Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng discussed a forthcoming book from New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. The book describes Trump staring at his TV while watching "Morning Joe" and growing increasingly furious over the article and the book’s revelations.
At one point, he went on his social media app to attack the show, calling it a “laughing stock” for even discussing the Times piece. One especially embarrassing detail involves a bizarre White House discussion in which the word “nipple” came up repeatedly, including a scene where the vice president reportedly argued Trump would be fine releasing the relevant documents because he had been accused of worse. Another official described the whole episode as “surreal.”
The story came out on Wednesday, describing a group of top officials in the Situation Room, without the president, discussing the strategy for the Jeffrey Epstein documents. It revealed that there remain many documents that have not been made public about Trump's activities with the late sex trafficker. Trump was reportedly so obsessed with a young woman's breasts that his actions made them “look incredibly painful.”
Chief of staff, Susie Wiles, shut down the idea of releasing the Epstein information.
Suebsaeng thought it was hilarious. "Except it’s real. Yet there were still top officials in Trump's administration saying that Trump probably should be laughing because it was serious," Suebsaeng wrote.
“It’s not fun,” one senior Trump appointee tells me. “I like Jonathan and Maggie, and I really don’t want the president to order the FBI to go raid their homes.”
"You can dismiss anonymous Trump advisers all you want," said Suebsaeng. "But that isn’t an irrational concern for anyone to have, not in this administration." His anger isn't subsiding, "if anything, it's escalated," the report said.
Trump started seeing excerpts of the book in early April and he's been enraged ever since.
Some sources told Zeteo that, based on their direct knowledge, Trump has reached a "sustained, paranoid and psychosis-level anger and obsession over" the book.
“He’s that mad about this,” a senior appointee told Zeteo.
Another leak investigation broke out across the administration so Trump could personally target anyone who spoke to Haberman and Swan.
"A month later, we told you how an 'even more paranoid' Trump was pushing Justice Department officials to raid journalists’ houses or even threaten to jail them until they sold out their sources. And this month, I reported on how Trump’s massive leak hunt had largely stalled out… because too many of the senior officials tasked with finding the leakers are themselves the leakers," Suebsaeng wrote.
Trump went back to blasting Iran after seeing "Morning Joe" on Wednesday with Habermann and Swan. So he threatened Iran again. Three officials told Zeteo that it's all part of Trump's wild swings between begging for peace to threatening war.
“We’ll see how long it takes for him to chicken out again,” an official told Zeteo.
