New York Times legal scoop machine Mike Schmidt has new nuggets from the Oval Office in a 12,000-word afterword for the paperback edition of his bestselling "Donald Trump v. The United States."
The big picture: After retired four-star Marine Gen. John Kelly became White House chief of staff in 2017, he found President Trump "had no grasp on the basics of American foreign policy," Schmidt writes.
- "Why did we go to war in North Korea?" Trump would ask Kelly. "Why the f--- are we in NATO?"
"Trump seemed to have no interest in — and be confused by — Kelly's explanation that nations created a deterrence against Russia by committing to a collective defense," Schmidt continues in the new edition, out Tuesday.
- "What the f---?" Trump said.
Kelly would tell aides:
"He has this thing that he knows more than the generals, the economists, the geologists. He is incapable of saying, 'I don't know anything; I need some advice.'"
Go deeper: Read Chapter 1 + listen to an audio sample (read by Mike Schmidt).
