Epstein Secrets

torture, the surprising liberalism of generals, and the stupidity of the civilian-military bureaucracy. Then it was on to the looming appointment of Michael Flynn—a favorite Trump general who’d been the opening act at many Trump rallies—as the National Security Advisor. “He’s fine. He’s not Jim Mattis and he’s

r. Bolton was an Ailes favorite, too. “He’s a bomb thrower,” said Ailes. “And a strange little fucker. But you need him. Who else is good on Israel? Flynn is a little nutty on Iran. Tillerson”—the secretary of state designate—“just knows oil.” HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019885 “Bolton’s mustache is a problem,” s

the National Security Advisor. “Yes,” she said, “General Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the president.”

most famous man in the world,” Trump told his on-again, off-again aide Sam Nunberg at the outset of the campaign. “But do you want to be president?” Nunberg asked (a qualitatively different question than the usual existential candidate test: “Why do you want to be president?”). Nunberg did not get an answ

disciplined man in politics. It was clear where Mueller and his team were going, said Bannon: they would trace a money trail through Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, and Jared Kushner and roll one or all of them on the president. It's Shakespearean, he said, enumerating the bad advice from his fam

and, 169-70, 211-15, 217-18, 232-33, 245-46, 261 CPAC and, 126-34 eve of inauguration and, 4-10 first weeks of presidency and, 52-55, 60-65, 67-70 Flynn and, 95, 103, 106 immigration and, 61-65, 77, 113 inauguration and, 42-43, 148 influence of, 70, 85, 108-10, 188 isolationism of, 227 Israel and

OUSE_OVERSIGHT_020103 in the White House for two years and then leave to run Trump’s reelection campaign. “If you can get this idiot elected twice,” Nunberg marveled, you would achieve something like immortality in politics. But through another window, Bannon couldn’t possibly remain in place. He seemed

, 222 Nooyi, Indra, 88-89 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 77 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 99 North Korea, 291-93, 297 Nunberg, Sam, 11, 13, 16, 22, 144, 237-38, 248, 282, 291, 300 Nunes, Devin, 170 Obama, Barack, 27, 35-36, 41-45, 54, 61-63, 67, 90, 101, 104, 128, 164, 187

And, just as basically: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If Trump had one fixed point of reference in the Middle East, it was—mostly courtesy of Michael Flynn’s tutoring —that Iran was the bad guy. Hence everybody opposed to Iran was a pretty good guy. After the election, MBS had reached out to Kushner. In t

o, for the most part, were skilled in the new army jargon of PowerPoint, data dumps, and McKinsey-like presentations. One of the things that endeared Flynn to the president was that Flynn, quite the conspiracist and drama queen, had a vivid storytelling sense. By the time of the Syrian attack on Khan Sh

e into the Trump administration? (Much of this was retailed to reporters by Sam Nunberg, the former Trump factotum who was now doing duty for Bannon. Nunberg was frank about his tactics: “I beat the shit out of Gary whenever possible.”) It is a measure of the power of blood (or blood by marriage), and lik