Nothing in Bob Woodward’s sober and grainy new book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” is especially surprising. This is a White House that has leaked from Day 1. We knew things were bad. Woodward is here, like a state trooper knocking on the door at 3 a.m., to update the sorry details. Some of these details, at first glance, are amusing. Trump lamented when Twitter, the social media platform on which he dispenses Pez-sized pellets of discourtesy, raised the maximum size of an individual tweet from 140 to 280 characters because, he is quoted as saying, “I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.” Somewhere in heaven, Papa is wondering if he can’t self-destruct all over again. It is stranger still to learn that Trump orders his most popular tweets printed out, so that he can study them. What lesson has he learned? That his most effective tweets are often the most unhinged. He’s a focus group of one, thriving on the smell of his own sulfur. Reince Priebus, his former chief of staff, calls the presidential bedroom, where Trump goes to tweet, “the devil’s workshop,” and early mornings and Sunday nights, when Trump is at loose ends, “the witching hour.” Some in the White House have tried to tone down the president’s online effusions, but that idea seems to have been jettisoned in the havoc. His advisers are viewed in mostly pitiless terms by Woodward. “Trump had failed the President Lincoln test,” he writes. “He had not put a team of political rivals or competitors at the table.”<doc-sep>(CNN) — WARNING: This story contains graphic language. President Donald Trump’s closest aides have taken extraordinary measures in the White House to try to stop what they saw as his most dangerous impulses, going so far as to swipe and hide papers from his desk so he wouldn’t sign them, according to a new book from legendary journalist Bob Woodward. Woodward’s 448-page book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” provides an unprecedented inside-the-room look through the eyes of the President’s inner circle. From the Oval Office to the Situation Room to the White House residence, Woodward uses confidential background interviews to illustrate how some of the President’s top advisers view him as a danger to national security and have sought to circumvent the commander in chief. from Simon & Schuster Many of the feuds and daily clashes have been well documented, but the picture painted by Trump’s confidants, senior staff and Cabinet officials reveal that many of them see an even more alarming situation — worse than previously known or understood. Woodward offers a devastating portrait of a dysfunctional Trump White House, detailing how senior aides — both current and former Trump administration officials — grew exasperated with the President and increasingly worried about his erratic behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying. Chief of staff John Kelly describes Trump as an “idiot” and “unhinged,” Woodward reports. Defense Secretary James Mattis describes Trump as having the understanding of “a fifth or sixth grader.” And Trump’s former personal lawyer John Dowd describes the President as “a fucking liar,” telling Trump he would end up in an “orange jump suit” if he testified to special counsel Robert Mueller. “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in crazytown,” Kelly is quoted as saying at a staff meeting in his office. “I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.” CNN obtained a copy of Woodward’s book, scheduled for release September 11. The explosive revelations about Trump from those closest to him are likely to play into the November midterm election battle. The book also has stunning new details about Trump’s obsession with the Russia probe, describing for the first time confidential conversations between the President’s lawyers and Mueller. It recounts a dramatic session in the White House residence in which Trump failed a mock Mueller interview with his lawyers. In separate statements Tuesday afternoon, Kelly denied that he called Trump an “idiot,” Dowd denied using the “orange jump suit” phrase and Mattis said the quotes attributed to him were “a product of someone’s rich imagination.” The White House accused Woodward of spreading “fabricated stories” about Trump. “This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. “While it is not always pretty, and rare that the press actually covers it, President Trump has broken through the bureaucratic process to deliver unprecedented successes for the American people. Sometimes it is unconventional, but he always gets results.” Woodward, however, said he stood by his reporting in a statement obtained by CNN. He sums up the state of the Trump White House by writing that Trump was an “emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader.” Woodward writes that the staff’s decision to circumvent the President was “a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.” Circumventing the President The book opens with a dramatic scene. Former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn saw a draft letter he considered dangerous to national security on the Oval Office desk. The letter would have withdrawn the US from a critical trade agreement with South Korea. Trump’s aides feared the fallout could jeopardize a top-secret national security program: the ability to detect a North Korean missile launch within just seven seconds. Woodward reports Cohn was “appalled” that Trump might sign the letter. “I stole it off his desk,” Cohn told an associate. “I wouldn’t let him see it. He’s never going to see that document. Got to protect the country.” Cohn was not alone. Former staff secretary Rob Porter worked with Cohn and used the same tactic on multiple occasions, Woodward writes. In addition to literally stealing or hiding documents from Trump’s desk, they sought to stall and delay decisions or distract Trump from orders they thought would endanger 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, who as staff secretary handled the flow of presidential papers until he quit amid domestic violence allegations. He and others acted with the acquiescence of former chief of staff Reince Priebus, Woodward reports. Woodward describes repeated attempts to bypass Trump as “no less than an administrative coup d’état.” The Russia obsession Woodward’s book relies on hundreds of hours of taped interviews and dozens of sources in Trump’s inner circle, as well as documents, files, diaries and memos, including a note handwritten by Trump himself. Woodward explains that he talked with sources on “deep background,” meaning he could use all the information but not say who provided it. His reporting comes with the credibility of a long and storied history that separates this book from previous efforts on Trump. The author and Washington Post journalist has won two Pulitzer Prizes, including one for his coverage of the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation. In one revelatory anecdote, Woodward describes a scene in the White House residence. Trump’s lawyer, convinced the President would perjure himself, put Trump through a test — a practice interview for the one he might have with Mueller. Trump failed, according to Dowd, but the President still insisted he should testify. Woodward writes that Dowd saw the “full nightmare” of a potential Mueller interview, and felt Trump acted like an “aggrieved Shakespearean king.” But Trump seemed surprised at Dowd’s reaction, Woodward writes. “You think I was struggling?” Trump asked. Then, in an even more remarkable move, Dowd and Trump’s current personal attorney Jay Sekulow went to Mueller’s office and re-enacted the mock interview. Their goal: to argue that Trump couldn’t possibly testify because he was incapable of telling the truth. “He just made something up. That’s his nature,” Dowd said to Mueller. The passage is an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes of Mueller’s secretive operation — for the first time, Mueller’s conversations with Trump’s lawyers are captured. “I need the president’s testimony,” Mueller said. “What was his intent on Comey? … I want to see if there was corrupt intent.” Despite Dowd’s efforts, Trump continued to insist he could testify. “I think the President of the United States cannot be seen taking the fifth,” Trump said. Dowd’s argument was stark: “There’s no way you can get through these. … Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jump suit.” What he couldn’t say to Trump, according to Woodward, was what Dowd believed to be true: “You’re a fucking liar.” In a statement Tuesday, Dowd denied some of the key anecdotes and quotes attributed to him in the book. He criticized Woodward for fueling an “endless cycle of accusations and misrepresentation.” “I do not intend to address every inaccurate statement attributed to me – but I do want to make this clear: there was no so-called ‘practice session’ or ‘re-enactment’ of a mock interview at the Special Counsel’s office,” Dowd said. “Further, I did not refer to the President as a ‘liar’ and did not say that he was likely to end up in an ‘orange jump suit’. It was a great honor and distinct privilege to serve President Trump.” Trump’s insults and humiliation Throughout the book, Woodward portrays the President as a man obsessed with his standing in the media and with his core supporters. Trump appears to be lonely and increasingly paranoid, often watching hours of television in the White House residence. “They’re out to get me,” Trump said of Mueller’s team.<doc-sep>There have been other insider accounts about the dysfunction of the Trump White House and the president’s personal shortcomings, but none have been as revealing or convincing as “Fear,” which is based on eyewitness recollections, often supplemented with dates and transcripts of conversations. Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” was a major bestseller but seemed overly reliant on its chief source, Steve Bannon, among other flaws. Another recent bestseller, “Unhinged,” came from former White House aide and onetime “Apprentice” star Omarosa Manigault Newman, who had been fired and possibly had an ax to grind. The daily press, especially The Post and the New York Times, has offered periodic and tantalizing glimpses into the inner workings of the Trump White House and the psyche of Trump himself. But “Fear” provides a more complete picture, based on multiple interviews with some of the president’s closest advisers. Woodward resists the fast-paced reporting demanded by the Internet, visiting his subjects away from their offices and testing their memories again and again.<doc-sep>
President Trump strongly criticized Bob Woodward's new book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," as "a total fraud," "work of fiction" and "totally discredited." But Woodward said he drew from hundreds of hours of interviews for his book, which is published by Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS. The book depicts a chaotic White House with details from participants and witnesses to the Trump administration. Asked whether he would release any of the interview tapes, Woodward told "CBS This Morning" on Thursday: "Well, if somebody really wants to challenge me, of course. Of course. But I — again, I've made agreements with people that these sources are going to remain confidential." In the book, Woodward described a "nervous breakdown" in the administration. In an interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Norah O'Donnell, FBI Director Christopher Wray told her he has "not seen a 'nervous breakdown' of executive power." "I have also not read Mr. Woodward's book, and I'm not sure whether I'll ever find time," Wray added. Woodward responded to Wray, saying, "His experience is limited with Trump." Wray was confirmed as FBI director in August 2017. "I spent over a year on this. I have literally hundreds of hours of tapes with people who were there. If you've looked at the book, they're very specific incidents. And it is a kind of — it opens the window," Woodward said. Various Trump administration officials have come forward to deny certain accounts in the story, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis. Woodward addressed the various push-back he's getting. "Look, going back to the Nixon case, any of these books you're going to have what I call this 'survival denial' by somebody who wants to be politically connected with the president. And that's fine," Woodward said. "But as the great editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee said, the truth emerges. And it does. And I've done this time and time again where you get denials. Oh, 'Nixon and Kissinger did not pray on the eve of Nixon's resignation.'" Watch the video above to see Woodward's response to the recent ousting of "60 Minutes" executive producer Jeff Fager.