And if Trump gets back into power with no means to legit get re-elected in 2028, only his old age and poor health would stop him going All-In Putin, style to try and keep power and control. He would be far worse at the end of that term.
Woodward/Costa book: Worried Trump could 'go rogue,' Milley took secret action to protect nuclear weapons
Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, President Donald Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons,...
...Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, 'was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.' Milley worried that Trump could 'go rogue,'...
...Milley took extraordinary action, and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons. ... Milley instructed them not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved.
"No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," ...
...Milley had already had two back-channel phone calls with China's top general, who was on high alert over the chaos in the US.
Then Milley received a blunt phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ...
"What I'm saying to you is that if they couldn't even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?"
Pelosi continued, "You know he's crazy. He's been crazy for a long time."
According to Woodward and Costa, Milley responded, "Madam Speaker, I agree with you on everything."...
...
some might contend that Milley had overstepped his authority and taken extraordinary power for himself,' but he believed his actions were 'a good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons.'...
..Milley called it the 'absolute darkest moment of theoretical possibility,' ...
... top national security officials were worried Trump might pull a "Wag the Dog" -- provoking a conflict domestically or abroad to distract from his crushing election loss.
... "We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum." Haspel also worried that Trump would try to attack Iran.
"This is a highly dangerous situation. We are going to lash out for his ego?"...
... a key figure from Trump's earliest days as president reemerged: former White House adviser Steve Bannon. ... Bannon,... played a critical role in the events leading up to January 6.
... "You've got to call Pence off the ****ing ski slopes and get him back here today. This is a crisis."...January 6 was "the moment for reckoning."
"People are going to go, 'What the **** is going on here?' " Bannon believed. "We're going to bury Biden on January 6th, ****ing bury him," ...
... Trump pressured Pence to overturn the results of the election. ...
"If these people say you had the power, wouldn't you want to?" Trump asked.
"I wouldn't want any one person to have that authority," Pence said.
"But wouldn't it be almost cool to have that power?" Trump asked, according to Woodward and Costa.
"No," Pence said. He went on, "I've done everything I could and then some to find a way around this. It's simply not possible."
When Pence did not budge, Trump turned on him.
"No, no, no!" Trump shouted, according to the authors. "You don't understand, Mike. You can do this.
I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."
Trump called Pence again the morning of January 6. "If you don't do it, I picked the wrong man four years ago," Trump said, according to the authors. "You're going to wimp out," he said, his anger visible to others in the office.
Even though Pence stood up to Trump in the end, "Peril" reveals that after four years of abject loyalty, he struggled with the decision. ...
...Trump ignored repeated requests by both staff and his daughter Ivanka Trump to call off the rioters at the Capitol on January 6.
In one episode, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served as Pence's national security adviser, was in the White House with Trump while he watched the insurrection unfold on television.
Kellogg urged Trump to act.
"You really should do a tweet," Kellogg said, according to the authors. "You need to get a tweet out real quick, help control the crowd up there. This is out of control. They're not going to be able to control this. Sir, they're not prepared for it. Once a mob starts turning like that, you've lost it."
"Yeah," Trump said. The authors write, 'Trump blinked and kept watching television.'
Ivanka Trump also repeatedly tried to intervene, talking to her father three times. "Let this thing go," she told him. "Let it go," she said,...
...In June 2020, after Black Lives Matter protests near the White House, Trump lit into then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who had just announced at a news conference that he opposed invoking the Insurrection Act in response to the protests.
"You took away my authority!" Trump screamed at Esper in the Oval Office. "You're not the president! I'm the goddamn president."
But Trump wasn't done, according to the book, turning to the rest of his team in the room. "You're all ****ed up," he yelled. "Everybody. You're all ****ed. Every one of you is ****ed up!"
In the aftermath of the election, Trump's rage was directed at Barr for daring to even mention the incoming Biden administration...
...Trump is still angry with Republicans who blamed him for the insurrection, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
"This guy called me every single day, pretended to be my best friend, and then, he ****ed me. He's not a good guy," ...
...Trump allies speculating about his plans for 2024. ...Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ..."if he wants to run, then he's going to have to deal with his personality problems ... we've got a very damaged team captain."
..."You've been written off as dead because of January the 6th. The conventional wisdom is that the Republican Party, under your leadership, has collapsed,"...if "you came back to take the White House, it would be the biggest comeback in American history."
..."He had an army. An army for Trump. He wants that back," Parscale later told others. "I don't think he sees it as a comeback.
He sees it as vengeance."
