Fear: Trump in the White House

“No,” Gray said. But the United States should help Europe with their anemic economic growth rate. European business culture largely avoided taking risks.

“Which is going to be the next country to drop out?” Trump asked. Under the Brexit referendum, approved by British voters, Great Britain had to leave the European Union.

“I don’t think there will be another country to drop out,” Gray replied.

Trump said he agreed.

“If you didn’t have NATO, you would have to invent it,” Mattis said. “There’s no way Russia could win a war if they took on NATO.”

By the end of the dinner, Trump seemed to be persuaded. “You can have your NATO,” he told Mattis. The administration would support the alliance, “but you become the rent collector.”

Mattis laughed. And then he nodded.

In his speech in Munich on February 15, Secretary Mattis found middle ground. “America will meet its responsibilities,” he said, but would “moderate” its commitment if the other NATO countries did not meet theirs. Nonetheless he said the alliance was a “fundamental bedrock” of U.S. policy.

At a news conference with the NATO secretary general two months later, Trump said, “I said it was obsolete. It is no longer obsolete.”

When Trump met the European leaders in May in Brussels, he castigated NATO countries for “chronic underpayments.” He said that “23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they’re supposed to be paying for their defense.”

He made it clear that he was addressing the United States domestic audience. “This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States.”

CHAPTER

10

What the hell! Priebus thought as he scanned a February 9 story in The Washington Post reporting that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had discussed sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador before Trump was in office.

In one of his last acts as president, Obama had imposed sanctions on Russia on December 29 in retaliation for Russian meddling in the election. He expelled 35 suspected Russian spies and ordered the closure of two Russian-owned compounds in Maryland and New York believed to be involved in espionage.

Priebus had asked Flynn many times about any discussions. Flynn had firmly denied discussing the sanctions with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the convivial man-about-town.

Two weeks earlier, on January 26, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates had come to the White House. She told White House Counsel Donald McGahn that intercepts showed that Flynn had not been truthful about contacts with Russians and was worried that Flynn could be a blackmail target.

Flynn had denied discussing the sanctions at least 10 times, Priebus calculated.

The Post story, carrying the bylines of three of the paper’s experienced intelligence and national security reporters, stated “Nine current and former officials” were sources for their categorical assertion. Flynn had been interviewed by the reporters and had denied the allegations with a categorical “no” twice before backing away with a more fuzzy response. His spokesman was quoted: Flynn “couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”

Priebus tracked down White House Counsel McGahn, 48, who was an expert on campaign finance law and had served five years as a Republican-appointed member of the Federal Election Commission. Priebus asked him if they could get the transcripts of the conversations that Flynn had with the Russian ambassador.

Yes, McGahn said, of course. Soon he had the highly classified transcripts of three communications between Flynn and Kislyak that the FBI had intercepted during the routine monitoring of the Russian ambassador.

McGahn and Priebus were joined by Vice President Pence in the Situation Room to review the transcripts. Pence had backed Flynn’s denial publicly. According to a six-page internal White House Counsel’s Office memo, Flynn said if he and Kislyak discussed sanctions, “It was only because Kislyak brought it up. From the transcripts, Flynn had brought up the issue. McGahn and Priebus agree that Flynn has to be let go.”

In all three transcripts, Flynn and the ambassador discussed the sanctions. In the last call, initiated by Kislyak, the ambassador thanked Flynn for his advice on the sanctions, and said the Russians would follow it.

That nailed the story and it explained Putin’s curiously passive response to the sanctions. Normally the Russian president would be expected to retaliate, expelling some Americans from Russia. But the day after Obama announced the sanctions, Putin announced he would not.

President-elect Trump praised Putin, tweeting, “Great move on delay (by V. Putin)-I always knew he was very smart!”

The sequence suggested that Trump might have known of Flynn’s role. But it was unclear what Flynn had said to the president about his conversations with Kislyak.

Priebus told the president he would have to let Flynn go. Flynn’s security clearance might be pulled. The embarrassment would be significant.