Latest Book on Donald Trump, “Confidence Man,” Details The Trump Presidency With Examples of Law Breaking, Racism and Firing Ivanka

Former President Donald Trump is the subject of yet another book. The latest one however comes with a Costco-sized cart

Oct 5, 2022
Maggie Haberman

Former President Donald Trump is the subject of yet another book. The latest one however comes with a Costco-sized cart of credibility courtesy of Maggie Haberman, Senior Political Reporter for the New York Times. Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, written by Hagerman is the new book released this week and chronicles Trump’s life from his rise in New York City to his tortured post-presidency.

Haberman’s credibility goes well beyond her years as a journalist for the Times. Her past experience has earned her titles like political analyst for CNN, political reporter for the New York Post, Politico and the New York Daily News. While Haberman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for her coverage in 2018 on Donald Trump’s connections to Russia, it is her long history with Trump that perhaps gives her a unique perspective into the 45th President of the United States.

Maggie Haberman has been covering Donald Trump for over a decade. It is reported that in 2016 alone Haberman authored or co-authored almost 600 articles on Donald Trump – and that was prior to his presidency. All of this is to say that, few, if any, journalists today have covered Trump the way Haberman has.

Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America was the culmination of hundreds of interviews over years – many of which are with Trump himself and three of which occurred after he left the White House. Here are a few of the biggest bombshells that were released in the book out now.

Racism: Past and Present

Maggie Haberman does a comprehensive look at former President Trump and the subject of racism. With a great number of incidents being recounted in the book, Haberman establishes a long pattern of racist behavior. Her examples go far back to his early days in New York while recounting his social media attacks on people of color and his slow condemnation of white supremacists.

Haberman details a time when in 2017 at a congressional meeting, Trump turned to a row of racial diverse staffers for Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi and asked them to fetch canapes, mistaking them for waiters.

Another incident in his past recalls Trump's remarks to model Kara Young whom he dated for many years. Kara has a Black mother and a white father. Trump, after meeting her parents, said that she got her beauty from her mother and her intelligence “from her dad, the white side.” It is reported that Trump laughed after his words. Young publicly voiced her disapproval.

Haberman writes about Trump repeatedly telling visitors to the White House early on in his presidency that he had renovated his bathroom – a practice that is common in a presidential transition. However, Trump doubled down on his desire to change saying “You understand what I am talking about.” Haberman writes one of the guests she spoke with about the incident, “interpreted [the remark] to mean Trump did not want to use the same bathroom as his Black predecessor.”

The latest example however comes just this week and is not included in the book. Trump put out a statement in the last few days about Senator Mitch McConnell having a “death wish.” Trump referencing the fact that McConnell voted for legislation supported by Democrats. In his statement on his Truth Social platform, he then advised the Senator to get advice from his wife, Elaine Chao former transportation secretary saying he, “Must immediately seek help and advise from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!”

Chao served in Trump's cabinet and resigned her post on January 7, one day after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Bathroom Trouble #2

While former President Trump was in office, White House staff discovered documents that were flushed down the toilet causing a clog. Staffers told Haberman that this occurred multiple times at the White House and on at least two foreign trips. Haberman was the first to report this incident and was later denied by a spokesperson for the former President. Some time later, Haberman would supply pictures given to her by Trump staffers of documents being flushed on two separate occasions.

This action took on an even bigger significance when Trump's property at Mar-a-Lago was searched by federal agents this summer. Out of the search it was later revealed that Trump has kept classified documents in his personal home, an act forbidden by the Presidential Records Act. That act/law states that documents created or received by a president are the property of the United State government and are to be given to the National Archives once the presidency has ended. For that, a criminal investigation is underway currently.

In one instance, Trump told Haberman that correspondence between himself and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was sent to the National Archives. Trump told Haberman that he took “nothing of great urgency.” The Kim letters were among the list of documents that the National Archives reported missing in 2021.

Your Fired Ivanka and Jared

Haberman writes of a time during the Trump presidency when Mr. Trump was close to firing his daughter Ivanka, and her husband Jared Kushner. Both were senior White House aids at the time. Trump reportedly composed a tweet alerting his followers that Ivanka and Jared would be leaving their positions at the White House. However, it was never talked about with Ivanka or Jared.

According to Haberman, Trump discussed this with Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn. Mr. Kelly is said to have advised him to speak with his daughter and son-in-law prior to sending the tweet.

He never did speak with either of them, and both remained in the White House until the end of his presidency.

The firings of Don McGahn, ex-chief of staff Reince Priebus, former homeland security secretary Kirstjenm Nielsen, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, and ex-secretary of defense Mark Esper, were all announced via tweet.

For his part, Trump denies this claim saying it was “pure fiction” and that the thought “Never even crossed my mind.”

A “Superman” Sized Pandemic Victory

In October 2020 when President Trump became ill with Covid-19, Haberman reports he was fearful of dying from the virus. This despite downplaying the pandemic publicly. Haberman reports that Trump was concerned that the Coronavirus would impact his image negatively and as such often had aids remove their masks and publicly downplayed its seriousness.

He would reportedly go on to advise then NY Governor Andrew Cuomo to not talk about the pandemic publicly. "Don't make such a big deal out of this," Haberman writes that Mr Trump said to Mr Cuomo. "You're going to make it a problem."

When asked, Trump stated he didn’t, “want to create a panic.”

Haberman goes on to detail another incident of an abandoned stunt from Trump. She reports that he wanted to execute a big show of victory upon his release from the hospital after suffering from Covid-19. A Trump aid, Max Miller, was directed to buy Superman t-shirts for Trump to reveal upon his release. According to the book, Trump would be wheeled out in a wheelchair and stand victoriously at which point he would tear back his clothing and reveal the big Superman logo.

Donald Trump has released a statement saying the book is "fake." He goes on to say that it is supposedly "boring and stale."

Will Trump Run Again?

While promoting the book Maggie Haberman has said she believes Donald Trump will run again in 2024. She says, "I think, to quote someone who knew him years ago who said this to me a couple of months back, a second Trump presidency would be very heavily driven by spite."

She goes on to say in one interview, "I don't believe that he learned how to be president more astutely. I don't think he figured the office out. But I do think he figured out personnel, which is often what he's focused on. And I think that the people who he would put into key jobs would be very alarming to a number of people across Washington. I think that's what a second President Trump presidency would look like."

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