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You are here: Home / Books / Potential Book Club Material: “A Very Stable Genius”

Potential Book Club Material: “A Very Stable Genius”

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I’m kidding, of course — we know most of this crap already. But kudos to the authors on the timing of their release…

President Trump reveals himself as woefully uninformed about the basics of geography, incorrectly telling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” He toys with awarding himself the Medal of Freedom.

And, according to a new book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig, Trump does not seem to grasp the fundamental history surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor…

“A Very Stable Genius” — a 417-page book named after Trump’s own declaration of his superior knowledge — is full of similarly vivid details from Trump’s tumultuous first three years as president, from his chaotic transition before taking office to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation and final report…

The book by the two longtime Post reporters — who were part of the team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Trump and Russia — was obtained ahead of its scheduled release Tuesday.

Many of the key moments reported in the book are rife with foreign policy implications, portraying a novice commander in chief plowing through normal protocols and alarming many both inside the administration and in other governments.

Early in his administration, for instance, Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin — so much so, the authors write, “that during the transition he interrupts an interview with one of his secretary of state candidates” to inquire about his pressing desire: “When can I meet Putin? Can I meet with him before the inaugural ceremony?” he asks…

In spring 2017, Trump also clashed with Tillerson when he told him he wanted his help getting rid of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that prevents U.S. firms and individuals from bribing foreign officials for business deals.

“It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump says, according to the book. “We’re going to change that.”

The president, they go on to explain, was frustrated with the law “ostensibly because it restricted his industry buddies or his own company’s executives from paying off foreign governments in faraway lands.”

The book, the duo writes in an author’s note, is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 200 sources, corroborated, when possible, by calendars, diary entries, internal memos and even private video recordings. (Trump himself had initially committed to an interview for the book, the authors write, but ultimately declined, amid an escalating war with the media).

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday…

Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Trump’s communications director for just 11 days, recounts the president’s response when he asks him, “Are you an act?”

“I’m a total act and I don’t understand why people don’t get it,” Trump replies, according to Scaramucci.

Yet the people in Trump’s administration and orbit don’t behave as if the president is simply playing a part or acting a role. At the Justice Department, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and other senior officials run through private fire drills in case Trump triggers a “Saturday night massacre” — an allusion to the series of resignations under President Richard M. Nixon following his order to his attorney general to fire the Watergate independent special prosecutor…

Trump was “verbally and emotionally abusive” toward then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the book reports, and routinely complained she was not doing enough about illegal immigration and the border…

When Nielsen — who had received threats against her life as the public face of the administration’s hard-line immigration policy — eventually left the government, she did so without any prearranged continuing security detail, which must be requested by the chief of staff and authorized by the president.

“When some of her international counterparts visited Washington, they offered to hire personal security for Nielsen to protect her, but she declined,” write the authors. “ ‘That would look horrible,’ Nielsen told them. ‘Can you imagine the story? Foreign governments provide security because the U.S. won’t?’ ”.…

Somewhere, former Ambassador Marie Voynovich shakes her head.

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Reader Interactions

103Comments

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    I fully expect that Stephen Miller will draft an executive order for the President to sign that separates my toilet and my shower and deports them separately to a country they’re not from.

  3. 3.

    FelonyGovt

    The story about the Pearl Harbor tour is horrifying. Too bad so much of the Greatest Generation has passed on. I would think most of those folks would be shocked and disgusted by such ignorance.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: Washer-dryer sets will be unstacked!

    Actually, I’m kind of surprised he hasn’t started railing about front-load high efficiency washers. Yet, anyway.

  7. 7.

    hells littlest angel

    @dmsilev: Unlike  showers and toilets (on which he doubtless spends a great deal of executive time), Trump has never used a washing machine.

  8. 8.

    Wag

    I am continually humbled, ashamed, and horrified by Trump’s ignorance

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    My chili is done! The bottom caught a bit, as usual, but it is off the heat, out of the pot, and into containers cooling.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev: And if you’ve ever used an industrial one in a restaurant, or seen one, which he has in the restaurants in his hotels and resorts and golf clubs, that’s what he’s talking about.

  12. 12.

    Ruckus

    I am not amazed at all about this shithead.

    First, he’s been an asshole for a very, very long time. Very.

    Second, he seems to work at improving his assholyness on a daily basis.

    Third, I’ve been saying this for a quite a while, I believe he has a decent case of dementia going.

    Fourth, he is a raving narcissist and has been for decades, which means his entire world revolves around him and there is no other world and everybody around him must acquiesce to his “greatness.” Which explains all the suckups around him.

    Fifth, he’s a fucking asshole. Deluxe version. Needed to be said twice.

  13. 13.

    hitchhiker

    Neilsen is the woman who argued in court that toothbrushes and soap weren’t part of the US govt’s obligation to care for the toddlers and grade school kids it had taken from their parents for the crime of asking for asylum, right?

    I’ve heard it suggested more than once that she’s the author of that anonymous NYT column, bravely fighting to keep trump from destroying us all.

    Honestly, on the night of the 2016 election I remember being sick with dread and sorrow … and I had no idea it would ever be this horrible.

  14. 14.

    Matt McIrvin

    “Toilets and dishwashers are no good anymore, it’s the treehuggers” is effective red meat for the over-70 crowd. Weaponized nostalgia for vaguely remembered times.

  15. 15.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @FelonyGovt:

    As much as I appreciate what the WW2 generation did and had to go through, a lot (not all, but a lot) of those people ended up voting for Ronnie Raygun. The guy who almost started WW3 on a few occasions, and empowered the “Moral Majority” and the general far-right decline we find ourselves in now.

    Speaking of generations, I absolutely hate that “millennial” has become shorthand for anyone under the age of 40 and “boomer” vice versa. Millennial has a range of birth years beginning in roughly 1980 and ending in 1995 or 1996. Myself being a late millennial (1995), I get especially pissed off at the lazy jokes and generalizations that older people use against my generation.

    I saw some dumb joke on a promo for a medical sitcom called Carol’s Second Act on TV (CBS, so no surprise). The main character says to a younger character, “Now, I know you millennials don’t take criticism well…”, only to be interrupted with a yelled, “YES, WE DO!”. Get it? Millennials suck and are spoiled brats/crybabies!

    I mean Jesus Christ, I know most people under the age of 40 (which would be mostly millennials) don’t watch CBS and are cord cutting and going to streaming services, but all millennials are adults now. We buy things. Are they trying to alienate us? It’s so patronizing!

    Sorry for the rant, but that kind of stuff bugs me

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FelonyGovt: the ignorance about Pearl Harbor only surprises me because I would’ve thought that, before he compulsively TIVO’d and watched every segment of Fox to hear his name was mentioned, I would’ve thought that trump’s preferred TeeVee viewing was The History Channel, back when it was pretty much all WWII pretty much all the time.

    That and Cinemax

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev: They should all be thrown into a top loader.  The agitator would bang them around extra well.

    (You’d of course have to blow up the washer afterwards.  It would be stained with Trump trash.)

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Adam L Silverman:

     

    @Ruckus: Seventh: He’s a Soviet shitpile mobster conman who’s been sucking the Kremlin’s asshole since 1987 when he returned from his first trip to Moscow and took out newspaper ads trashing the NATO alliance.

  23. 23.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: before he compulsively TIVO’d and watched every segment of Fox to hear his name was mentioned, I would’ve thought that trump’s preferred TeeVee viewing was The History Channel, back when it was pretty much all WWII pretty much all the time.

    Much as he loves explosions & tanks, Preznidint Bonespurs has never been comfortable hearing about other peoples’ heroism.  Fantasy boom-booms & fist-swinging, sure — but ‘what a Greatest Generation, here’s all the details on how hard they worked to save us all’ is *not* his jam.  Look at the way he avoids military memorial services, as opposed to his fantasy Red-Square-style ‘All Hail Dear Leader’ parades.

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Ok (I’m guessing) GenXer!

    Are you talking about the new tv series on Boomerang or the new movie? The movie looks adorable and funny. I don’t even mind Shaggy’s new voice. I do hate that Melvin Lillard isn’t voicing him anymore

  28. 28.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    would’ve thought that trump’s preferred TeeVee viewing was The History Channel, back when it was pretty much all WWII pretty much all the time.

    Aka, the Hitler Channel. At least that was real history, instead of the pseudo-history the HC mostly promotes now.

    I don’t think Trump would be into those. I remember those documentaries and the voice over narration would probably bore him to sleep

  33. 33.

    Citizen Alan

    “It’s just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas,” Trump says, according to the book. “We’re going to change that.””

    I am profoundly embarrassed that after everything that’s happened in the last four years, I was still naive enough to think that quote was satire instead of a direct quote. I will never stop hating the people who forced Shitgibbon on us. I will hate them from beyond the grave.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    My understanding of “boomer” is that it’s anyone born in 1948-1964, which would mean the youngest boomers are approaching 60. Then there’s generation X, followed by the millennial generation who came of age around the turn of the millennium and are thus fortyish or so. If there’s a name for the current twentysomething cohort, I’m not aware of it.

  48. 48.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @mrmoshpotato:

    No, elder millennial, you whippersnapper!

    LOL!

    The original 1960s-70s cartoons.  Fuck the live action movie shit.  And I hate Scrappy Doo with a passion.  (Just let the monsters punt Scrappy.)

    No no, I was talking about the new 3D animated Scooby-Doo movie, Scoob!

    Also, as much as people hate Scrappy, he saved Scooby-Doo from cancellation in the late 70s. He wasn’t that annoying in the first season he was in imo

  49. 49.

    The Dangerman

    Didn’t Scrappy get jettisoned like Poochie? Or is Trump just making me fixate on the whole jettison thing instead of flushing?

  50. 50.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Amir Khalid:

    It depends on who you ask, but the the youngest millennials were born in 1995 or 1996. The generation that comes after is called Generation Z

  59. 59.

    Kent

    Speaking of corruption.  First we learned that Jarred is going to run the Trump 2020 campaign.  Now we learn that Mrs. Donald Trump Jr. is going to lead the joint Trump campaign and RNC fundraising committee

    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/478463-kimberly-guilfoyle-to-lead-joint-trump-rnc-fundraising-committee

    They are cutting out all the middlemen.  Now not only the Campaign dollars but the RNC dollars can start pouring straight into the Trump family pockets.

    On the bright side.  All those loyal MAGA donors in the “heartland” who are busy writing their checks will not see large portions of their money actually put to productive campaign use to actually re-elect Trump and other Republicans.  So there’s that.

    If I was younger and more clever I’d start a whole bunch of vaguely Trump-sounding online fundraising committees to siphon up some of that MAGA cash.  Spend 95% of it on “expenses” like brainstorming and planning sessions at Costa Rican resorts.  And drop the remaining 5% on YouTube ads for Democrats.  It’s Justice Robert’s world.  We just live in it.  Might as well profit.

  60. 60.

    West of the Rockies

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’m glad you’re with us here.  A more youthful perspective is valuable.

    Have you seen Weathering with You yet?  I took my daughter to see it last night.  Beautiful animation comparable to Studio Ghibli’s.  The story had a few soft spots, but was entertaining and touching.

  61. 61.

    CaseyL

    @Citizen Alan:

    I will never stop hating the people who forced Shitgibbon on us. I will hate them from beyond the grave.

    I wish the worst possible fates on all of them.

    If the wiccans are correct, and whatever one wishes on others rebounds onto oneself threefold, I am in really big trouble.

  64. 64.

    Kent

    @Adam L Silverman: I teach HS Science and when we get to the topic of friction I show this Japanese game show and get each table group to bet on a different colored contestant.

    Japanese Slippery Stairs:

    https://youtu.be/zM63XJYnKhk

    Just about the most engaging 15 minute physics lesson of the year.  They even forget to be on their phones.

  66. 66.

    CaseyL

    @Kent:

    If I was younger and more clever I’d start a whole bunch of vaguely Trump-sounding online fundraising committees to siphon up some of that MAGA cash. Spend 95% of it on “expenses” like brainstorming and planning sessions at Costa Rican resorts. And drop the remaining 5% on YouTube ads for Democrats. It’s Justice Robert’s world. We just live in it. Might as well profit.

     

    How would you like a partner??

  71. 71.

    MobiusKlein

    @Citizen Alan: What’s good about the FCA is that it shields American companies from shakedowns to some extent.

    Saying “No, I can’t give you a bribe, cause I don’t want to go to jail” helps us avoid getting caught up in spending more and more $$$ to do business overseas.

  73. 73.

    Anne Laurie

    @Amir Khalid: If there’s a name for the current twentysomething cohort, I’m not aware of it.

    I’ve seen zoomers used for that cohort.  Not sure it should be encouraged, but it’s out there.

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kent: As I was saying the other night, I think the Democratic primary debate rules should be set based on Japanese game shows.

  81. 81.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @mrmoshpotato:

    The original 1969 series as well as the The New Scooby Doo movies were very funny even they did suffer from being a tad derivative like most Hanna-Barbera series. Lots of them were literally copies of each other. I mean, the one with the talking car? Or the talking shark? Just rehashes of Scooby Doo which itself borrowed a lot of elements from the 1959 live-action series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

    Despite all of that, the humor worked a lot of the time, like in the Space Kook episode where Scooby and Shaggy lock themselves into a building and throw the key out of a window. When the monster uses another door to get in, guess what Shaggy and Scooby do? They jump out the window, grab the key, jump back into the building and unlock the door!

  85. 85.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @West of the Rockies:

    Except for the ones in the first two Warner Bros direct to video movies, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island and Scooby Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost, where the monsters were real and had a darker tone

  86. 86.

    Jay

    @Kent:

    go to the InGov website for petitions,

    put up a stupid pro-Dumph petition, say to award Dumph the Medal of Freedumb, make it sirious though, over the top, but very MAGAt.

    Sit back and collect the rubes names, email adresses and phone numbers.

    Sell the list of suckers, or tap the list for your own use for a PAC, or selling tacky made in China MAGAt wear and trinkets.

  88. 88.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @West of the Rockies:

    Weathering with You

    I must confess I haven’t heard of this movie, but the premise sounds really cool and the art style looks cute. I’ll have to watch rent it from RedBox when it comes out on Blu-Ray/DVD

  92. 92.

    Jay Noble

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There is no Generation Y or Z.

    Census Bureau: The term “baby boomer” refers to individuals born in the United States between mid-1946 and mid-1964 (Hogan, Perez, and Bell, 2008). 18 is a pretty good number to measure from being born to having children. Fudging a little bit to neaten things up, this is a breakdown:

    • Greatest Generation – Jan.1, 1910 thru Dec. 31, 1927
    • The Silent Generation – Jan.1, 1928 thru Dec. 31, 1945
    • Baby Boomers – Jan.1, 1926 thru Dec. 31, 1963
    • Gen Xers – Jan.1, 1964 thru Dec. 31, 1981
    • Millenials – Jan.1, 1982 thru Dec. 31, 1999
    • iGeneration – Jan.1, 2000 thru Dec. 31, 2017
    • ???? Generation – Jan.1, 2018 thru Dec. 31, 2035

    The problem with the demographic picture is that people tend to talk about “Generations” in more of a cultural context – “When I was a kid, I remember . . . ” or “A Coming of Age Story”. So if we shift the generations forward 5 years to when most people begin to accumlate solid memories, you have 5-23 year olds who not only remember but begin to actively direct their own lives. So it becomes much clearer that the rebellion we saw in the 50’s wasn’t the Boomers but rather the Silent Generation whose childhood was one of Depression and War. Hardly surprising they rebelled. Like the little brothers and sisters they were, the Boomers idolized their older siblings and cousins and simply because of their sheer numbers, that idolization had to be catered to. Gen X’ers and Millenials got the hand-me-downs. But they were also seeing the beginings of the next wave of “normal”. And the next wave of “normal” is the iGeneration who are growing up with all the history, all the music, alll the movies and TV of the previous generations at their beck and call. Buckle up folks!

  95. 95.

    frosty

    @Adam L Silverman: But of course! My first ever job was in the dishroom of Howard Johnson’s! No candy-ass job as a busboy for me. And later I rose to the level of 2nd alternate on the US Olympic dishwashing team in my college cafeteria. O the glory!!!

  97. 97.

    Anotherlurker

    @mrmoshpotato: For a wonderful, sidesplittingly funny send up of all things Hanna-Barbara, check out :  “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law”.

    BTW, all of this series of hilarious lampoons of the Saturday morning cartoons genre is done with the blessing of Hanna-Barbara. They are listed as Executive Producers

  100. 100.

    West of the Rockies

    @Jay Noble:

    Interesting stuff!

    I was born in ’62.  When the book Generation X came out, it said I was among the first of that group (and not a Boomer).  And considering what you said above, my first regular, meaningful memories began in about ’67, 22 years after 1945 and the beginning of The Boomers.  Generationally speaking, I have zero experience of the 40s or 50s or most of the 60s, but by the popular proclamation, I am a Boomer.

    By the same token, when Reality Bites came out, the first Gen X movie, I saw it in tge theater, but was about a decade older than its protagonists.  Thev movie resonated for me, but only kinda/sorta.

  101. 101.

    jimmiraybob

    I can remember watching the mother unit when i was young taking the wet clothes out of some primitive washer-tub thing and putting them, one piece at a time, through a mechanical wringer to get out most of the water and then removing them from the “drier”  tub and then taking them outside to hang each piece on a clothesline with something the olds back then called clothes pins (the drier had two cycles: wring and sun).  The washing-wringing operation was done in a dingy basement with a single 100-watt light bulb. Hopefully, the sun was shining for the sun cycle.

    At least the toilet often worked.

    Good times.  MAGA.

  102. 102.

    PenAndKey

    @West of the Rockies: “I’m glad you’re with us here.  A more youthful perspective is valuable.”

    You know, it wasn’t until about a year ago that it finally dawned on me that as a 34-year old millennial I was one of the younger regular commenters on the site.

    Most of you all lived through the Cold War and Reagan. Me? My first political memory was my parents awkwardly explaining what a blowjob was to their elementary school aged son because it kept coming up in the news. There hasn’t been a single point in my life where the GOP hasn’t been cartoon levels of economy destroying greedy and evil, and we’ve been waging a “war on terrorism” (aka, human rights, citizen rights and whatever flavor-of-the-week insurgent group Fox picks next overseas) my entire adult life. That’s definitely a perspective difference.

    @frosty: “As a Boomer with two Millennial kids I see it from both sides. Stereotyping by generations is just stupid. And there’s way too much of it in this blog’s comments.”

    My apologies in advance if I ever do this. I tend to talk about society level problems at the macro trend level and use generational shorthand when discussing the group behaviors because of the often strong correlation between the two. I’ve been told that when I do so it can sometimes sound like I’m attacking particular individuals that don’t match their demographic median. Just call me out if you ever catch me doing it.

  103. 103.

    Jamey

    Gen X among demographers started when The Pill first hit the market. Fuck what the Census Bureau tells you. (Douglas Coupland, who coined and defined the phrase calls it at 1960). The eldest of us were in college or entering the job market during the stock market crash of 1987. We were the gen that first had to confront digital skills attainment as prequisite for entry into the workforce.

    Experientially, those born from the early ‘60’s-1980 were kids during the oil shocks of the ‘70s, never served in ‘Nam, and most importantly, have reached/will reach peak earning years and retirement at a time when defined contribution retirement accounts mostly replaced defined benefit pensions as the dominant financial vehicle for retirement savings.

    There are fewer of us Xrs. We are the point in the graph where attained wealth curves downward. 60-64 birth years as boomers is lazy and ahistorical.

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