“Not only is he not the right man for the presidency, he is also unfit to lead the country. Trump is much worse than Richard Nixon“. Thus concludes Bob Woodwardone of the most awarded journalists in the United States and discoverer of the historic “Watergate affair”, his latest book of revelations on the mandates of Donald Trump And Joe Biden. A launch which made several headlines, most of them detrimental to the Republican, three weeks before the close of the elections.
After his trilogy on Trump’s stay in the White House –Fear , Rage And Danger (Fear, Rage And Hazard) -, the journalist who, with Carl Bernstein initiated the investigations that resulted in the resignation of Richard Nixon, published War (War), an in-depth analysis focused on Joe Biden’s foreign policy and Trump’s return as the Republican presidential candidate.
Although the title refers to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, the third war Woodward covers is the electoral battle that pits not two parties, but two completely different ways of winning the presidency.
Bob Woodward on his “War” book tour
“My conclusion, and I think I demonstrate it in the book, is that Trump really doesn’t understand the presidencydoes not understand all its obligations”, its author recently analyzed on the public channel NPR.
Woodward’s books manage, like no other journalist in the United States, to monopolize conversations in Washington DC for several days since he has privileged access to senior officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the leaders’ personal assistants.
Trump and Putin: “An enigma”
One of the revelations that has generated the most impact is the confirmation that Trump maintained contact with Putin after leaving the White House and even sent several Covid-19 tests to Moscow for his personal use, at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Woodward claims Republican candidate called Russian president in at least seven times since 2021one at his private residence in Mar-a-Lago, where he asked a worker to move away while he answered the phone.
The mysterious relationship between the two leaders, the book argues, always kept security and intelligence officials on alert during their tenure, because they themselves were unaware of the content of their exchanges.
“How he treats Putin and what he says to Putin remains a mystery to me… It’s an enigma that has not yet been resolved,” the former intelligence director himself admits. Dan Coatsin a surprising statement.
Although the Republican campaign initially denied the revelations, Trump himself left the mystery open this week when asked about it during a speech at the Economic Club of Chicago: “I’m not commenting on that . But I will tell you that if I did it, it was something intelligent. If I’m friendly to people, that’s a good thing. and this is not something bad in terms of countries.
“Totally fascist”
Another passage from the book that had a direct impact on the campaign is the detailed meeting between Woodward and Marc Milleywho served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the highest rank in the US armed forces) until 2023, appointed by Trump himself.
“He is the most dangerous person in history. I was suspicious when I told you about his mental deterioration, but now I realize that he is a complete fascist. “He is the most dangerous person for this country,” Milley told the journalist – according to the latter – during a reception at the Willard Hotel, an emblematic enclave of the American capital located a few meters from the White House.
The exchange of words, described in the first person by Woodward, was initiated by the ex-soldier himself and concluded with a clear demand: “You must stop him!”
“I will never forget the intensity of his concern,” recalls Woodward, whose story occupies the opinion columns of countless media outlets given the high rank of Milley, who had already broadcast his confrontations with Trump and is always happy to have known how to contain it.
nuclear weapons
Although Woodward did not interview Biden in preparation for the book, he had testimony from senior advisers at the White House, where he has visited more than a dozen times since December 2022 according to the visit log reviewed by the CNN channel. news.
Concerning the war in Ukraine, the journalist claims that the White House confirmed Putin’s intention to use nuclear weapons in Ukraineafter which Biden ordered that all appropriate measures be taken to deter Russia, including contacts with China, Turkey and India.
Although the book details a call between a U.S. official and his counterpart in which he warned that the U.S. response could take the conflict to a new level, Woodward highlights Biden’s courage in insisting that the U.S. will not did not intend to use nuclear weapons.
The journalist also indicates that the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan gave Putin the impetus to invade Ukraine because he understood that “the United States was withdrawing from the world”, but details the actions that led the White House to release the footage captured by US intelligence on preparation weeks before the Russian invasion. invasion of Russian troops on the border.
“At one point, they even had a human source in the Kremlin,” Woodward points out.
Frustration with Netanyahu
Unlike Ukraine, Hamas attacks October 7, 2023, which triggered the conflict in the Middle East, took the intelligence services by surprise.
According to the journalist, since then, Biden has always tried to defuse the escalation but found limited influence in Netanyahuthat he calls in private “son of a bitch” and “bad person”.
In February 2014, according to Woodward, Biden told Netanyahu by telephone: “We are not going to support an operation without a plan to get civilians out of harm’s way.” » But the Israelis ignored the warning and launched the attack on Rafah.
Despite his abrupt exit from the electoral race, the journalist concludes: “I believe that President Biden and this team will be widely studied in history as a example of consistent leadership and with a purpose.”
The Trump movie
The publication of Warand all the resulting press articles, coincided with two launches which seemed likely to have an impact on the home stretch of the campaign but whose scope was limited.
He Memoirs of Melania Trumpwhich just reached number 1 on the nonfiction list The New York Timesprovides virtually no news about his relationship with Trump, beyond his decision to take a “secondary role” in raising his son Barron.
From the book of approximately 200 pages, half of which are photographs, it is extracted that Melania also doesn’t believe her husband was defeated in the 2020 election and blames “the media, tech companies, and the deep state” for the outcome.
The former first lady also recounts her anger at Trump’s team when one of his most important speeches of the last campaign contained plagiarized sentences from Michelle Obama.
“‘Why hasn’t the speech been revised?’ , he remembers.
For its part, the first of The apprenticehe biopic unauthorized which traces Trump’s youth, barely earned $1 million in American theaters, despite the controversy that surrounded its presentation in Cannes, its budget of 16 million and the Republican’s threats to sue its producers.
