To fight Trump’s falsehoods, ‘overwhelm him with facts’, according to new book Front Row at the Trump Show
- Former White House chief of staff John Kelly’s system to counter Trump’s tendency to say things that were false is one of book’s many revelations
- Author Jonathan Karl, ABC News chief Washington correspondent, writes Kelly also spoke of how the White House ‘is my hell’ during his time in office
Shortly after US President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” during the first year of his presidency, then White House chief of staff John Kelly explained one of the challenges to his position.
Two weeks after Trump made the unexpected comment in August 2017, Kelly, a retired four-star general, privately said the president did not fully grasp the implication of his messages, according to ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl’s new book, Front Row at the Trump Show.
“He needs to understand that 18- and 19-year-old people are going to die,” Kelly said, according to Karl’s book. “This is big-boy and big-girl s***. You have to understand people will die because of these decisions.”
To lessen Trump’s impulsivity, Kelly developed a system to “overwhelm him with facts” in an attempt to counter the president’s tendency to say things that were false, he said.
“The president will say, ‘I heard from a friend’, and we will say, ‘That’s not true,’” Kelly said, according to Karl.