Rage

by Bob Woodward

  “How did you decide, okay, I’m going to give that law-and-order speech?”

  “It was very easy for me to decide,” he said. “Because I looked and there was no law and order. And the radical left Dems and the Democrat—they’re all Democrat mayors or governors. I mean, every one of them. Every one of them. Every one where there’s weakness is that. So that was an easy speech for me to write. Usually I write them and/or substantially adjust them.”

  “Did somebody help you?”

  “Yeah, I get people. They come up with ideas. But the ideas are mine, Bob. The ideas are mine. Want to know something? Everything’s mine. You know, everything is mine.”

  I asked about his walk to St. John’s and the treatment of the protesters there.

  “It’s total bullshit,” he said. “They didn’t use tear gas.”

  Firsthand witnesses, including reporters, and videos showed law enforcement officers using pepper spray, smoke canisters and pepper balls to disperse the crowd.

  “Well,” Trump said, “these nice, wonderful people tried to burn down the church the day before. You know, they were all saying, these were nice people. Well, they weren’t nice people. They were rough people. And the day before, they tried to burn down the church. And so now the Republicans are all on my side. By the way, I had a big night last night. We won all of—every race that I endorsed. And I’m 64 and 0 this congressional cycle, 64 and 0 on endorsements. Both wins, and wins in primaries. And many of them were losing before I endorsed.”

  At the time it was true.

  “And so the idea of standing there with the Bible, that’s quite a photo,” I said.

  “It’s my idea. Nobody else. And a lot of people loved it.”

  “A lot of people did,” I acknowledged. “And I’m sure a lot of people don’t.”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Why did you decide to use the Bible as a symbol?” I asked.

  “Because I thought it was terrible that they tried to rip down a church that was built simultaneously with the White House, and whose first parishioner was James Madison. And I thought it was a terrible thing, and a terrible symbol that they could do such a thing. And made a strong statement, and people loved it. Other than the radical left, people loved it. And by the way, they ought to appreciate it, but they tried to knock it as much as possible.”

  News reports said he had been rushed to the emergency White House bunker, called the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) on May 29. “Did you go down in the bunker?”

  “For a period,” Trump said. “I had a choice. And it was really more of an inspection than anything else. Because they wanted me to inspect it. It was a very minor event, and I just went down to inspect it. It was, first of all, it was during the day, where there was no problem during the day at all.

  “You know,” Trump continued, “when people get rambunctious, it happens during the night. This was during the day, long before there was any darkness. And they said, would you like to inspect it now? Would you like to go down? I said, oh, I’ll go down. And then they write a fake piece in The New York Times, like I’m sitting in a bunker. That was during the day and it was the inspection, the second time I’ve ever seen it.”

  “Were you there a long time, or just looking around?”

  “Fifteen minutes. Just looking around. Looking around, came right up—it was during the day.”

  “It’s not exactly a cozy place, is it?” I said.

  “No, it’s just—you know, it was really, you’re supposed to go and inspect it. And I did. And I did it. They said this would be a good time. I said, why? They said, well, we got people outside, but there’s no problem. It was, I think 4:00, 5:00 in the afternoon. It was during the day. It was beautiful.”

  “Who suggested that you inspect it?” I asked.

  “Huh? One of the Secret Service guys said, you don’t have to do it now—I didn’t have to go down—it was, I went down as an inspection. And they said I went down. And the reason I went down as an inspection was, it was appropriate to do because I had to go down and inspect it anyway. And I got—and they made it sound like I was in there. Not that there’d be anything wrong—plenty of people have been. Not a big deal. Not a big deal. And down there’s not a big deal. But I was only there for 15, 20 minutes. And it was more walking around, looking at things.”

  “I see. And you didn’t go again?” I asked.

  “No, I didn’t go again. I went one time, very quickly. It was an inspection, and they made it sound like it was—again, Bob, it was during the day.”

  “Listen, that’s why I’m asking,” I said.

  Attorney General Barr would later say on Fox News that it was not an inspection. “Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the bunker.”

  “There were very few people during the day,” Trump went on. “There were almost no protesters.”

  The police had violently broken up the June 1 protest.

  “No,” Trump said, “that’s only if you watch CNN and if you watch MSDNC. But—or you read The New York Times or your favorite newspaper, The Washington Post. Uh, outside of that, the people are very unhappy. These are arsonists, they’re thugs, they’re anarchists and they’re bad people. They’re bad people. Very bad people. Very dangerous people.

  “Even the peaceful protesters?” I said. “There are a lot of peaceful protesters.”

  “There are not many. I’ll tell you what. Not many. These are very well-organized thugs. You’ll be seeing that when it comes out. These are very well-organized. Antifa’s leading it. These are very well-organized events. Very well-organized.”

  Antifa, an abbreviation for “Anti-fascist,” is a decentralized movement. It is not an organization and does not have a leader or membership dues.

  “Well,” I said, “we’re going into the election. Everyone keeps asking, suppose it’s a close election, and it’s contested? What are you going to do? Everyone says Trump is going to stay in the White House if it’s contested. Have you—”

  “Well, I’m not—I—I don’t want to even comment on that, Bob. I don’t want to comment on that at this time.”

  Trump referenced the book I was working on about him. “If I have a fair book, it’s going to be a great book. Did you see the book they wrote about Trump and Churchill? Did you see it? It just came out.” He was referring to Trump and Churchill: Defenders of Western Civilization, by Nick Adams, a conservative commentator. “And he gave me a rating as one of the greatest presidents ever.”

  Trump turned to his future. “The economy, I’ll do it again. It’s already started. By September, October, the economy will start heading up. And once it starts heading up, and in big numbers, we’re going to have a phenomenal following year. But by September, October—maybe sooner—but by September, October, you’ll start to see tremendous jumps in employment and GDP. And by October it’ll be really big. And the numbers will be announced and I’ll win the election. Watch. Better than where I was before. Better. Where I was riding high.”

  I returned to the immediate story of the massive protests. “You bought ownership of the whole problem,” I said, “the racial tensions, by making your declaration of law and order.”

  “Law and order, that’s right,” he said. “I’ll take my chances. It would be an honor to get a good book from you, but that probably won’t happen, but that’s okay, too. Thanks, Bob.”

  FORTY-THREE

  After Trump stood in front of the church waving a Bible Lindsey Graham privately said that night, “I’ve never been more worried than I am right now.” In Graham’s view, Trump could have chosen three ways to respond to the racial unrest unleashed by the George Floyd murder: “George Wallace, Robert Kennedy or Richard Nixon.”

  Graham believed Trump had chosen Wallace, the firebrand former Alabama governor, who embodied defiant resistance to civil rights. In his inaugural address Wallace had promised “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” In 196
3 he stood in the door at the University of Alabama to block two Black students from enrolling.

  Trump had poured gasoline on the tensions. Graham wished Trump would, instead, “appoint a presidential commission to deal with policing and race. And then get tough on the protesters.” The key was to redefine the way police interacted with their communities.

  Graham wondered, “Do you really want to deploy the active-duty military against Americans unless you have to? The military has a lot of respect from everybody. Do you really want to get them in the middle of this shitshow?”

  “Right now his presidency’s very much at risk,” Graham said. “This thing has the potential now to eat him alive.”

  But at the moment Trump and Graham were not talking. Trump wanted Graham, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to call former president Obama as a witness in his investigation of the origins of the Russia investigation and allegations the Obama administration had spied on the 2016 Trump campaign.

  Graham had refused publicly, saying, “I understand President Trump’s frustration, but be careful what you wish for.”

  But the freeze-out did not last long. Trump and Graham needed each other, or at least their cherished phone dialogue. In a series of phone calls through the first two weeks of June, Graham presented a grim assessment directly to Trump.

  “Right now,” Graham told Trump, “if the election were held, you would lose.”

  Trump disagreed vociferously, saying he didn’t believe that at all.

  The photo op in front of the church backfired, Graham said.

  Again Trump disagreed strongly.

  The anti-police movement no doubt was overreaching, Graham said. Trying to defund the police or banning them from a stretch of occupied streets in downtown Seattle was untenable. “Some of these people are just insane,” Graham said. “But you’ve got to be more than the law-and-order guy. You’re going to have to be the guy that puts points on the board for the country.”

  Graham knew Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden better than probably any Republican. He had been close friends with the former vice president, traveled the world with him, and publicly praised him as a thoroughly decent human being. “I don’t think you can disqualify Joe Biden,” Graham told Trump. “You can make people have doubts about him. But you need to show you can solve problems.”

  Graham said he had doubts about a heavy law-and-order campaign similar to Nixon’s in 1968. “Richard Nixon was the challenger, not the incumbent.” As the incumbent president, Graham said, Trump had to show he could govern, make changes and improve the lives of people—examples of points on the board.

  Never shy about sharing his ideas, Graham had a three-part plan: police reform through an executive order, a massive infrastructure bill to rebuild roads and schools, and—an old Graham favorite—protect DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

  DACA, put in place by Obama, protected more than 700,000 undocumented young adults who had been brought to the United States as children. They were called “Dreamers.” The Trump administration had ended the program, and the matter was in the courts.

  “But if you could solve the DACA problem, or make an incredible effort to solve it,” Graham told Trump, “then that becomes your criminal justice reform for the Hispanic community.”

  Graham told Trump he believed the Democrats would overplay their hand. “If it weren’t for the Democratic Party, the Republican Party would fold,” Graham said. “They always keep us in the game. They’re able to throw us a lifeline. So this defund the police, occupation of Seattle and this crazy shit is going to put you back in the game. But you have to solve problems. You’ve got to show that your presidency is worth voting for because you can get something done. So go big on infrastructure. Deal with DACA. And do police reform.”

  Graham pushed: “Piling up a series of field goals and maybe a touchdown to grab the lead in the fourth quarter” was the way to win.

  Trump wasn’t buying it. In golf every player had a favorite club he wanted to hit, especially under pressure, and Graham knew that the president wanted to use his “go-to shot” of division. He argued that labeling Trump’s opponents and enemies and out-tweeting Biden would not work here. Trump had to deliver.

  The president still was not buying.

  Graham was also pushing to get $3 to $4 billion for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine in the developing world if the United States ever came up with one. Graham was also trying to get another $3 to $4 billion to buy the vaccine. Good policy and good politics, he figured.

  Former president George W. Bush, a big promoter of aid to the developing world, called Graham.

  “You tell the president if he does this,” Bush said, “it’ll really help him a lot.”

  “I will,” Graham said. “Would you want to talk to Trump?”

  “No, no,” Bush said. “He’d misconstrue anything I said.” Trump regularly criticized Bush.

  “Yeah,” said Graham, “you’re probably right. President Trump can be a handful, but he’s a smart guy.”

  Graham, who was running for reelection himself and had a large stake in the outcome for Trump and the Republican Party, made his rounds. He called Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale.

  “Trump’s problem is all about tone,” Parscale said. “There’s no revolting against Trump policy out there.” They needed a softer Trump. “Police reform and softening him up, and policy initiatives that would soften him up is what we need to do.”

  Parscale added, “Police reform is really as much about moderate whites as it is about the African American community politically.” He said that police reform would help with suburban women as would DACA and infrastructure, anything that improves hope for the economy.

  * * *

  In another conversation, Trump told Graham that he wanted to go higher than $3 trillion for another economic stimulus and recovery package.

  “Don’t worry about the base,” Graham said. “Nobody elected you as a fiscal conservative.” He tried to reinforce his plan. “Just imagine the combination of police reform—bipartisan. DACA—bipartisan. Infrastructure—bipartisan. Stimulus—bipartisan. A growing economy. All before November.”

  A big infrastructure package would give the country a needed facelift, Graham said. No other Republicans would spend the needed money. Not George W. Bush and not Graham’s great friend, the late John McCain.

  Trump seemed to be listening.

  “The virus could undercut everything I just talked about,” Graham said.

  “Why’d you tell me that?” Trump said.

  “It’s just true.”

  Trump said again that it was all unfair that this was dropped on him.

  “Well, it’s unfair to everybody. It’s part of being president. Things happen.”

  They agreed that there was no way to shut down the country again even as virus outbreaks were causing great alarm in lots of southern and western states.

  The infection rates—the number of cases—didn’t worry Graham that much. The majority of people had mild symptoms, and many had no symptoms at all. “What I care about is how many people go in the hospital and the number of deaths due to the virus. Can you control the infections so that you don’t overrun the hospitals?”

  So much hinged on the vaccines. Trump’s opponent was now fear, Graham told Trump.

  On police reform, Graham advised. “You’ve got to push your base.” That would mean “pissing cops off,” he said and perhaps supporting a file-sharing system—so if one cop was fired from one police department, that record would follow him to the next—and making it easier to fire police officers.

  Trump had initially resisted criminal justice reform, known as the First Step Act, reforming prisons and sentencing passed by Congress and signed into law in 2018, but Kushner had pushed it hard and it passed with large bipartisan majorities. It was working politically so Trump now clung to it. Graham realized Trump rewrote the hist
ory on that and said he had always been for it.

  * * *

  Graham told Trump that the photo-op at St. John’s Church didn’t help his cause much.

  “Christians loved it,” Trump said.

  “Well, I’m not a good Christian,” Graham said, “but I’m a Christian. And I particularly didn’t love it. I think most people don’t like waving the Bible. Mr. President, that just didn’t work.”

  Though they had started out as opponents in 2016 when Graham had run for president, Graham had come to genuinely like Trump. It was not just the political advantage that accrued from a public friendship with a president, or the influence Graham wielded with Trump by staying in his orbit with frequent phone calls and golf outings. Trump could have a consequential presidency despite all the drama, and Graham wanted to remain a Trump ally. If the president considered someone an ally, he would accept their criticism. He would never accept criticism if he came to see them as an enemy.

  “But it’s all at risk now,” he told Trump candidly. Part of the question was whether Trump could respond to the political and emotional stress. After the George Floyd murder, Graham believed there was no going back politically. He did not believe Trump needed to show a conversion on the road to Damascus on race, but he did need to define the problem more honestly.

  “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reenergize America,” Graham told Trump. “If you do these three things right”—DACA, police reform and infrastructure—“you will have a more consequential presidency and you are more likely to get reelected. If you try to be the law-and-order president alone, you’re going to lose.”

  FORTY-FOUR

  The first six months of 2020 had been a taxing time for Fauci, who was trying to balance what he believed was the obligation to provide the public with accurate medical information and advice necessary to fight Covid-19 with some of Trump’s less than helpful statements and attitudes.