Trump ‘Stumbles, Slurs, Gets Confused, Is Easily Irritated’: Horrifying Details Emerge from ‘Anonymous’ Book

Trump ‘Stumbles, Slurs, Gets Confused, Is Easily Irritated’: Horrifying Details Emerge from ‘Anonymous’ Book

The Washington Post published a handful of excerpts from “A Warning,” a forthcoming book about President Trump’s time in office. The author, an unidentified senior administration official, wrote a much-discussed op-ed in the New York Times last year claiming to be part of the “resistance” inside the administration protecting the country from Trump’s worst impulses.

The excerpts revealed Thursday illustrate nothing short of a perilous environment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The author describes Trump’s state mind:

“I am not qualified to diagnose the president’s mental acuity,” the person writes. “All I can tell you is that normal people who spend any time with Donald Trump are uncomfortable by what they witness. He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity. Those who would claim otherwise are lying to themselves or to the country.”

The president, the author writes, “acts like a twelve-year-old in an air traffic control tower, pushing the buttons of government indiscriminately, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway and the flights frantically diverting away from the airport.”

The book depicts the nature of Trump’s comments behind closed doors:

“I’ve sat and listened in uncomfortable silence as he talks about a woman’s appearance or performance,” the author writes. “He comments on makeup. He makes jokes about weight. He critiques clothing. He questions the toughness of women in and around his orbit. He uses words like ‘sweetie’ and ‘honey’ to address accomplished professionals. This is precisely the way a boss shouldn’t act in the work environment.”

Conducting damage-control after Trump’s reckless Twitter activity is a chore:

“It’s like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak to find your elderly uncle running pantsless across the courtyard and cursing loudly about the cafeteria food, as worried attendants tried to catch him,” the author writes. “You’re stunned, amused, and embarrassed all at the same time. Only your uncle probably wouldn’t do it every single day, his words aren’t broadcast to the public, and he doesn’t have to lead the US government once he puts his pants on.”

Most notably, the book details, senior officials in the administration weighed a mass-resignation to alarm the public about the president’s conduct. They ultimately declined to do so, believing it would cause further chaos.

The author writes that he or she is not “unprepared to attach my name to criticism of President Trump.”

“I may do so, in due course.”

William Vaillancourt

William Vaillancourt is a writer and editor from New Hampshire whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Progressive, Slate and Areo Magazine, among other places. He holds a BA in Political Science and History from Boston University.

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