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Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said that a senior Trump administration official had phoned him last week and told him that his new, comprehensive book on Trump's presidency was "correct to 1,000%".
Woodward, in an interview aired on The New York Times podcast Tuesday, continued to reject President Donald Trump's claims that Fear: Trump at the White House is full of "Lies and false sources."
"A key person in the office called me and said," Everyone knows that what you said here is true. Woodward, who did not name the official, told the Times, Michael S. Schmidt.
Fear, which strikes bookstores on Tuesday, portrays a poignant picture of chaos in the White House, and tells how top officials of the Trump administration are trying to contain the president's worst impulses.
Woodward said Monday that several current and former Trump administration officials "were not telling the truth" when they denied the quotes attributed to them in Fearincluding White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
"These are political statements to protect their jobs – quite understandable," Woodward said of NBC's "Today" denials. He said his book "is done with as much care as possible.
In a particularly shocking passage, Woodward wrote that Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn and White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter stole documents from Trump's office in the Oval Office to avoid signing them.
"They realized that [these documents] would put the country at risk, "Woodward said. Cohn and Porter get out because Trump "does not remember. If it's not on his desk, if he's not immediately available to act, he goes away.
Cohn did not deny the smiling anecdote in a statement to Axios on Tuesday.
"This book does not accurately portray my experience at the White House," Cohn said in the statement. "I am proud of my service in the Trump administration and I continue to support the President and his economic agenda."
Porter, in a statement to Axios, described Woodward's book as "misleading":
After reading Bob Woodward's fear, I am struck by the selective and often deceptive portrayal of the President and his administration.
As secretary of staff, I was responsible for managing the flow of documents to and from the Oval Office and to ensure that everything the chair was asked to sign had been properly verified. The suggestion that documents were "stolen" from the President's office to prevent his signature does not include the operation of the White House document review process and has worked for at least the last eight jurisdictions.
It was also my responsibility to ensure that the relevant views were taken into account, that the advantages and disadvantages were assessed, that policy proposals were carefully considered and that the Chair could make information-based decisions. complete. Accomplishing this responsibility does not make the person a "resistance" or does not mean that they are trying to "thwart" the President's agenda. Rather the opposite.
President Trump invites a sound discussion and asks in-depth questions. He has the confidence to allow councilors to disagree with a proposed course of action and to advocate for an alternative solution – and I sometimes do. But in the end, it is President Trump who decides and he has shown himself more than capable of doing it.
During my time at the White House, I sought to serve the best interests of the President and to contribute to his many successes – a success that Mr. Woodward's book ignores.
President Trump's achievements are undeniable: significant tax breaks to spur economic growth, the removal of binding regulations to free job creators, the re-establishment of the federal judiciary to uphold the Constitution, and much more.
This article has been updated to include Porter's statement.
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