Summary of Random House's Donald Trump v. The United States

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I was chasing a man down Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D. C. , who had no idea I was trying to catch him. I had to cover three city blocks in about thirty seconds before the man reached the northwest gate of the White House grounds and passed through security screening.

#2 The man I was chasing down the street was White House counsel Donald McGahn. He had been in the room for many of the events being investigated by the special counsel, though his significance went far beyond just passively witnessing extraordinary events. He was the most senior lawyer responsible for counseling the president behind closed doors and helping him work the levers of power to achieve his policy goals.

#3 McGahn, who had turned against Trump, stayed on as White House counsel, advising on everything from trade policy to national security. A source told me that McGahn believed he needed to try to stop the president from inflicting damage to the office of the president and the country.

#4 McGahn’s own personal and political ambitions complicated his calculations about whether to stay. He was an ardent libertarian who had become convinced that under both Democratic and Republican presidents, the government had overreached in nearly every regard. He wanted to stack the federal courts with hard-line judges in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Aug 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822582279

IRB Media

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Insights on Random House's Donald Trump v. The United States

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I was chasing a man down Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D. C. , who had no idea I was trying to catch him. I had to cover three city blocks in about thirty seconds before the man reached the northwest gate of the White House grounds and passed through security screening.

#2

The man I was chasing down the street was White House counsel Donald McGahn. He had been in the room for many of the events being investigated by the special counsel, though his significance went far beyond just passively witnessing extraordinary events. He was the most senior lawyer responsible for counseling the president behind closed doors and helping him work the levers of power to achieve his policy goals.

#3

McGahn, who had turned against Trump, stayed on as White House counsel, advising on everything from trade policy to national security. A source told me that McGahn believed he needed to try to stop the president from inflicting damage to the office of the president and the country.

#4

McGahn’s own personal and political ambitions complicated his calculations about whether to stay. He was an ardent libertarian who had become convinced that under both Democratic and Republican presidents, the government had overreached in nearly every regard. He wanted to stack the federal courts with hard-line judges in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

#5

I was able to corner McGahn in Lafayette Park just outside the White House. He did not look pleased to see me.

#6

On September 11, 2012, Mitt Romney’s campaign plane made its way over the southeastern United States while the wire service Agence France-Presse moved an alert, indicating a major breaking news story. One American had been killed and another injured in an attack on the U. S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, by an armed mob protesting over a film they said offended Islam.

#7

The Obama administration’s reluctance to issue a statement concerning the attacks raised eyebrows among Romney campaign staff. They wondered if the Obama administration was trying to pretend that the attacks weren’t terrorism because it would have meant acknowledging that al-Qaeda was still active.

#8

The death toll in Benghazi eventually rose to four, including the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens. Romney believed he had been right on the merits to attack Obama, but was increasingly nervous about the backlash. He knew he could not afford to fall further behind in the race.

#9

The Republican base, long suspicious that Obama was not ardent in defense of the country against the threat of radical Islam, embraced Romney’s line of attack and allowed some middle-of-the-road Republicans to question whether the White House’s shifting explanations amounted to fog-of-war confusion or a cover-up.

#10

The revelation that Clinton had used a personal email account to conduct government business reignited the uneasiness among Democrats about the Clintons, who had long been criticized for playing by their own rules.

#11

Trump was a celebrity businessman who had little political experience, but he intuited the populist wave and exploited it to win the Republican nomination. He was unprincipled, vicious, and vulgar, but he seemed to be impervious to things that destroyed more conventional politicians.

#12

In just four months into Trump’s presidency, his antipathy for rules and his belligerence towards his opponents caught up with him. After the FBI director publicly announced that the bureau was investigating whether Trump’s campaign had worked with Russia to sway the election, Trump fired him.

#13

I had met McGahn