'Anonymous' Book on Trump Is a Brutal Takedown

The Washington Post and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC have gotten early copies of the forthcoming book about President Trump written by "Anonymous," and it delivers the expected scathing critique. A Warning depicts an unhinged, sexist, unqualified president who is putting the nation in genuine peril. The White House, meanwhile, is denouncing it as a "work of fiction" written by a "coward." Says press chief Stephanie Grisham: "Real authors reach out to their subjects to get things fact checked—but this person is in hiding, making that very basic part of being a real writer impossible." Details and excerpts:

• Comparison I: Trump is like "a twelve-year-old in an air traffic control tower, pushing the buttons of government indiscriminately, indifferent to the planes skidding across the runway and the flights frantically diverting away from the airport."
• Comparison II: The author, described so far only as a senior Trump administration official, writes that Trump's tweetstorms send White House officials scrambling to do damage control. "It's like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak to find your elderly uncle running pantsless across the courtyard and cursing loudly about the cafeteria food, as worried attendants tried to catch him."

• Mental fitness: "I am not qualified to diagnose the president’s mental acuity," writes the author. "All I can tell you is that normal people who spend any time with Donald Trump are uncomfortable by what they witness. He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity."
• On women: Trump talks about women's appearance in meetings, including their makeup, weight, and clothing, according to the book. "He questions the toughness of women in and around his orbit. He uses words like 'sweetie' and 'honey' to address accomplished professionals."
• Hispanics: The author recounts an Oval Office meeting in which Trump was discussing migrants. "We get these women coming in with like seven children," said Trump, who then allegedly put on a Hispanic accent: "They are saying, 'Oh, please help! My husband left me!' They are useless. They don’t do anything for our country. At least if they came in with a husband we could put him in the fields to pick corn or something."
• The VP: The book alleges that if the Cabinet invoked the 25th Amendment to deem Trump unfit and remove him from office, VP Mike Pence would have gone along. This week, Pence denied it and called the idea "appalling." The book also alleges that senior White House officials considered a mass resignation but ultimately opted against it.
• The author: A review in the New York Times says there are enough clues in the book to make a safe bet that the author is a "dyed-in-the-wool establishment Republican," perhaps one who had high hopes for the Trump presidency at first. One "big tell" is that it was Trump's treatment of John McCain that was the author's "last straw." The author, for the record, says he or she may reveal their identity "in due course."

(More President Trump stories.)