President
Trump faces an army of enemies on the political Left and Right, all warring
against a democratically-elected president they feel is unworthy of the office.
Edward Klein’s book draws on interviews with many players who provide new enlightening
information on the unprecedented war waged against a President of the United
States. But Trump is no easy opponent to defeat. As Klein says, his enemies
always underestimate his ability to bounce back after a beating.
Trump’s
vanquished opponent, Hillary Clinton, suffered from medical issues that were
hidden as much as possible from the public. If they had been revealed, it was
believed they would have derailed her campaign. Klein reveals Hillary’s scary
coughing fit while visiting President Obama and his wife in the Oval Office. A
White House doctor attended to her while the Obamas waited outside worried for
her health. The Hillary they saw in the Oval Office wasn’t the same one shown
to the public at rallies and the debates.
Klein
includes the text of an FBI field report on the various Resistance groups and
figures, published for the first time in this book. Concern was raised on their
penchant for violence and government sabotage. Meetings were held where
government workers discussed sabotaging Trump programs they disagreed with. Violent
anti-Trump street demonstrations were paid for by Democratic party operatives.
The
impeachment crowd has been among the loudest of Trump’s enemies. Klein lists
the charges against Trump and dismisses them all: that Trump obstructed justice
by firing James Comey, the director of the FBI; that Trump violated the
Constitution by receiving profits (“emoluments”) from foreign officials who stayed
at his Washington DC hotel; that Trump colluded with the Russians during the
presidential campaign; that Trump is somehow “incapacitated” and therefore the
25th Amendment should be invoked whereby the vice president will
replace the president. All of these arguments fall short and the only hope
Democrats and Never Trumpers on the Right can hope for is a thundering
Democratic victory in midterm elections in 2020, giving the Democrats a
majority and some hope of impeaching Trump.
Curiously,
President Obama hasn’t been much of an enemy to Trump since he left office. He
has little stomach for such things. Klein reveals that Obama has returned to
smoking marijuana. He smokes weed once or twice a week, supplied to him by
friends who visit his mansion in Washington DC. Klein portrays Obama as a man
who has left politics behind. He plays video games all day and is behind in the
writing of his memoirs, for which he is being paid $60 million.
The
intelligence community boasts many anti-Trump Obama holdovers. The resignation
of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was seen as a major victory for the
resistance movement. Flynn’s ouster was a soft coup, Klein says, engineered by
anonymous intelligence community bureaucrats. James Clapper, former Director of
National Intelligence, proved himself to be a liar on several occasions.
Trump’s
presidency was beset with numerous leaks, many originating directly from the US
intelligence community. The pool of leakers was vast, Klein explains, because
Obama had lowered the security classification of sensitive electronic
intercepts targeting the Trump campaign, allowing thousands of government workers
access to potentially defamatory information. Among Klein’s prime “Leakgate”
suspects: Former CIA Director John Brennan, and Hillary Clinton, who was given
access to much of the leaked information.
FBI
Director James Comey had agreed with Trump that the intelligence community was
packed with Obama holdovers intent on delegitimizing his presidency. Klein reveals
that Obama privately attempted at least twice to influence the outcome of Comey’s
investigation of Hillary Clinton. Comey blew off Obama, who then discussed ways
to remove Comey from office with Valerie Jarrett. He was talked into believing
it would be politically feasible to remove Comey, but Obama dithered and never
pulled the trigger. Obama moles were planted in the FBI and are still there one
year into the Trump administration. Comey intended to fire those he suspected
of disloyalty, but before he could, Trump fired him.
Andrew
McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI, had long coveted Comey’s job for
himself. McCabe stabbed Comey in the back and talked against him privately,
which Comey never suspected. Comey took revenge on Trump by leaking a
conversation where Trump asked him to swear his loyalty. The eventual result
was the formation of a special counsel to investigate Trump, headed by Robert
Mueller. Comey’s actions revealed him to be a member of the Resistance, a Never
Trumper, a man without honor, not the nonpartisan he claimed to be, Klein
concludes.
The FBI,
Klein says, is concentrating on the Resistance groups that are committing acts
of violence and plotting more. The FBI discovered collusion between American
anarchists of the Resistance and foreign terrorists, such as the Islamic State.
“The internet chatter between the Americans and the Islamists is astronomical,”
said an FBI source.
The
portrait painted by Klein is a Washington DC dominated by Swamp creatures
intent on destroying any outsider like Trump who attempts to set the nation
back on track and reduce their power. It’s Trump in a war against the Democrats
and the GOP Establishment who want to maintain the odious status quo. To what
extent can an outsider like Trump succeed? Nothing seems certain at this point,
though Klein believes that Trump will at the least finish his term in office.
Highly recommended.