Trump made the claim immediately after his inauguration. All evidence pointed to the contrary. Sean Spicer defended the claim the day after, as well as other unfounded claims about voter fraud.
While Scaramucci’s behavior was erratic over the course of his tenure, Trump decided on dismissal after he railed against Chief of Staff Reince Preibus and chief strategist Steve Bannon in a phone call with The New Yorker. Shortly after, Preibus resigned and Bannon was fired.
The 11 day tenure has birthed a new form of measurement, the mooch.
In June of 2017, former White House Counsel Don McGahn was directed by Trump to have the Acting Attorney General remove the Special Counsel. Though McGahn ignored the request, he stated that he felt “trapped because he did not plan to follow the President’s directive.”
The Special Counsel originated in an FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and officially formed after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
Trump referred to his Secretary Defense Mark Esper as Esperanto. He repeated false claims that US soldiers being withdrawn from Syria were coming home when they were actually redeployed to Iraq, and that some kind of source of oil had been secured without any further explanation. The tweet has since been deleted.
After Trump tried to fire the Special Counsel through White House Counsel Don McGahn, Trump later directed McGahn to put in writing that the request had never been made. The President remarked, “if he doesn’t write a letter, then maybe I’ll have to get rid of him.” McGahn refused, and though Trump backed down from his threat, McGahn ultimately resigned.
McGahn noted that during his tenure, he had been asked to “do crazy shit.”
The Special Counsel originated in an FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and officially formed after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
During his campaign, Trump’s personal doctor gave a full bill of health, concluding that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Dr. Harold Bornstein. Screenshot via NBC News
The letter reads,
To Whom My Concern:
I have been the personal physician of Mr Donald J. Trump since 1980. His previous physician was my father, Dr Jacob Bornstein. Over the past 39 years, I am pleased to report that Mr Trump has had no significant medical problems. Mr Trump has had a recent complete medical examination that showed only positive results. Actually, his blood pressure, 110/65, and laboratory test results were astonishingly excellent.
Over the past twelve months, he has lost at least fifteen pounds, Mr Trump takes 81 mg of aspirin daily and a low dose of a statin. His PSA test score is 0.15 (very low). His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.
Mr Trump has suffered no form of cancer, has never had a hip, knee or shoulder replacement or any other orthopaedic surgery. His only surgery was an appendectomy at age ten. His cardiovascular status is excellent. He has no history of ever using alcohol or tobacco products.
If elected, Mr Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.
Released by Donald J. Trump for President campaign
“He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein later revealed to CNN. His office was subsequently raided for all of Trump’s medical records.
Steve Bannon, head of Brietbart News and considered the architect of Trump’s campaign, made the remark to a friend in November 2017. Bannon also described the office as already having taken a toll on Trump, saying he believed the President had “lost a step.”
Bannon left his chief strategist role at the White House in August.
Quoted by Michael Wolff in his 2018 book Fire and Fury, the email by Cohn reads as follows:
It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything–not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family.
I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I’m the only person there with a clue what he’s doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror.
In Fear, the 2018 book by Bob Woodward, Cohn described two instances in which he removed documents from Trump’s desk so they wouldn’t be signed. The documents would have canceled trade agreements with South Korea and initiated a unilateral withdrawal from NAFTA.
Cohn served as the White House’s chief economic advisor from January 2017 to April 2018, when he resigned over Trump’s decision to institute tariffs against China.
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster derided President Donald Trump’s intelligence at a private dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz, according to several sources with knowledge of the conversation.
Four sources told BuzzFeed News they heard about the incident from Catz. McMaster referred to Trump as an “idiot” and a “dope” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner,”, according the the sources
Oracle and the Trump administration denied the comments that Catz later recounted.
Michael Cohen had been a long-time lawyer, fixer, and friend of the Trump family.
Cohen covered up an affair Trump had with porn star Stormy Daniels, paying her $130,000 just ahead of the 2016 election. For his role, Cohen was later charged with campaign finance violations and counts of tax evasion.
