Trump nearly tweeted America into war with North Korea, Bob Woodward says


"You look at the operation of this White House and you have to say, 'Let's hope to God we don't have a crisis,'" Bob Woodward told CBS News' David Martin in an interview broadcast Sunday. Woodward, in his first TV interview about his new book Fear, discussed some of the unsettling things he learned from his interviews with 100 or so people about President Trump's White House. One of the most dangerous incidents involved Trump's obsession with the 28,000 troops the U.S. has stationed in South Korea, and the $3.5 billion a year the U.S. pays to keep them there, Woodward explained, quoting Trump as saying: "I don't know why they're there. ... Let's bring them all home."
When Trump was still tweeting threats to North Korea's Kim Jong Un, things got especially dicey, Woodward said. "He drafts a tweet saying 'We are going to pull out dependents from South Korea. ... Family members of the 28,000 people there.'" Trump never sent the tweet, because the U.S. got a back-channel message from North Korea saying Kim would see such a pullout as proof the U.S. was about to attack, Woodward explained. "At that moment there was a sense of profound alarm in the Pentagon leadership that, 'My God, one tweet and we have reliable information that the North Koreans are going to read this as an attack is imminent.'"
This is the ninth White House that Woodward has written about, and "in the eight others," he told Martin, "I never heard of people on the staff in the White House engaging" in the "extreme action" Trump's aides have taken to thwart his impulses. And he got deeper into the "belly of the beast" of Trump's White House than in any previous working administration, Woodward added. "And what did you conclude about the beast?" Martin asked. "That people had better wake up to what's going on," Woodward replied.
Subscribe to 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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Higher toy prices from Trump's tariffs have arrived
In the Spotlight Three out of four toy products in the US come from China
-
Trump sues LA over immigration policies
Speed Read He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
-
Trump sues LA over immigration policies
Speed Read He is suing over the city's sanctuary law, claiming it prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
-
Obama, Bush and Bono eulogize USAID on final day
Speed Read The US Agency for International Development, a humanitarian organization, has been gutted by the Trump administration
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidents
The Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
Senate advances GOP bill that costs more, cuts more
Speed Read The bill would make giant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, leaving 11.8 million fewer people with health coverage
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump