United States of America eSeries: 'I don’t want to be your friend anymore'

'I don’t want to be your friend anymore'

Posted by :

September 15, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'I don't want to be your friend anymore'

You'd think it impossible to be shocked anymore by Donald Trump. But Bob Woodward, the Washington Post legend, with a new sidekick, Robert Costa, has done it again.

In the new book "Peril," the duo lift the lid on the final days of the Trump White House amid the trauma of the Capitol insurrection. The book, obtained ahead of publication by CNN's Jamie Gangel, is packed with staggering revelations — and also digs in to the first few months of the Biden administration, including the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Among the juiciest bits:

— Gen. Mark Milley, the top US military officer, inserted himself into the nuclear chain of command, ordering that subordinates consult him before accepting any strike orders. This appears to be a stunning subversion of the US's sacred civilian control of the military – committed, Milley says, to protect the world from an unstable President.

— Milley and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a blunt phone call in which the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tried to assure her that US nuclear weapons were secure. "You know he's crazy. He's been crazy for a long time," Pelosi said, referring to Trump, according to a call transcript. "Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything," Milley replied.

— Then-CIA chief Gina Haspel worried the US was on the verge of a right-wing coup in November 2020, telling Milley, "[Trump] is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum." Haspel also worried that Trump might try to attack Iran.

— Milley assured his Chinese counterpart in several phone calls that the US would not strike Beijing, after intelligence reports suggested that China believed Trump might target it to divert from the embarrassment of his election loss.

— According to Woodward and Costa, Trump screamed at Mike Pence after the vice president told him repeatedly that he had no power to change the election results. "You don't understand, Mike. You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this," Trump reportedly yelled.

— President Joe Biden overruled both Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to expedite the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Biden believed the military had manipulated his former boss Barack Obama when he wanted to quit the country. "The military doesn't fuck around with me," Biden told others in 2009, implying they had with Obama, according to the book.

Subscribe to Meanwhile in America

The world and America

The UK's Queen Elizabeth II sent congratulations to North Korea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in quarantine.

And a Haitian prosecutor is seeking charges against the country's Prime Minister in an assassination plot.

Meanwhile in America, California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks set to hold on to his job.

A Florida woman pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris.

And Apple unveiled new phones, watches and iPads.

Taxing the rich

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (L) and Aurora James at the 2021 Met Gala.

In case it was not clear, the message was all over the back of AOC's dress.

"Tax the Rich," said the bold red lettering on the garment worn by progressive champion and New York member of Congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the glitzy Met Gala in New York — a pageant for the wealthy.

Apart from tormenting right-wing commentators -- surely part of the intended effect -- the self-described democratic socialist's gesture was a statement of fact. While moderate party leaders might have swallowed hard at AOC's impact on politically key wealthier suburbs, there is no secret about how Democrats will fund Biden's $3.5 trillion spending plan. They are planning to raise the corporate tax rate to 26.5% from 21% and to return the top marginal rate of individual income tax to 39.6% for individuals earning more than $400,000 a year.

The measures would roll back the only real big domestic legislative achievement of the Trump administration, a huge tax bill that soaked big business and the most well-off Americans. The hikes are a little lower, though, than the Biden White House hoped for.

Most importantly, the tax hikes are the manifestation of Biden's central political goal: reshaping an economy that he says punishes working Americans while the wealthy get all the spoils. Biden's $3.5 trillion spending plan, which is on a knife edge in Congress, is one of the most progressive bills proposed by a Democratic president in decades. It includes billions of dollars each for education, home health care, combating climate change, education and child care.

But there's no guarantee it will pass, so get ready for considerable drama. In the 50-50 Senate, Biden needs every Democratic vote. And Sen. Joe Manchin, for one, says he'll never back that level of cash splashing, emphasizing the huge divide Biden must bridge between his party's right and left wings.

The West Virginian is also in AOC's sights after he referred to her as "young lady" during a CNN interview on Sunday. In a tweet, she complained about people who referred to others using their ages and genders: "They'd be pretty upset if one responded with 'the old man,' right? Why this kind of weird, patronizing behavior is so accepted is beyond me!"

'A socialist European-type country'

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy just mustered the worst possible insult that a conservative could coin for Democratic social programs -- and pretty much every other policy -- when he slammed Ocasio-Cortez's support for Biden's $3.5 trillion spending spree: "It's a transformation of America to become more of a socialist European-type country," he said on Fox News.

Republicans are salivating at running a campaign in next year's midterm elections portraying Democrats as deficit-pumping big spenders and tax-hiking socialists. But Biden is betting that providing social services on the backs of the rich will convince working Americans that government is here to help. And AOC is unlikely to lose sleep over the attacks; in fact, we guess that her reaction might be summed up neatly by another notorious slogan-bearing garment – the one worn by then-first lady Melania Trump on a border visit, which read, "I Really Don't Care. Do U?"

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday is Pope Francis's last day on a tour of Slovakia before heading home to Vatican City. Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has promised to announce the release of federal prisoners who can prove they underwent torture. And National Hispanic Heritage Month begins in the US.