Trump has ruined the 'magic' of the presidency with his 'disdain' for America's fundamental values, a government aide claimed in an explosive new book
- A government aide has told the authors of a new book about Trump that he has tarnished the office of President of the United States.
- "'He's ruined that magic," the aide is quoted as saying.
- "'The disdain he shows for our country's foundation and its principles. The disregard he has for right and wrong. Your fist clenches. Your teeth grate."
- Sources have described a series of incidents to the authors in which Trump showed ignorance of key geographical and historical facts - including exactly what happened at Pearl Harbour in 1941.
- The book, named "A Very Stable Genius," was compiled from the testimony of over 200 sources and many hundreds of hours of interviews, the Post said.
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A government aide told the authors of an explosive new book about the Trump White House that the president is tarnishing the office of the presidency through the "disdain he shows for our country's foundation and its principles."
In excerpts of the book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig published this week, White House insiders describe a president who is "dangerously uninformed" about certain facets of American history and global geography.
Trump, for instance, did not appear to understand the significance of the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii, during a private tour of the USS Arizona Memorial, the book says, as reported by Business Insider's David Choi.
Such incidents, the aide claimed to Rucker and Leonnig, have "destroyed the gravity and allure that used to surround the presidency, regardless of the Oval Office occupant."
"He's ruined that magic," the unnamed aide is quoted as saying.
"The disdain he shows for our country's foundation and its principles. The disregard he has for right and wrong. Your fist clenches. Your teeth grate," they continued.
The book, named "A Very Stable Genius," was compiled from the testimony of over 200 sources and many hundreds of hours of interviews, the Post said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the claims made by the anonymous aide.
Critics have long accused Trump of abandoning fundamental American values in his expressed admiration for dictators, hostility towards the alliance of democratic states America helped broker after the Second World War, and contempt for legal and democratic norms.
But supporters have long celebrated Trump a disrupter unshackled by conventional niceties, prepared to do battle with an establishment they believe has sold them out.