Bob Woodward Reveals Trump Aides Would Steal President’s Papers To Prevent ‘Dangerous Impulses’

Iconic journalist Bob Woodward has made some shocking revelations about the Trump administration in his latest book, none more so than his claim that Trump’s closest aides would go as far as stealing and hiding papers from the president’s desk so he could not sign them in order to, as Woodward describes, “protect the country,” as reported by CNN.

Woodward’s book, Fear: Trump in the White House, brings more than 400 pages of a perspective that has never before been revealed by those closest to President Trump. Woodward uses confidential interviews with sources to get a look inside the Oval Office and Situation Room to get a clearer view of how Trump operates, eventually finding that many within his inner circle view him as a threat to national security and go to great lengths to prevent any catastrophic impact.

The book opens with how chief economic adviser Gary Cohn saw a letter that would have removed the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea, one that could cause enough backlash that it could end a top-secret military program that would be able to quickly detect missile launches from North Korea.

Cohn was so fearful that Trump would sign that letter that he stole it off of the president’s desk, according to a conversation he had with an aide. “I wouldn’t let him see it,” Cohn allegedly told the aide. “He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.”

Woodward alleges that former staff secretary Rob Porter was forced to use the same tactic and beyond, taking measures to distract and deceive Trump in order to delay the president from making decisions harmful to national security.

“A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren’t such good ideas,” said Porter in the book. Porter eventually left the administration amid domestic violence allegations.

President Trump's closest aides stole papers off his desk to stop what they saw as his most dangerous impulses, Bob Woodward writes in an explosive new book obtained by CNN https://t.co/rVphQunbjz pic.twitter.com/HfYPQtUXmS

— CNN (@CNN) September 4, 2018

While many of the larger clashes have been well covered since Trump first came into office, Woodward reveals an administration that’s even more broken than any prior reporting has revealed, with the senior aides on a daily basis forced to deal with Trump’s “erratic behavior, ignorance, and penchant for lying.”

Woodward received damaging direct quotes from some of the most well-known members of Trump’s staff, including Chief of Staff John Kelly who called Trump an “idiot” and “unhinged,” Defense Secretary James Mattis who described Trump as having the mental aptitude of “a fifth or sixth grader,” and Trump’s former lawyer John Dowd who said that Trump would be wearing an “orange jumpsuit” if he ever was called to the Mueller investigation, according to reports from CNN, who have acquired the book.

“He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in crazy town. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had,” Kelly reportedly says during a meeting.

Fear: Trump in the White House is scheduled for release on September 11. There is no doubt that the information disclosed by those so close to President Trump will have some impact on November’s midterm elections. The book also touches on Trump’s relationship with the Russia probe, including details from confidential talks between Trump’s lawyers and Mueller as well as information about a mock Mueller interview held by Trump’s lawyers and the president, one in which Trump supposedly failed spectacularly.