Two former high-ranking Trump aides chronicle the his volatile path to the White House — screaming fits, petty rivalries, Big Macs and all.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, and David Bossie, another ex-top aide, have written a new book titled Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency detailing Trump’s volatile and erratic behavior.
The Washington Post published an article titled “Trump’s campaign: Big Macs, screaming fits and constant rivalries” a few days before the book’s release last Tuesday the 5th of December 2017.
That article begins with the following description:
Elton John blares so loudly on Donald Trump’s campaign plane that staffers can’t hear themselves think. Press secretary Hope Hicks uses a steamer to press Trump’s pants — while he is still wearing them. Trump screams at his top aides, who are subjected to expletive-filled tirades in which they get their “face ripped off.”
And Trump’s appetite seems to know no bounds when it comes to McDonald’s, with a dinner order consisting of “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.”
The scenes are among the most surreal passages in a forthcoming book chronicling Trump’s path to the presidency co-written by Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as Trump’s campaign manager, and David Bossie, another top aide. The book, “Let Trump Be Trump,” paints a portrait of a campaign with an untested candidate and staff rocketing from crisis to crisis, in which Lewandowski and a cast of mostly neophyte political aides learn on the fly and ultimately accept Trump’s propensity to go angrily off message.
People Magazine published their own take on the book, writing that Lewandowski and Bossie may not have survived their rocky tenure with the Trump campaign, but they “lived to tell the tale.”
Excerpts from the book published by Politico along with The Washington Post and People Magazine “recall how Trump regularly subjected top aides to expletive-filled tirades in which they got their ‘face ripped off.'”
“Sooner or later, everybody who works for Donald Trump will see a side of him that makes you wonder why you took a job with him in the first place,” the authors wrote. “His wrath is never intended as any personal offense, but sometimes it can be hard not to take it that way. The mode that he switches into when things aren’t going his way can feel like an all-out assault; it’d break most hardened men and women into little pieces.”
Lewandowski and Bossie wrote in the book that they “both had moments where they wanted to parachute off Trump Force One,” but added that they quickly got used to it, reported The Washington Post
Politico published a lengthy excerpt detailing an incident in which “all hell broke loose” after Trump learned from aide Hope Hicks that Paul Manafort had cancelled Trump’s appearance from the Sunday news shows.
Team Trump was in a helicopter heading for Delaware when Trump received the news.
So, we were in the helicopter and Hope said to Trump: “I turned down all the Sunday show requests.”
“What?!” the boss screamed. “Without asking me?”
“Yes, sir,” Hope said, “Paul said he doesn’t want you on TV.”
Continuing, the excerpt details the ensuing explosion:
Trump went fucking ballistic. We were still over the New York metropolitan area, where you can get cell service if you fly at a low altitude.
“Lower it!” Trump yelled to the pilot. “I have to make a call.”
He got Manafort on the phone, “Did you say I shouldn’t be on TV on Sunday??” Manafort could barely hear him because of the helicopter motor. But Trump said, “I’ll go on TV anytime I goddamn fucking want and you won’t say another fucking word about me! Tone it down? I wanna turn it up! I don’t wanna tone anything down! I played along with your delegate charts, but I have had enough.”
We landed the whirlybird at the heliport and got into the car. I was in the back of the car, with Trump next to me on the passenger’s side. He got Paul on the phone and completely decimated him again verbally. Ripped his fucking head off. I wish I’d recorded it, because it was one of the greatest takedowns in the history of the world.
“You’re a political pro? Let me tell you something. I’m a pro at life. I’ve been around a time or two. I know guys like you, with your hair and your skin…”
People Magazine reported on Trump’s now infamous eating habits, reporting that:
The book also describes Trump’s boundless cravings for fast food, including one McDonald’s dinner order of “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.”
“On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” the authors wrote.
The cupboards on Trump’s plane were also stocked with Vienna Fingers, potato chips, pretzels and many packages of Oreos because Trump, a well-known germaphobe, refused to eat from a previously opened package.
The authors noted that “the orchestrating and timing of Mr. Trump’s meals was as important as any other aspect of his march to the presidency.”
The book also discussed Trump’s oft-times volatile relationship with aides who appeared at times to be in over their heads. Take for instance the following passage published by The Washington Post:
Lewandowski’s description of campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who is now White House communications director, underscored the untested nature of the campaign and its personnel. He describes Hicks, a competitive athlete and former model, as “smart and private, with a nearly photographic memory.”
But, he writes, when Trump asked Hicks to join him on a campaign trip, she was working for the Trump Organization as a public relations official. So, the authors wrote, when she was first asked to be press secretary, she responded, in reference to a Trump property, “Which one? The Doral marketing campaign?”
“No, my presidential campaign! I’m running for president,” Trump responded, according to the book.
Continuing, The Washington Post reported that:
One of Hicks’s jobs was to make sure that Trump’s suits were pressed when they flew on his plane.
“ ‘Get the machine!’ ” Trump would yell, according to the book. “And Hope would take out the steamer and start steaming Mr. Trump’s suit, while he was wearing it! She’d steam the jacket first and then sit in a chair in front of him and steam his pants.”
One day, when Hicks forgot the steamer, Trump became angry.
“G–dammit, Hope! How the hell could you forget the machine?”
The authors wrote, “It was a mistake she would never make again.”
However bizarre, some of the books descriptions, as People Magazine reported, “Despite the criticism of Trump’s temper tantrums, Lewandowski’s portrait of his former boss is largely an admiring one,” and the book’s listing on Amazon included the following complimentary description:
LET TRUMP BE TRUMP: THE INSIDE STORY OF HIS PRESIDENCY is the ultimate behind-the-scenes account of how he became President of the United States.
Corey R. Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager who contributed to Trump’s historic bid for the White House, teams up with David N. Bossie, the consummate political pro who helped steer the last critical months of the Trump Campaign, to offer the first insiders’ account of the most historic campaign in modern political history. Starting from the months leading up to Trump’s announcement all the way through staff shakeups within the White House, LET TRUMP BE TRUMP offers eyewitness accounts of the real stories behind some of the most sensational headlines.
At turns surprising, raw with emotion, and hilarious, LET TRUMP BE TRUMP is a book destined to be beloved by Trump supporters and cited by even Trump critics as the first and most definitive insider account of the 2016 campaign.
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