WASHINGTON — A new book by one of Donald Trump’s former White House national security advisers paints the Republican presidential nominee as an insecure figure whose need for flattery and approval makes him an easy target for foreign adversaries intent on weakening the United States.
With his book, H.R. McMaster is the latest in a long line of Trump administration officials to write a behind-the-scenes account, a literary genre that thrives in the context of Trump’s unwavering grip on American politics.
After serving 13 months under Trump before his ouster in 2018, McMaster has written a book that is neither hagiographic nor wholly dismissive. He credits Trump with developing strategies to combat terrorism and recognizing that the United States needed to compete more fiercely with a rising China.
He also blames some of his former colleagues – notably former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former Defense Secretary James Mattis – for failing to stabilize a new president who came from the world of show business and real estate and had never held public office.
But McMaster does not entirely absolve himself of responsibility for the saga either.
“I have only been able to mitigate rather than overcome tensions with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who have prioritized their control of policy over collaboration,” he wrote.
“Tillerson and Mattis not only had confidence in themselves; they also lacked confidence in a president they viewed as impulsive, erratic and dangerous to the republic,” McMaster continues.
“Unfortunately, we have all diminished our mutual efforts and our ability to make the most of our opportunity to help Trump make decisions, stick to them, and act in the best interests of the American people.”
Mattis’ office declined to comment on McMaster’s account. A spokesperson for Tillerson could not be reached for comment.
The book “At War With Ourselves” will be released Tuesday. NBC News has received an advance copy.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in a statement that the book “is riddled with false stories designed to use invented and salacious fabrications to sell copies of a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section.”
John Kelly, one of Trump’s White House chiefs of staff, told NBC News on Monday that “HR had a very difficult job while he was in the White House, but served the nation with honor.”
McMaster offers new perspectives to voters seeking insight into how Trump has governed in the past and might do so again if he wins a second term in November.
The book portrays Trump as a flawed figure who not only presided over a chaotic White House staff but also helped stoke the dysfunction.
“The president, who was always ready to engage in gossip, intrigue, and infighting, often asked me leading questions about whether I could criticize Tillerson or Mattis,” he wrote. “I never did.”
McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general, was the second of Trump’s four national security advisers. He is also a historian and wrote an acclaimed book, “Dereliction of Duty,” about former President Lyndon Johnson’s disastrous escalation of the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
Johnson’s book came up during McMaster’s job interview at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence. He told Trump that one of the mistakes of the Vietnam War was that LBJ’s advisers only told him what he wanted to hear.
A better approach, he told Trump, would be for the president to get “the best analysis and multiple options so he can make informed decisions.”
“Trump seemed pleased with the response,” McMaster writes.
But that’s not the decision-making model Trump uses.
“I learned that Trump was open to new ideas and perspectives, but also had a tendency to change his mind depending on who had his ear last,” he wrote.
McMaster found parallels between the two presidents he studied. As with Johnson, “Trump’s insecurities and desire for attention left him perpetually distracted and vulnerable to a mainstream media that was fiercely opposed to him. Moreover, like LBJ, he had a lax relationship with the truth and a tendency toward hyperbole.”
McMaster gave an example involving — what else? — crowd size.
Shortly after taking office, he walked with Trump from the West Wing to the White House residence. Trump stopped and showed a photo of the crowd gathered on the National Mall on the day of his inauguration.
“Look at this, General,” Trump said, according to McMaster. “Contrary to what you’ve seen in the fake news media, there were a lot more people at my inauguration than there were at Obama’s.”
The information relayed by the press showed the opposite.
A lingering curiosity of the Trump era is why he wants to stay on good terms with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his book, McMaster claims that he has no illusions that Putin wants to be Trump’s friend. On the contrary, Putin sees Trump as someone who craves praise.
“Putin, a ruthless former KGB agent, played on Trump’s ego and insecurities by flattering him,” the book explains. “Putin had described Trump as ‘an exceptional, talented person, without a doubt,’ and Trump had revealed his vulnerability to this approach, his affinity for strongmen and his belief that he was the only one who could forge a good relationship with Putin.”
Before a meeting with Putin in Germany in July 2017, McMaster had advised Trump not to be swayed by his statements on Ukraine, North Korea and other issues. But the meeting that followed made clear that “Putin has used his time with Trump to launch a sophisticated and sustained campaign to manipulate him.”
During his conversation with Trump, Putin showed him a video of the Russian Navy’s rescue of a U.S. ship from World War II, evoking fond memories of the U.S.-Soviet alliance during the war.
At a dinner later, Putin gave Trump, a former real estate mogul, a list of ideas for collaboration, including developing an amusement park near Moscow, McMaster writes.
McMaster said he had tried to warn Trump in advance that Putin could not be trusted to keep his promises, but acknowledged that “Trump was getting impatient with my ‘negative vibes.'”
Age has become a major issue in the 2024 presidential race. Now that President Joe Biden, 81, has dropped out of the race, Trump is the oldest presidential candidate in history, at 78. One question that ultimately sank Biden’s campaign and now haunts Trump is whether someone that age is up to the rigors of the presidency.
McMaster writes that Trump became “grumpy” during a trip to the Middle East and Italy in 2017.
In Italy, in his limousine, “he was getting tired and angry,” McMaster writes. “He turned to Jared (Kushner, a White House adviser and Trump’s son-in-law) and me, way back, and said, ‘How long is this damn trip? Whose idea was that?’”
Staff turnover was high in the Trump White House. Senior advisers came and went, due to burnout, principles or disfavor with Trump.
“I couldn’t help but think that living at the foot of an active volcano was an apt metaphor for serving in the Trump White House,” McMaster writes.
He also wrote that he was “tired of the friction and unnecessary drama in the White House and with his stubborn colleagues in the Defense and State Departments. I had lost my patience with Tillerson and Trump. I either had to leave or redouble my efforts to remain stoic and, in keeping with the Serenity Prayer, accept the things I cannot change and focus on what I can.”
The day Trump called to tell him it was over, McMaster wasn’t that surprised.
“With Donald Trump, almost everyone is exhausted, and my time has come,” he wrote.
