On March 31, Trump had tweeted, “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!”
“What was your position on the sanctions Obama approved?” Dowd asked. Obama had expelled 35 Russian diplomats, sanctioned several individuals and entities, and closed two Russian compounds in January 2017.
“Well, my position was it gave me leverage.”
“Oh!” Dowd said. “Because everybody thinks you would be against them, because you wanted good relations with Putin.”
“No, I looked at them as leverage,” Trump repeated.
Based on the testimony that Dowd had reviewed, this was accurate. Dowd figured he was cruising pretty well. The six-page memo the White House and Dowd had compiled on Flynn had much more information than Trump was now recalling. Dowd had given the day-by-day account of how the White House discovered that Flynn had lied to Mueller and Quarles, who had complimented the memo for its thoroughness.
“Well,” Dowd asked, “why did you tell Director Comey that—you kind of asked him to take it easy on Flynn. What was that all about?”
“I never said,” Trump said.
“He made a contemporaneous memorandum of it,” Dowd said. “Reported it to his buddies.”
“I didn’t say that,” Trump replied. “John, I absolutely didn’t say that.”
“Well, he says . . .”
“He’s a liar,” Trump said. He went full tilt on Comey. “The guy’s a crook, he’s a liar. He bounces between the Clinton [email] thing and making memos and leaking.”
The president had his critique down pat. He delivered it all, unleashed, nonstop. Dowd tried to interject. No way. Trump went the whole nine yards.
“Look,” Dowd said after the storm had briefly subsided, “you can’t answer a question that way. That is what they say is off-putting. It’s not good. Okay? Be polite about it.”
“Well, goddamn it!”
“Did he tell you that you weren’t under investigation” on January 6?
“Yes he did.”
“He just meant on the salacious part, not collusion, right?” Dowd asked. That was one theory in Mueller’s team.
“That’s bullshit! He never said that to me.”
Dowd believed him since Comey had corroborated that there had been no investigation on anything at that point.
The next 30 minutes were useless. “This thing’s a goddamn hoax!” Trump reprised everything he had tweeted or said before. Dowd could get nowhere. Trump was raging. Dowd worried that if he had been Mueller that Trump probably would have fired him on the spot. It was almost as if Trump were asking, Why am I sitting here answering questions? “I am the president of the United States!”
What a mess. Dowd shrugged his shoulders at the waste of time, but he saw the full nightmare. It was quite a sight seeing the president of the United States fuming like some aggrieved Shakespearean king.
Trump finally came down from the ceiling and began to regain his composure.
“Mr. President, that’s why you can’t testify,” Dowd said. “I know you believe it. I know you think it. I know you experienced it. But when you’re answering questions. When you’re a fact witness, you try to provide facts. If you don’t know the facts, I’d just prefer you to say, Bob, I just don’t remember. I got too much going on here. Instead of sort of guessing and making all kinds of wild conclusions.”
Then Dowd handed Trump the draft of the letter addressed to Mueller. The subject read “Request for Testimony on Alleged Obstruction of Justice.”
A raw assertion of presidential power was printed in boldface: “He could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired.”
Trump read the 22-page letter carefully, pausing to read several paragraphs out loud. He said he loved the letter. “You know, I’ve got a hell of a case here. I love the way it’s organized.” He admired the 59 footnotes.
“This is just one of the best days I’ve ever had in this thing,” he went on. His capacity to cycle between emotions, from low to high, was on full display. “It really is beautiful. I guess it’s everything I ever thought of and better. Now I get it. I see what you’re doing.”
Yeah, Dowd said.
“Let’s push them to the wall. But you don’t want me to testify?”
“No,” Dowd replied. “Why don’t we exhaust this thing? Maybe if push comes to shove, I’ll suggest to Bob, give me the questions. We will answer them. And we’ll make a script. You can come over, ask your questions and he’ll read the answers. How can you complain about that when you’ve trusted us on everything we’ve given? Plus the president cannot possibly remember all this. And by the way, he would love to meet you and talk through this thing, but he needs the assistance [of a script].”
“By God, I’ll do that,” Trump said. “That’s great.”
“Well,” Dowd said, “just imagine if you didn’t have the script.”
“I don’t know, John. We just went through that. You think I was struggling?”
“Yeah, you are. But Mr. President, I don’t blame you. It’s not that you’re lying or you’re bad or anything like that. Given your daily intake—just look what we’ve done this afternoon.”
There had been during their conversation several interruptions, two short briefings on world problems and some classified documents for Trump to sign. How could he remember everything?
“You know,” Dowd continued, “that gets in the way of trying to recollect what happened six months ago or nine months ago.”
“That’s great,” Trump said. “I’m with you. I don’t really want to testify.”
The day after the practice session in the White House, Trump called Dowd. “I slept like a rock,” Trump said. “I love that letter. Can I have a copy?”
“No,” Dowd said.
Dowd had the president where he wanted him.
On Monday, January 29, 2018, Dowd and Sekulow signed the letter. Dowd then arranged to deliver the letter to Quarles on February 1. It would be just like in the movies, Dowd thought. Quarles was to walk down the street and hop into Dowd’s parked car.
They exchanged a few pleasantries and asked about each other’s kids.
“Well, here’s your letter,” Dowd said.
“What’s this?”
“In response to your 16 topics,” Dowd said. “And we kind of make our case. I leave the door open. I’m going to push for some specific questions. Think about it. You want to talk about it, tell Bob let’s get together.”
CHAPTER
41
In a meeting in January 2018, Navarro, Ross, Cohn and Porter gathered in the Oval Office. After months of arguing about tariffs from entrenched positions, debates had become heated and sharp.
Cohn, backed by Porter, rehashed the economic arguments and the geopolitical national security arguments. He talked about how tariffs risked roiling the markets and jeopardizing a lot of the stock market gains. He said the tariffs would be, in effect, a tax on American consumers. Tariffs would take away a lot of the good that Trump had done through tax and regulatory reform.
You’re the globalist, Trump said. I don’t even care what you think anymore, Gary.
Trump shooed him away. Cohn retreated to a couch.
Navarro and Porter picked up the debate, with Ross interjecting on Navarro’s side from time to time. Navarro argued that tariffs would raise revenues and be beloved by businesses and unions. He said it would be a great way for Trump to get union support and help his base in advance of the 2018 midterm election.
Porter brought up the Bush tariffs and the net job loss that had occurred. In the years since, Porter argued, downstream industries that consumed and relied on steel—builders and pipelines and the auto industry—had expanded, while there was little potential for expansion of steel manufacturing and production jobs. The job losses under new tariffs would be even more pronounced than the ones during the Bush administration.