WASHINGTON – A new book from one Donald Trumpof the former White House national security advisers portray the Republican presidential nominee as an unreliable personality whose need for flattery and approval makes him an easy target for foreign adversaries seeking to weaken the United States.
HR McMaster with his book is the latest A long line of Trump administration officials behind-the-scenes accounting, a literary genre that has flourished amid Trump’s endless control over American politics.
McMaster, who spent 13 months on Trump’s staff before being ousted in 2018, has written a book that is neither archetypical nor entirely offensive. He credits Trump with developing counterterrorism strategies and recognizing that the United States must compete more fiercely with a rising China.
And he blames some of his old colleagues, notably former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former Defense Secretary James Mattis, for failing to stabilize the new president, who comes from the worlds of show business and real estate and has never held public office.
But McMaster doesn’t quite absolve himself in the saga.
“I have only been able to reduce rather than eliminate tensions with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis, who prefer policy control over cooperation,” he writes.
“Tillerson and Mattis were not only confident; they also distrusted a president they saw as impulsive, unstable, and dangerous to the republic,” McMaster continues.
“Unfortunately, we have all diminished each other’s efforts and our ability to make decisions for Trump, stick to those decisions, and act in the best interests of the American people.”
Mattis’ office declined to comment on McMaster’s account. Tillerson’s spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The book “At War with Ourselves” will be released on Tuesday. NBC News obtained an advance copy.
Stephen Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, said in a statement that the book was “filled with untrue stories intended to sell copies of the book that belong in the bargain bin of the fiction section.”
John Kelly, one of Trump’s White House chiefs of staff, told NBC News on Monday that HR did a very difficult job while he was in the White House, but served the nation honorably.
McMaster offers fresh insights to voters looking for insights into how Trump has governed in the past and how he might do it again if he wins a second term in November.
The book portrays Trump as a flawed personality who not only presides over a chaotic White House staff, but also does his part to incite dysfunction.
“Always game for gossip, intrigue and controversy, the president often asked leading questions about whether I could criticize Tillerson or Mattis,” he wrote. “I never did.”
McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general, was the second of Trump’s four national security advisers. He is also the historian who wrote the acclaimed book, “Out of Duty,” about former President Lyndon Johnson’s disastrous escalation of the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
Johnson’s book came up during McMaster’s job interview at Trump’s Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago. He told Trump that one of the mistakes of the Vietnam War was that LBJ’s advisers told him only what he wanted to hear.
He said a better approach for Trump is for the president to get “the best analysis and multiple options so he can make informed decisions.”
“Trump seemed pleased with the response,” McMaster writes.
Again, this is not the decision-making model Trump is using.
“I was learning that Trump was open to new ideas and perspectives, but he also had a tendency to change his mind depending on who had the last ear.”
McMaster found parallels between the two presidents he studied. As with Johnson, Trump’s “insecurity and attention-seeking made him a constant distraction and vulnerable to a mainstream media that vehemently opposed him. Also, like LBJ, he had a loose relationship with the truth and was prone to hyperbole.
McMaster cited the example of — what else? – crowd size.
Shortly after starting work, she was walking with Trump from the West Wing to the White House residence. Trump stopped and showed a photo of the crowds that gathered on the National Mall on Inauguration Day.
“Look at this, General,” Trump said, according to McMaster. “Contrary to what you see in the fake media, there were more people at my inauguration than Obama’s.”
News accounts showed the opposite.
An ongoing interest in the Trump era is why he wants to stay on good terms with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McMaster said in the book that he had no illusions that Putin wanted to be Trump’s friend. More precisely, Putin assessed Trump as a person thirsty for praise.
“Putin, a ruthless ex-KGB operative, played flatteringly on Trump’s ego and insecurities,” the book says. “Putin described Trump as ‘a very outstanding man, talented, no doubt,’ and Trump revealed his weakness for this approach, his affinity for powerful people, and his belief that only he could have a good relationship with Putin.”
Before the meeting with Putin in Germany in July 2017, McMaster advised Trump not to fall victim to Putin’s claims regarding Ukraine, North Korea and other issues. But in a subsequent meeting, it became clear that “Putin used his time with Trump to launch an elaborate and sustained campaign to manipulate him.”
During his conversation with Trump, Putin showed him a video of the Russian navy rescuing an American ship from World War II, which evoked fond memories of the US-Soviet alliance during the war.
Later at the dinner, Putin gave Trump, a onetime real estate mogul, a list of ideas for cooperation, including developing a theme park near Moscow, McMaster wrote.
McMaster said he tried to warn Trump in advance that he could not be trusted to keep his promises to Putin, but he said, “Trump can’t wait for my ‘negative vibe.'”
Age appears to be a major issue in the 2024 presidential election. Now that 81-year-old President Joe Biden has dropped out, Trump is the oldest presidential candidate in history at 78. One question that ultimately sank Biden’s campaign and is now pushing Trump is whether someone that age is fit for the presidency. .
McMaster wrote that Trump was “disappointed” during his 2017 trip to the Middle East and Italy.
Riding in his limousine in Italy, “he was getting tired and irritable,” McMaster writes. He turned to Jared [Kushner, a senior White House aide and Trump’s son-in-law] and I said in the far back and said, ‘How long is this f—— trip? Whose ideas were these?'”
Get the staffrover was high In the Trump White House. Senior advisers have come and gone due to burnout, principles or Trump’s unpopularity.
“I couldn’t help but think that living at the bottom of an active volcano was an apt metaphor for serving in the Trump White House,” McMaster writes.
He also wrote that he was “tired of the unnecessary friction and drama with his stubborn colleagues in the White House, Defense and State Departments. I had lost patience with Tillerson and Trump. I had to either leave or redouble my efforts. I had to stay patient and accept the things I couldn’t change, according to the Serenity Prayer.” to do and focus on what I can do.”
McMaster wasn’t too surprised the day Trump called to tell him it was all over.
“Many are getting used to Donald Trump and my time has come,” he writes.