President Trump called his condemnation of white supremacists after the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally the “biggest f—king mistake” he had ever made, according to an excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book that was obtained by The Washington Post.
Trump faced widespread criticism after he initially said that “both sides” were to blame for the violence that broke out at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., last August.
He later condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis at the urging of his advisers.
“That was the biggest f—ing mistake I’ve made,” Trump reportedly told aides almost immediately after the condemnation.
Trump also called it the “worst speech I’ve ever given,” according to Woodward’s account.
The book says that White House chief of staff John Kelly threatened to quit several times, and it recounts a conversation he had with then-National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn after Cohn attempted to deliver his resignation letter to Trump in the summer of 2017.
It was reported in August 2017 that Cohn drafted a resignation letter in response to Trump’s controversial comments after the Charlottesville rally.
The president reportedly persuaded Cohn to stay in his position and said his threatened resignation was “treason.”
Cohn, who is Jewish, was reportedly disturbed after his daughter found a swastika on her college dorm room, Woodward reported.
Kelly reportedly shared Cohn’s outrage over Trump’s handling of the violence in Charlottesville.
“I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,” Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward.
Woodward, a veteran journalist known for his reporting on the Nixon-era Watergate scandal as well as books on Democratic and Republican presidencies, is releasing his new book on Sept. 11, less than two months before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
“Fear: Trump in the White House” offers a detailed account of the inner workings of the Trump administration.
Woodward’s account is said to be based on hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, as well as meeting notes and personal diaries, files and documents.
Trump, himself, called Woodward to complain he had not been interviewed. He also told Woodward he has “always been fair.”