On one occasion, Trump orders his aide Dan Scavino to screen a video of Sen.

Trump has what Woodward calls 'props,' such as a stack of parchment signifying judicial appointments, or a wall poster-size picture of Trump with Kim Jong Un. At times, they seem serious interchanges at times they are show-and-tell sessions to win the journalist over. 'That is, if you're willing to write it.')Īt times the interviews are in the White House, at times they are impromptu calls the president places to Woodward's personal phone. ('Let's see if we can get a good book,' he says. This time around, as though to compensate and produce a better narrative, Trump goes to the opposite extreme. The president said his staff had not told him of Woodward's many requests. 'Pray to God we don't have a crisis,' Woodward said when Fear first appeared.Ĭuriously, the earlier Woodward book featured zero interview material from Trump - there had been no interview. Was there no one in Trump's communications office to question this commitment of the president's time? Who but Trump could have arranged 17 interviews with a man who had written critically of eight presidents, including an earlier book characterizing Trump as unprepared and unfit for his office, a national disaster waiting to happen? Where did Woodward get these arresting statements? They were part of a series of interviews Trump granted the venerable journalist from The Washington Post - a total of 17 in all, stretching from December to late July. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic.' Woodward quotes a subsequent interview on March 19, wherein Trump says: 'I always wanted to play it down.

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