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Bob Woodward's highly anticipated book, "Fear", will be released on Tuesday.
The book has been in the headlines since the Washington Post reported last week and the details leaked seemed to portray a white house in chaos, with a president who did not seem willing to learn the duties of his office.
RELATED: Woodward rejects book review
Shortly after the publication of the details, the White House issued a statement rejecting the book as "nothing more than fabricated stories, many of whose former employees were unhappy, told the president to look bad." .
The 448-page book depicts a darker picture of oval desktop dysfunction, according to a Globe review of an advance copy. Here are five key moments of the book, including the appearances of New England personalities.
Why Mitt Romney lost in 2012
Romney appears at least three times in the book, but the first mention on page 42 describes at least part of the reason why Trump thinks that Romney lost in 2012 – he spent too much time in transition meetings and not enough countryside.
"That's why he lost. You're gnawing at me, "Trump told Chris Christie when he discovered he was raising money for his transition team.
Trump accused Christie, then governor of New Jersey, of stealing it, according to Woodward, claiming he needed money for his campaign.
"Where the f-k is the money?" Woodward writes of the conversation. At the end of the tense meeting, Trump told Christie, who was to lead the transition team, that he was closing it.
"I told you from the first day, it was only an honorary title. You're gnawing at me. I will not spend a second, "he said, according to Woodward.
Steve Bannon, who was also at the meeting, told Trump that a transition could make sense and that the closure of the team would indicate a lack of confidence in his ability to win the presidential election , writes Woodward.
"Trump has finally reluctantly accepted a simplified version of the transition," Woodward writes.
Tax bill "candy store"
Last year, controversial tax litigation took place as part of a public battle between Democrats and Republicans, but there were also fights within the Trump administration.
According to Woodward, the current chief economics advisor, Gary Cohn, "saw that he could do something about the tax reform project as long as Trump could call it a win," after a phone call in which benefits of the tax bill were raised. a proposed "corporate tax rate".
Cohn also concluded that "obtaining votes in the Senate consisted of giving individual senators their favorite loopholes or tax breaks," Woodward writes.
"It's a candy store," says Woodward, quoting Mr. Cohn.
Susan Collins of Maine is one of the senators who insisted on a specific deduction – in this case for teachers who bought supplies for their classrooms.
"The final bill was a vertiginous maze of numbers, rules and categories," Woodward writes.
A social committee, somehow
The president's Twitter habit appears frequently in the book. Woodward notes that Trump sees the social media platform as his "megaphone," as well as a way to "bump" critics.
"That's what I am, that's how I communicate, that's why I'm elected, that's why I'm successful," said Trump, according to Woodward. .
However, after a tweet in 2017 when Trump attacked Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC, alleging that his face "blew a lot of a facelift," the White House members feared that Trump would lose crucial voices, like the Senator of the United States. Maine Susan Collins.
So, according to Woodward, Hope Hicks, Rob Porter, Cohn and social media director Dan Scavino have proposed a committee to review the president's tweets.
Trump would continue to ignore most criticisms or checks and do what he wanted, according to Woodward.
Iran, Russia and nuclear weapons
Trump campaigned on the promise to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, but initially agreed that he was "stuck with".
Although Rex Tillerson, then Secretary of State, informed the president that Iran had not violated the agreement, Trump insisted on withdrawing, ordering Tillerson to "argue that this deal is concluded and completed" , writes Woodward.
Defense Secretary James Mattis "always considered Iran to be the main destabilizing influence in the region," but he did not want the war, according to Woodward.
"Russia had privately warned Mattis that if there was a war in the Baltic countries, Russia would not hesitate to use tactical nuclear weapons against NATO," Woodward writes. "Mattis, with the agreement of [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph] Dunford, began to say that Russia was an existential threat to the United States. "
Dunford, originally from the Boston area, made several appearances in the book, often expressing concern about the foreign policy of the administration, especially in war-prone areas.
"Shithole country"
President Trump's 2018 remarks that immigrants from Haiti and African nations come from "shitty countries" immediately sparked a reaction, but according to Woodward, this is not new.
Trump, after campaigning at Little Haiti in Miami, said, "I really felt for these people. They came from such a shithole, "Woodward writes.
When the president was confronted this year with his comments, he initially denied it, and then there were conflicting reports that he said "shithole" or "shithouse". possibility to deny the comment. Instead, the president said that there were "some countries in very bad shape."
Aimee Ortiz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on twitter @aimee_ortiz.
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