Donald Trump and HR McMaster saw Russian President Vladimir Putin differently. Early in Trump's presidential term, McMaster writes in his new book, the national security adviser told his wife, Katie, when he got home one night, "After over a year in this job, I cannot understand Putin's hold on Trump." Appearing on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, the Washington Post reports, McMaster said he still can't. He did see Putin's flattery of Trump as effective. After one dose of it, Trump said, "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country."
McMaster said he decided to write about Putin's influence in the hope that it would make
the Republican nominee less susceptible to the efforts if returns to the Oval Office. It's a book Trump is unlikely to enjoy, but Peter Bergen writes in a CNN analysis that McMaster says his boss did make the right decision at times—including when dictator Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians and when Trump checked China for stealing US intellectual property. As examples of White House debate, per Bergen, McMaster's book quotes:
- Advisers: "Your instincts are always right," aides would tell Trump, as well as, "No one has ever been treated so badly by the press." McMaster called Oval Office meetings "exercises in competitive sycophancy."
- Trump: "Why don't we just bomb the drugs?" in Mexico, the president asked aides. Another time, Trump said, "Why don't we take out the whole North Korean Army during one of their parades?"
An excerpt from
At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House appears in the
Wall Street Journal,
here. (More
HR McMaster stories.)
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