President Trump blasted his most senior military officers as a “bunch of dopes and babies” and dismissed them as “losers” for their failures in Afghanistan, according to a new book.
A Very Stable Genius, written by two Washington Post reporters and published next week, describes how the extraordinary dressing down during an early meeting in Trump’s presidency set the tone for a troubled relationship between the Pentagon and the White House.
An excerpt released on Friday describes how senior officials and generals met Trump for a briefing at the Pentagon in the summer of 2017. The new account details how the president descended into a rage at the “schoolhouse vibe” as Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis attempted to explain American deployments around the world.
Other attendees such as Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, quickly realized the speakers had no idea how to address the president when their talk’s title page made reference to “the post-war international rules-based order.”
It soon became a chance for the President to rail against his favorite targets, questioning why the U.S. was paying for a missile defense system to protect South Korea, complaining about the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and taking aim at NATO for being bankrolled by Washington.
As the briefing continued, he accused his top brass of incompetence. He turned to the conflict in Afghanistan, America’s longest war, which he described as a “loser war.”
“You’re all losers,” Trump said. “You don’t know how to win anymore.”
“I wouldn’t go to war with you people [by my side],” he bellowed to a disbelieving room. “You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.”
While Vice President Mike Pence stayed silent and other senior figures tried to stare straight ahead, the authors describe how Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to defend the military leadership.
“No, that’s just wrong,” the secretary of state said. “Mr. President, you’re totally wrong. None of that is true.”
Tillerson let down his guard in the immediate aftermath of the confrontation. Standing in the hall outside with several confidants, as they realized their effort to persuade the president of the importance of the internationalist view had backfired, he said: “He’s a f—ing moron.”
The fiery exchange was apparently at the heart of a rift between the two men that eventually led to Tillerson’s dismissal seven months later.
