Fear: Trump in the White House

Bossert thought he would remember the script and the Trump show, perhaps for the rest of his life. It was Trump’s way of saying, go hard, Trump’s willing to go to the mat. We’re being treated unfairly.

“And don’t worry about soybeans,” Trump said. The Chinese had announced they would retaliate with tariffs on American agriculture and other goods. Speaking in the third person, Trump said, “He’ll buy more goddamn soybeans if Trump has to. He’ll buy his own damn soybeans from his own farmers before the Chinese push him around. But then you tell them, ‘It’ll be all right. He and Xi will work out a deal. It’ll be a beautiful deal. The best deal you’ve ever seen.’ ”

“So you want me to go hard and soft?” Bossert now asked—hard on determination and soft on the relationship with Xi.

“Yeah.”

Bossert raised cyber again.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Trump said, “if you have to hit the cyber thing, fine.”

Bossert saw that Trump wanted him to stick to trade. “Boss, here’s how I do it: It’s a trade dispute, it’s not a trade war. There’s a trade deficit. In the ’80s we had a trade dispute with Japan and we were close allies with them at the same time.”

“Perfect!” Trump said. “You got it. You throw that crap in there, sounds good, then you tell them what I said. And then you’re good.” Apparently trying to tamp down any anxiety, he added, “Tom, you’ll be fine.”

Afterward, Bossert stuck his head in Kelly’s office, just as a courtesy, to say he had just been prepping for TV with the president and had nothing unusual to report. Kelly waved him off. It seemed to Bossert that the chief of staff was greatly diminished, resigned and had largely given up.

Bossert was ready with his talking points, but on ABC, host Martha Raddatz focused on border security. Trump had said he wanted to send 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to the southern border. It was the topic of the day, driven by Trump’s comment. She never asked about China.

Bossert was disappointed because he was “Ready!” to pass along the president’s message of determination and the extraordinary bonding with President Xi of China.

CHAPTER

42

The rest of February, Dowd didn’t hear much. He thought Mueller and Quarles were slow-rolling it. A meeting was finally arranged for 2 p.m. on Monday, March 5, at Mueller’s office.

Mueller was accompanied by Quarles and three other prosecutors.

Dowd came with Sekulow and another lawyer. It quickly became clear that they had different views about the purpose of the meeting.

“Well,” Mueller said, “I guess that’s it.”

“What are you talking about?” Dowd asked. “Where are the questions?”

“You know, I don’t know,” Mueller said, a poker player in mid-game.

“Jim said that’s what was going to happen here.”

“Well, you know, I don’t know,” Mueller said again. “Seems to me you’re not going to testify.”

“Under the circumstances, exactly right.”

“Well, you know,” Mueller said, “I could always get a grand jury subpoena.”

“You go right the fuck ahead and get it!” Dowd said, striking the table with his hand. “I can’t wait to file a fucking motion to quash. And I want to hear you tell the U.S. district judge what the crime is. And I want you to explain.”

Dowd said Mueller had all the evidence he could possibly need. “My motion to quash is going to have everything we’ve given you, including the testimony of 37 witnesses. Including the 1,400,000 documents with the highlights on the most intimate conversations of the president. I want you to tell that judge why you need a grand jury subpoena. Which by the way, has never been issued in the history of the country to any president. And by the way, there is no president, all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, who’s ever been so transparent.”

Dowd continued, “You want to go to war? Let’s go to war. And by the way, I will tell the president that you have now threatened us with a grand jury subpoena. ‘So Mr. President, if you don’t testify, I’m going to haul your ass in front of the public and we’re going to have a grand jury subpoena. We’re going to have a hearing.’ And by the way, Bob, none of this evidence is before the grand jury. So I want you to explain that to the federal judge, why none of this is before his or her grand jury yet.”

Dowd believed all the main evidence was in the interviews and documents. And only in rare cases had that sort of evidence been presented to the grand jury.

“John, it’s okay,” Mueller said, trying to calm Dowd.