible terms the egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.” He left out the part about “both sides,” but this time he added, “the alt-left came charging” at the rally. “You had a group on the other side that was also very violent. And nobody wants to say that, but I’ll say it right now.
“Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch. Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee. . . . I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” Both had been slave owners, he noted. “You really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”
He reverted to his earlier argument: “There is blame on both sides . . . you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had a lot of bad people in the other group too . . . there are two sides to a story.”
* * *
David Duke, the well-known former Ku Klux Klan leader, tweeted, “Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville.”
The leaders of each branch of the U.S. military went on a social media offensive against their commander in chief in a stunning rebuke. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson tweeted, “Events in Charlottesville unacceptable & musnt be tolerated @USNavy forever stands against intolerance & hatred.” Marine Corps Commandant General Robert B. Neller wrote that there is “No place for racial hatred or extremism in @USMC. Our core values of Honor, courage and Commitment frame the way Marines live and act.” And Chief of Staff of the Army Mark Milley tweeted, “The Army doesn’t tolerate racism, extremism, or hatred in our ranks. It’s against our Values and everything we’ve stood for since 1775.” The Air Force and National Guard chiefs followed with similar statements.
On CBS, Stephen Colbert joked darkly, “It’s just like D-Day. Remember D-Day, two sides, Allies and the Nazis? There was a lot of violence on both sides. Ruined a beautiful beach. And it could have been a golf course.”
Former General John Kelly had stood in the Trump Tower lobby as Trump took questions with a grim look on his face. Colbert said, “This guy is a four-star general. Iraq, no problem. Afghanistan, we can do it. Twenty-minute Trump press conference? A quagmire.”
Porter had watched from the sidelines in the Trump Tower lobby. He was in a state of shock, shattered and in disbelief. Later, when Trump brought up the second speech to him, the staff secretary said, “I thought the second speech was the only good one of the three.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” Trump responded. “Get away from me.”
Kelly later told the president that because he had made three statements, “now everybody has one to choose, and it might work in the president’s favor. Maybe it’s the best of all possible worlds.” He said his wife liked Tuesday’s statement and press conference, the third one, because it showed the president being strong and defiant.
* * *
Kenneth Frazier, the head of Merck, the giant pharmaceutical company, and one of the few African American CEOs of a Fortune 500 company, announced he was resigning from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council, a group of outside business advisers to the president.
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and gro
up supremacy. . . . As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism,” Frazier said in a statement.
Within an hour, Trump attacked Frazier on Twitter. Now that Frazier had resigned, Trump wrote, “he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”
The CEOs of Under Armour and Intel followed Frazier, resigning from the council as well.
Still stewing, in a second Twitter swipe at Frazier, Trump wrote that Merck should “Bring jobs back & LOWER PRICES!”
On Tuesday, August 15, Trump tweeted, “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place.” He called those who had resigned “grandstanders.”
Trump’s press conference proved too much for the members of the president’s Strategic & Policy Forum, a second advisory board, and the Manufacturing Council. Throughout the day, the CEOs of 3M, Campbell Soup and General Electric announced their resignations from the Manufacturing Council, as did representatives from the AFL-CIO and the Alliance for American Manufacturing president.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told employees that the Strategic & Policy Forum had decided to disband. Trump preempted further resignations by abolishing both groups via Twitter: “Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!”
Most significant, however, were the private reactions from House Speaker Ryan and Senate majority leader McConnell. Both Republicans called some of the CEOs and privately praised them for standing up.
* * *
On Friday, August 18, Gary Cohn flew by helicopter from East Hampton, Long Island, to Morristown, New Jersey, where it was raining heavily. He had to wait on the tarmac to get clearance to Bedminster. He was carrying a resignation letter. This was too much. Someone had put a swastika on his daughter’s college dorm room.
He headed to the clubhouse where Trump was going to address a member-guest tournament. Walking in to applause, Trump shook hands and made remarks, reminding everyone he had won the member-guest before. Trump and Cohn took food from the buffet and slipped into a private dining room.
“Mr. President,” Cohn said when they were alone, “I’m very uncomfortable with the position you have put me and my family in. I don’t want this to be a contentious discussion.”
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Trump said.
They debated what Trump had said and what he had not said.
“Before you say anything further,” the president said, “I want you to go back and listen to it again.”
“Sir,” Cohn replied, “I’ve listened to it like 30 times. Have you seen the video, sir?” Cohn said.
“No, I haven’t seen the video.”
“I want you to watch the video, sir,” Cohn said. “I need you to watch the video of a bunch of white guys carrying tiki torches saying, ‘Jews will not replace us.’ I cannot live in a world like that.”
“You go listen and you go read,” Trump said. “I’ll go watch the video.”
They agreed to discuss it after they had done their listening and watching.
“I said nothing wrong,” Trump said. “I meant what I said.”
“The Monday statement was great,” Cohn said. “Saturday and Tuesday were horrible.”
* * *
The next Monday at the White House, Cohn appeared at the Oval Office. Ivanka was sitting on one of the couches. Kelly was standing behind a chair.
Cohn was halfway into the Oval Office when Trump said, “So you’re here to resign?”
“Yes, sir, I am.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Trump repeated. He was leaving “because of your liberal Park Avenue friends. This must be your wife,” Trump said, blaming Cohn’s wife. Trump launched into a story about a great golfer. The golfer’s wife complained because he was gone every weekend. So he listened to her, and now Trump said the once-great golfer is selling golf balls and making no money, completing his blame-the-wife narrative.
“Everyone wants your position,” Trump continued. “I made a huge mistake giving it to you.”
The president continued with venom. It was chilling. Cohn had never been talked to or treated like that in his life. “This is treason,” Trump said.
Trump turned to trying to make Cohn feel guilty. “You are driving our policy and if you leave now, taxes are over. You can’t do this.” Cohn had spent months working a tax cut plan and was in the middle of negotiations on the Hill, a massive, complex undertaking. “How could you leave me hanging like that?”
“Sir, I don’t ever want to leave you hanging. I don’t want anyone to ever think I betrayed them. I have a reputation I care more about than anything in the world. I’m working for free here in the White House. It’s not about money. It’s about helping the country. If you think I’m betraying you, I will never do that.” And relenting, he added, “I will stay and get taxes done. But I can’t stay here and say nothing.”
Vice President Pence walked in and stood next to Cohn and touched him affectionately. They needed to keep Cohn, Pence said, but he understood the position Cohn was in. Yes, Cohn should say something publicly.
“Go out there and say whatever you want,” Trump said. “Mnuchin said something.”
Mnuchin had put out a statement: “I strongly condemn the actions of those filled with hate. . . . They have no defense from me nor do they have any defense from the president or this administration.” He quoted and commended Trump’s initial response to Charlottesville and added, “As someone who is Jewish . . . while I find it hard to believe I should have to defend myself on this, or the president, I feel compelled to let you know that the president in no way, shape or form believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways.”
Trump cited others who had distanced themselves from him.
“I don’t have a platform,” Cohn replied.
“What do you mean?” asked Trump.
The cabinet secretaries had press departments, Cohn said. “They can go out and make statements whenever they want. I’m an assistant to the president. I’m not supposed to be making press statements.”
“I don’t care,” Trump said. “Go to the podium right now, and make a statement.” He was inviting Cohn to go to the podium in the press room of the White House.
“I’m not going to do that, sir. That’s embarrassing. That’s not what you do. Let me do it my way.”
“I don’t care what way you do it,” Trump said. “I just don’t want you leaving until taxes are done. And you can say whatever you need to say.”
“Do you want to see it before I say it?”
Trump seemed to be of two minds. “Nope,” Trump replied at first. “Say whatever you want to say.” But then he asked what it might be. “Could we see it first?”
Cohn said he would work with the White House communications department.
On the way out of the Oval Office, General Kelly, who had heard it all, pulled Cohn into the Cabinet Room. According to notes that Cohn made afterward, Kelly said, “That was the greatest show of self-control I have ever seen. If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times.”
A few minutes later, Pence showed up in Cohn’s West Wing office. He reiterated his support. Say whatever you need and want to say, and continue to serve your country, he said, thanking him for everything.
Cohn chose to make his views known in an interview with the Financial Times. “This administration can and must do better. . . . I have come under enormous pressure both to resign and to remain. . . . I also feel compelled to voice my distress . . . citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK.”
Cohn could tell that Trump was angry because the president would not talk to him for a couple of weeks. At regular meetings, Trum
p would ignore him. Finally one day, Trump turned to him and asked, “Gary, what do you think?”
The inner administration shunning was over, but the scar remained.
* * *
To Rob Porter, Charlottesville was the breaking point. Trump rejected the better judgment of almost all of his staff. He had done that before. His perverse independence and irrationality ebbed and flowed. But with Charlottesville the floodgates just opened. For just the sake of a few words, he had drawn a stark line. “This was no longer a presidency,” Porter said. “This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.” Trump was going ahead no matter what.
As Porter saw it from up close—perhaps as close as anyone on the staff except Hope Hicks—the Trump election had rekindled the divide in the country. There was a more hostile relationship with the media. The culture wars were reinvigorated. There was a racist tinge. Trump accelerated it.
Porter wondered if trying to repair any of those divisions after Charlottesville was almost a lost cause. There was no turning back. Trump had crossed the point of no return. To the Trump opponents and haters, he was un-American, racist. There was so much fuel on that fire already, and Trump had added so much more. The fire was going to burn, and it was going to burn brightly.
It was now an almost permanent state of suspicion, disbelief and hostility. “It’s just all-out war now.”
CHAPTER
31
In the midst of the Charlottesville controversy, Bannon called Kelly. “I know this guy,” he said. “If you don’t start having people in the White House covering” for Trump, there would be trouble. “You’ve got to cover for him.”
Republican senator Bob Corker had told reporters “the president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence” needed to succeed in office. And Politico had run a long piece on Trump’s anger issues, calling Trump “driven by his temper” and saying “anger serves as a way to manage staff, express his displeasure or simply as an outlet that soothes him.”
