An explosive new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward claims White House chief of staff John Kelly has repeatedly questioned President Trump’s intelligence and described him to colleagues as “unhinged.”
“He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had,” Kelly reportedly said of Trump during a meeting soon after he joined the West Wing.
Kelly previously denied saying anything negative about the president when NBC reported in April that he had once called Trump an “idiot.” His deputy, Zach Fuentes, told the Washington Examiner at the time the retired four-star general “would never disparage the commander-in-chief … and the president knows that.” Kelly called the report “total BS.”
But Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” depicts a relationship fraught with frustration between the president and his top aide. The legendary reporter, whose coverage of the Watergate scandal helped shaped history in the Nixon era, writes that Kelly often lost his temper over things Trump would say or do and would frequently tell other White House aides the president was “unhinged.”
The Washington Post was first to report the excerpts Tuesday from Woodward’s book, which details the many verbal insults Trump has allegedly used against members of his staff and Cabinet officials.
The president reportedly targeted Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — once telling the 80-year-old he was “past his prime” when it came to negotiating — and told former White House staff secretary Rob Porter that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was “mentally retarded.”
“He’s this dumb Southerner … He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama,” Trump said of Sessions, according to Woodward.
