Trump’s ‘Biggest’ Regret? Calling Out Charlottesville White Supremacists.
President Donald Trump.
A new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward claimed that President Trump deeply regretted criticizing the white supremacists who marched last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Post reported Tuesday.
Trump’s first public statement after the march and ensuing violence put blame on “both sides,” but after being urged by advisors, he specifically condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis. According to Woodward’s account, he almost immediately regretted doing so.
Trump told aides: “That was the biggest f—-ing mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given.”
President Trump’s former chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, met Trump soon after to deliver his resignation letter, but the President told him resigning was “treason,” and persuaded him to stay on.
According to Woodward, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly shared Cohn’s horror over Trump’s handling of the tragedy. “I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,” Kelly reportedly told Cohn.
Contact Aisha Tahir at tahir@forward.com
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