President Trump's former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, did not mince words when he spoke to Michael Wolff, the author of the forthcoming book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. After obtaining a copy early, The Guardian learned that Bannon volunteered a range of opinions on and insights into the Trump campaign and White House, especially regarding the infamous meeting in June 2016 between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and a Russian lawyer who promised them incriminating information about Hillary Clinton.
Read some of the juiciest quotes below, and check out the full early scoop on the book at The Guardian. Jeva Lange
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
On the Trump Tower meeting: "The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor — with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers. Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s--t, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."
On where they should have met instead: "A Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire."
On where the Trump team could have "dump[ed]...down" information: “Breitbart or something like that, or maybe some other more legitimate publication."
On where Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is headed: "This is all about money laundering. Mueller chose [senior prosecutor Andrew] Weissmann first and he is a money-laundering guy. Their path to f--king Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr., and Jared Kushner ... It's as plain as a hair on your face."
On how they're going to get there: “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner s--t. The Kushner s--t is greasy. They're going to go right through that. They're going to roll those two guys up and say play me or trade me.”
On the Trump team's chances to escape Mueller's probe: "They're sitting on a beach trying to stop a Category Five."
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
