WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump wanted
to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year
but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a
new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes sidestepping
instructions to limit what they see as his damaging and
dangerous behavior.
Excerpts from the book, entitled "Fear" and written by famed
Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the
Washington Post on Tuesday.
The book, which has not yet been
released, is the latest to detail tensions within the White
House under Trump's 20-month-old presidency.
The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and
impulsive decision-making, painting a picture of chaos that
Woodward says amounts to an "administrative coup d’etat" and a
"nervous breakdown" of the executive branch.
According to the book, Trump told Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis that he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the
Syrian president launched a chemical attack on civilians in
April 2017.
This image released by Simon & Schuster shows "Fear: Trump in the White House," by Bob Woodward, available on Sept. 11. (Simon & Schuster via AP)
Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead
developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten
Assad personally.
Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump
acted like "a fifth- or sixth-grader," according to the book.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on this or other aspects of the excerpts. The Pentagon
declined to comment.
Woodward, who gained national fame for his reporting on the
Watergate scandal in the 1970s, talked to top aides for the book
with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his
information, the Post said.
Among his other revelations: former top economic adviser
Gary Cohn stole a letter off Trump's desk that the president
planned to sign that would withdraw the United States from a
trade agreement with South Korea.
Cohn, who tried to rein in Trump's protectionist impulses,
also planned to remove a similar memo that would have withdrawn
the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, Woodward wrote.
"I'll just take the paper off his desk," Cohn told another
White House aide, according to the book.
The United States remains part of both trade agreements as
it negotiates new terms.
'WORST JOB' EVER
Other aides insulted Trump behind his back. Chief of Staff
John Kelly called Trump an "idiot," and said "We're in Crazytown
... This is the worst job I've ever had."
Trump treated top aides with scorn, the book says, telling
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that he was past his prime and
calling Attorney General Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded."
Trump has grown paranoid and anxious over an ongoing federal
inquiry into whether his campaign colluded with Russia in
Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election,
prompting aides to compare him to former President Richard Nixon
during the Watergate scandal, Woodward reported.
Trump's former lawyer, John Dowd, conducted a mock interview
with Trump to convince him that he would commit perjury if he
agreed to talk to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading
the Russia investigation, the book says.
Trump did not speak with him until the manuscript was
complete, the paper said. "So I have another bad book coming
out. Big deal," Trump told Woodward, according to a transcript
of a telephone call released by the Post.