美国国家公共电台 NPR 'A Very Stable Genius' Authors Tell NPR They Wanted To Contex

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Here in Washington, our news cup runneth over, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

PHILIP RUCKER: You know, it's been such an exhausting three years, I think, for all of us and for all Americans, frankly¹, because the news is just sped up so much. There's so many crises around every corner.

KELLY: That is Washington Post White House bureau chief Philip Rucker. Rucker and Washington Post investigative reporter Carol Leonnig decided² to step away from the daily hurricane and go back through these last three years of Donald Trump³'s presidency⁴ to look for patterns to help people better understand him and this moment in history.

The result is a new book called "A Very Stable Genius." Rucker and Leonnig interviewed more than 200 sources, many of whom were in the room at key moments of the presidency. I asked them to describe one of these key moments - a Pentagon briefing in which Trump called his defense⁵ secretary, the chairman of the Joint⁶ Chiefs and other senior military commanders in the room, quote, "a bunch of dopes and babies."

CAROL LEONNIG: In July 2017, a group of very, very senior cabinet members and advisers⁷ decided, we need to give a tutorial, in effect, to Donald Trump. They'd been having a lot of arguments with him, disagreements about where troops and bases were, trade policy, etc. And he was resisting them time and time again. They basically wanted to have a class and explain to him how things work, how we protect the nation.

KELLY: And the place they chose to do this was in the Tank.

LEONNIG: In the Tank.

KELLY: In the conference room of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

LEONNIG: That's right. And this is a sacred space in the military. It's where decisions of war and peace are made and have been since the 1800s. This tutorial did not go well. Donald Trump was bellowing⁸ and howling and, at one point, so angry and in such a tirade⁹ that he was trying to catch his breath to continue howling at this group about how they were losers. They didn't know how to win anymore. And actually, the last thing that he said was something almost everyone in that room promised they would not talk about publicly, it was such an insult, and that was, I would never go to war with you people.

In the room, Secretary of State Tillerson, who's one of the architects of this meeting, is so upset, and he's watching the military leaders, including the secretary of defense, just bow his head and say nothing. And he finally stands up and tells the president, you're wrong, Mr. President. That's not how it is.

KELLY: What is your read on that - that Tillerson, as then secretary of state, was not in the military chain of command, so maybe felt in a better position to speak up to his commander in chief?

RUCKER: Perhaps. But he wasn't alone in being disturbed. There was a woman in the room who had tears in her eyes. There were other members of the military brass¹⁰ who kind of raised their hands to cover their eyes so that their emotions would not be seen by the president or by the others in the room. And this became a real inflection point for the presidency because after this moment, Trump started to shut out his advisers, the seasoned hands who were trying to steer¹¹ him in a different course, and started to really try to execute his own wishes, his own orders.

KELLY: And you've corroborated¹² this with multiple sources who were in the room, who have similar accounts of how this unfolded next?

RUCKER: That's correct.

KELLY: Do you believe President Trump's relationship with the military has recovered?

LEONNIG: You know, one of the interesting things, Mary Louise, about the trajectory¹³ of this presidency is that it's increasingly the case that Donald Trump has driven out the people who've tried to give him counsel. The guardrails are gone. And increasingly, the decisions have become more chaotic¹⁴, and the people that he's surrounded by are increasingly those who think their mission is to tell him yes.

KELLY: Would President Trump speak to you for the book?

LEONNIG: He declined through an aide.

KELLY: Some of the episodes that you chronicle in the book, they're great copy. You describe a moment where he shocked India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi by telling him, you don't need to worry about China because it's not on your border, which, of course, if you look at a map, there is...

RUCKER: It's a long border (laughter).

KELLY: There is a long border between India and China. My question for supporters of the president, for admirers of the president, who may pick up your book and say, this is just two Washington Post reporters trying to be snarky, pointing out embarrassing blunders, why do events like this matter if you are trying to do a history of the Trump presidency thus far?

RUCKER: You know, I think the tone of the book is really anything but snarky; it's deadly serious. You know, we're chronicling what this president has done in office for three years, how he comports¹⁵ himself behind the scenes, how he leads our military, how he leads our domestic policies. And this is real. I mean, this is the history that we've been living for the last three years.

And, you know, we tried to write from a bit of a distance. And what I mean by that is these are not opinions that we're expressing; we're unearthing¹⁶ the truth that we discovered in our reporting, and that leads to some conclusions that might be difficult for some of the president's supporters to hear. But they're real, and they're accurate, and they're serious.

KELLY: Why - the title of the book, "A Very Stable Genius," why did you name it that?

LEONNIG: We didn't want to mock the president, but we wanted to use his own words to sort of hold that up as a stress test about this presidency. And what we learned...

KELLY: He's referred to himself as a very stable genius on more than one occasion.

LEONNIG: On more than one occasion. He's also said, in my great and unmatched wisdom. And we thought that it was important to sort of take that mirror and turn it back to him and find out what were - those folks serving him, what did they think about that?

KELLY: Is there a little bit of irony¹⁷ in the title, Phil? President Trump references to his own great wisdom, and yet you document multiple examples in the book where he insisted he knew more than one of his advisers about something when it's not clear he did - contradicting Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state, about how to read Vladimir Putin, for example.

RUCKER: And that's one of the most telling moments of the book, I think, because Rex Tillerson came into the job as secretary of state having negotiated with the Russians for years. As the CEO of ExxonMobil, he met with Vladimir Putin numerous times face-to-face, and he tried to teach President Trump about Putin, to explain to Trump that Putin is not just the strongman that you want to become buddies¹⁸ with and get to know personally, but is a threat to the United States.

And then after Trump had his first meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany, he said to Tillerson, look - I've spent two hours with him. I've got it. I understand Putin now. I don't need your advice anymore. And that was really illustrative of the way the president treated the career intelligence and other national security figures who were trying to counsel him, trying to bring him information.

KELLY: Your book chronicles the first three years of the Trump presidency, and we're sitting here talking in January 2020. Since you've wrapped this book, he's been impeached¹⁹. We're now on the cusp of an impeachment²⁰ trial that will get underway in earnest next week. None of us have crystal balls, but do you believe this fourth year of his presidency, fourth year of at least his first term, will it look very different from the first three?

RUCKER: You know, based on the patterns we've seen so far in this presidency that we document in the book, I don't know that it'll look that different. You know, Donald Trump is not a man who changes easily. The one thing that might change is the extent to which he feels under siege and he feels needing to punch back and be aggressive. And the reason for that is he's facing reelection, which is a huge test and hurdle²¹ for him.

When he feels up against a wall and under siege, we've seen him again and again lash²² out, do sometimes self-destructive actions. And there's a possibility, of course, that as we get closer to the November election, some of those characteristics will come into the fore²³.

KELLY: That is Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig of The Washington Post. Their new book is "A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing Of America."

Thanks, you two.

RUCKER: Thank you.

LEONNIG: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIOHEAD'S "KID A")

1 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

7 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

8 bellowing   

v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫

参考例句：

• We could hear he was bellowing commands to his troops. 我们听见他正向他的兵士大声发布命令。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He disguised these feelings under an enormous bellowing and hurraying. 他用大声吼叫和喝采掩饰着这些感情。 来自辞典例句

9 tirade   

n.冗长的攻击性演说

参考例句：

• Her tirade provoked a counterblast from her husband.她的长篇大论激起了她丈夫的强烈反对。
• He delivered a long tirade against the government.他发表了反政府的长篇演说。

10 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

11 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

12 corroborated   

v.证实，支持（某种说法、信仰、理论等）( corroborate的过去式 )

参考例句：

• The evidence was corroborated by two independent witnesses. 此证据由两名独立证人提供。
• Experiments have corroborated her predictions. 实验证实了她的预言。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

14 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

15 comports   

v.表现( comport的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She always comports herself with great dignity. 她的举止总是很端庄。
• He comports himself with modesty. 他表现得很谦虚。 来自辞典例句

16 unearthing   

发掘或挖出某物( unearth的现在分词 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露

参考例句：

• And unearthing the past often means literally and studying the evidence. 通常，探寻往事在字面上即意味着——刨根究底。
• The unearthing of "Peking Man" was a remarkable discovery. “北京人”的出土是个非凡的发现。

17 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

18 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句

19 impeached   

v.控告（某人）犯罪( impeach的过去式和过去分词 )；弹劾；对（某事物）怀疑；提出异议

参考例句：

• Elected officials can be impeached. 经过选举产生的官员可以被弹劾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The judge was impeached for taking a bribe. 这个法官被检举接受贿赂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

21 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

22 lash   

v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛

参考例句：

• He received a lash of her hand on his cheek.他突然被她打了一记耳光。
• With a lash of its tail the tiger leaped at her.老虎把尾巴一甩朝她扑过来。

23 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。