Among the many revelations expected in Fear, the new book on the Donald Trump administration by the veteran journalist Bob Woodward, is the claim that a furious John F Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, dismissed the president as “deranged” while later complaining to a private meeting that the government had morphed into “Crazytown”. Woodward’s newspaper, The Washington Post, has published tantalising snippets from the forthcoming exposé and it’s easy to see why:
Reince Priebus, Kelly’s predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, “the devil’s workshop,” and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the witching hour.”
…tensions boiled among many of Trump’s core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as “natural predators.”
“When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody,” Priebus says.
Meanwhile, enjoy this audio clip of Donald Trump and Bob Woodward, one of the main reporters behind the exposure of Richard Nixon’s Watergate Scandal, in conversation.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
With assorted intelligence agencies to supply him with detailed secret information, costing billions to provide, it’s interesting that Trump relies on cable channels as his main source of news.
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At least ostensibly, Mr Trump views the intelligence agencies as his untrustworthy adversaries within the’Deep State’.
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Sure, but he seems to view pretty much everyone as his enemy these days.
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Interesting and terrifying. The world through the prism of Fox News…
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Certainly didn’t need the WP, Kelly or anyone else tell me Trump is deranged, and that the Whitehouse is “crazytown.” All you need is twitter to figure that one out. One thing is for certain, nothing is a secret in this administration, and most of it gets blabbed by the clown in charge himself. Find some real news already WP, NYT, CNN, Fox, etc… ; )
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Amazing, isn’t it? It must be the leakiest White House in modern history with everyone briefing against everyone else.
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There were some interesting complaints from the WH about the book and disgruntled staffers etc, etc. The question it raised was why is this WH so alienating for people who work there? It couldn’t be that the problem starts at the top… could it?
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The larger terrifying point is that this man is a clear and present danger to the US and the world at large. Hopefully he will be under a 24/7 watch to prevent the ultimate catastrophe.
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For some people it seems, they like to think they can suss out who is genuine and who is not, concerning politics in the north. But when it comes to the US the same folk suck up everything they are fed. Trump has the tact of a fella in a bar and his words may offend but as of yet his actions have done little harm. Meanwhile Clinton and Obama have their spakes down to a fine art but their actions have done permanent damage to thousands of people around the world. Go figure who to hate.
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Oh, I’m not sure about the little harm argument. I think the US body politic is suffering a significant degree of harm. And yes, it was bad before Trump. We all know the legitimate arguments. But he is the creature from the swamp not the hero ready to drain it.
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Well you’d be forgiven for thinking the opposite I.e all was fine and dandy before Trump took charge. Btw, do you think Trump opponents, say the FBI, would manufacture tall tales etc to tarnish Trump? Just like opponents of irish republicans have done over the years? Do you believe the Russians put him in power rather than the fact Clinton was a vile politician and was despised by a lot of yanks for that reason?
It truly is pathetic to witness Irish people whining about a man that they know little about bar media fed propaganda allthewhile mi6 have just appointed one of their men to oversee the Irish police and not as much as a squeak out of them. Trump would have a good laugh at that one!
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I think the Russian Federation contributed to Trump’s election. However, of far greater import was the dire nature of US politics, the increasing socio-cultural and political divide in the country, and the poor Democratic Party candidate. Russian meddling alone wouldn’t have opened up Trump’s road to the White House.
If you want the short version. What aided Trump’s election? Clinton, Clinton, Clinton.
What could have stopped him? Maybe… Biden, Biden, Biden.
Of course, it should be pointed out that the Yanks aren’t exactly backwards at interfering in other people’s elections either!
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Biden? Again you arnt paying attention. ‘Creepy joe’ Biden would be viewed as a bigger gangster as Clinton. Trump bashers can only dream of having videos of him that there is of Biden. Just google ‘creepy Joe’ and then tell me if his hands on approach and whispering in kids ears is normal.
Btw, the ‘Russians did it’ is the Clinton mob and its backers attempting to dupe the people yet again. More fool anyone that runs with it.
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Even though I am clearly not a fan of the man, I cannot agree more with Wolf Tone. Everyone lies and lies, so there is no way to even gleam the truth, not even between the lines. As for damage, he only has maintained the same crap his predecessors maintained, such as the “Patriot Act.” Even though that act gives some clear powers to cart away the politically undesirable without charge or evidence, Orange boy hasn’t used it to do any of that stuff he is always accused of wanting to do. Meanwhile his opponents are beginning to support notions of re-education camps (LA Times Sunday Comics 8/26) for the politically different thinking. I don’t know who is more fascist at this time. That country is getting really scary now.
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We have spent our lives lamenting corrupt politics and the after effects of their policies. And yet Trump uses his own money rather than receive monies/donations from powerful people/institutions to obtain the highest office in the world and we are supposed to be horrified at that? He has made peace, at least atm, with North Korea and wanted to get on with Russia and wanted the US to stop being the world policeman I.e let the EU countries take up the slack if they want to, and we are told to be outraged at that too? We are supposed to be heartened that Bush jr, Clinton and Obama have united to join ‘the resistance’ in ‘stopping’ Trump? Seriously? Bush jr?
For anyone interested in hearing the other side they will do no harm in looking up Candace Owens or rev Jesse lee Peterson. Although I don’t agree with everything they say I do get what they are about. Btw, these two people are fans of Trump, or to be exact, they oppose the Democrats. And oddly enough they are black. Mmmm here’s me thinking Trump was a racist and the black community hated him!
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On the first point, yes and no. Yes, Trump did use his own money to fund his campaign. But also, no, because a lot of that money came through “loans” by Trump to his campaign, either out of his own pocket or from third-parties through own his pocket in some tricky accountancy practices. Plus he also took in some hefty donations from the usual suspects on the GOP side once he firmed up his candidacy. Admittedly he was more of a self-financier than any previous candidate in modern memory.
Did he make peace with N Korea? At the moment we have the current status quo, an existing ceasefire-inspired version of peace, with Pyongyang still pursuing its nuclear weapons developments. All in all, nothing changed on the Korean peninsula beyond Trump beating his chest and playing out a make-believe act of being a strong leader on the question of nuclear demilitarisation in the divided country.
Nothing that Obama, Bush and Clinton hadn’t already achieved (by doing even less in public, let alone in private).
Oh please, the only person Candace Owens is a fan of is herself. She’ll go towards any fringe political quarter or any fringe section of society that is willing to stroke her planet-sized ego, allowing her to be a big fish in a little pond while making a nice living at it. Yesterday she was anti-Trump, today she is pro-Trump, tomorrow she’ll be anti-Trump again. Plus she is downright hysterical at times.
Have you seen some of her interviews or accounts of journalistic encounters with her?
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You are protesting too hard me thinks. What has got all the usual suspects and their lackeys wailing about Trump so hard? It can’t be the claim that he hates women,blacks etc etc cos the accusers are just as bad and worse. Could it be that he has gate crashed the fake facade of dem/rep battling it out for the hearts and minds of the US public? Remember he wiped the floor with the republican nominees including the filth that is the Bush clan.
Btw, seeing as you have heard of Owens why don’t you enlighten your readers to her videos as you do with anti trump videos? In the interests of balance and all that? Let them decide for themselves. The interesting thing for me with Owens and Jesse lee Peterson is that firstly they are black and that they are obviously intelligent enough to spot hypocrisy. That’s lacking with some people. And the claim of her making money out of her views is lazy and cheap to be honest. I expected more from you. Play the ball not the man. Do you think the talking heads on the media are not in it for money?
At the end of the day I stand by my claim that Trump as of yet has not been the monster that was predicted and hasn’t a patch on Clinton. A huge sigh of relief was felt around the Middle East and further afield when she was shunned. And we should be happy for them people. As far as I can see the constant hammering of him could eventually compel him to fall into line with continuous US foreign aggression. I.e you can’t beat them so join them. We want no more talk of pulling out of Syria,making peace with Russia etc etc as that ain’t cricket? Mike Pence will give the wailers what they want that’s for sure so be careful what you wish for.
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Well, what a ridiculous headline for this article, there’s absolutely no proof that General Kelly ever said any of this, it’s complete hearsay. Here’s something though, we know for definite he did say:
“The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true,” Kelly said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “As I stated back in May and still firmly stand behind: ‘I spend more time with the President than anyone else, and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand, and he and I both know this story is total BS.’”
“I’m committed to the President, his agenda, and our country,” Kelly added. “This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”
I’m sure Woodward, as Trump says in the phone call, could have reached Trump directly by phone and arranged an interview if he’d actually really wanted one. Quite telling also that Woodward refuses to name names, it’s just more anonymous “sources”, sure I could bring a book out using the same MO as this guy – “they all spoke to me on the condition of anonymity and here’s what they said, Trump is a loony Nazi, racist and dumb pig etc etc.”
The author of this otherwise interesting and fair minded blog really seems to suffer from a bad case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
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By all accounts it is well-founded hearsay and insiders are briefing that it is accurate hearsay. Including people apparently close to the former general.
In fairness, I think Trump induced a significant degree of derangement among a large chunk of the US electorate at the last presidential election.
If people were desperate enough to vote for him back then, surely they see him now for what he is?
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‘By all accounts’. Careful now or you’ll end up sounding like Dudley Edwards etc when she often excuses hearsay and anonymous security sources as fact, when she’s demonising Irish republicans. It’s kind of ironic when one doesn’t recognise what one often preaches.
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LOL! Well the accounts I was referencing were news reports over the last 48 hours, from reputable sources. But fair enough. I enjoyed that dig 😉
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The news reports are full of lies imho. When you have clapper,mueller etc taking the high moral ground then one should recall these and their ilk were involved in previous lies and disinformation concerning Iraq for example. They didn’t go away you know. In fact they were protected by their friends in the media for their blatant lies. And yet Trump is the monster? Go figure. I challenge anyone to prove Trump is on a par with bush,Clinton, Clinton and Obama concerning killing of people around the world? As of yet he hasn’t earned his stripes that they have gleefully earned and until then I will keep my powder dry concerning Tump.
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