‘What the Hell Were You Thinking?’: Trump Berated White House Staff for Not Telling Him Putin Was Trying to Call Him
President Donald Trump berated his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and other senior staff members for holding off on arranging a phone call with the Russian president soon after taking office, according to a new book on the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with the Pentagon.
In “Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos,” the national security reporter Peter Bergen recounted the tenuous conversation between the US president and his staffers, one of many intimate talks whose details were sourced from dozens of interviews with current and former White House officials and military officers.
On January 27, 2017, weeks after winning the presidency, Trump had his first official visit from a foreign leader at the White House, with British Prime Minister Theresa May. During lunch, May asked Trump if he had talked to Putin, according to Bergen. . .
Flynn, a former three-star US Army general, was nearby and leaned in to tell Trump: “Sir, we’re arranging that call now. President Putin called several days ago, but we haven’t been able to get it on your calendar yet.”
“Are you kidding me? Vladimir Putin tried to call me, and you didn’t put him through? What the hell were you thinking?” Trump said. (Read more from “‘What the Hell Were You Thinking?’: Trump Berated White House Staff for Not Telling Him Putin Was Trying to Call Him” HERE)
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