In public, President Trump almost never shows any signs of tiring. But Bill O’Reilly, author and former Fox News star, says Trump was, in fact, weary over the summer.
I asked O’Reilly about a phone conversation he had with Trump, which is recounted in O’Reilly’s new book, The United States of Trump: How the President Really Sees America.
“He’s exhausted,” O’Reilly told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview at his home in New York. “That’s how I took it. He’s very tired. They haven’t defeated him, but they’ve worn him down.”
His phone call with the president took place in May, just hours after special counsel Robert Mueller gave his on-camera statement regarding his investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Trump had said. “I think this Mueller investigation will go down as one of my great achievements. Because the corruption would have never been uncovered. All these powerful people trying to subvert an election, people wouldn’t have known about it.”
By “these powerful people,” Trump is talking mostly about the collective national news media. “I don’t know why they hate me. I guess it’s because I’m an outsider. I did something no one else had ever done. It’s about power.”
O’Reilly said in the interview, though, that even if Trump is down, he’s not out.
“They haven’t defeated him,” he said. “And now, he’ll surge back in the campaign because that’s adrenaline for him. That will just surge him out. But at that point after the Mueller thing he was just going, how much more? And you know, I know that to be true. … This is the optimum of his life.”
