5 Wildest Takeaways from Woodward’s New Book (Thus Far): Nuclear Codes, War With China, and Screaming at Pence

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The newest book from Bob Woodward is sending shockwaves through Washington for a number of reasons.

Peril, written by Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, breaks down the final days of the Trump presidency, the former president’s election nonsense, and the start of the Biden presidency.

Below are the biggest takeaways so far, based on early reports.

1) Mark Milley and the nuclear codes

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, according to Woodward and Costa, was worried Trump would go “rogue” and so he proactively took steps to prevent the then-president from launching nuclear weapons.

Milley apparently told senior military officials directly “not to take orders from anyone unless he was involved,” and that included potentially launching nukes.

Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently called him about this very issue.

2) Milley’s alleged calls to China

There have been a lot of reports detailing Milley’s concerns about how unstable Trump was, but this particular detail came as a serious shock.

Milley, the book says, was so worried Trump could spark war with China that he made calls to his Chinese counterpart:

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay,” Milley told him. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”

In the book’s account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they’d established through a backchannel. “General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise.”

There have already been some calls for Milley’s resignation if this is true, including from Senator Marco Rubio and Alexander Vindman.

3) The pressure on Mike Pence

It was a secret to exactly no one that Trump was pressuring his own VP to singlehandedly reject the election results (something the vice president cannot actually do).

Woodward and Costa’s book provides some more details of the tensions there, including the then-president actually saying, “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.”

Pence did, in fact, do the right thing in the end, but apparently it came after a phone call with former Vice President Dan Quayle. Per CNN:

Over and over, Pence asked if there was anything he could do.

“Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,” Quayle told him.

Pence pressed again.

“You don’t know the position I’m in,” he said, according to the authors.

“I do know the position you’re in,” Quayle responded. “I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power.”

4) Hey, Steve Bannon’s back

One of the core elements of this upcoming book is January 6th, and according to CNN it says that Steve Bannon “played a critical role in the events leading up to January 6.”

Bannon apparently told Trump on December 30th he should return to Washington for January 6th, allegedly saying, “You’ve got to call Pence off the fucking ski slopes and get him back here today. This is a crisis.”

The authors write that Bannon told Trump that January 6 was “the moment for reckoning.”

“People are going to go, ‘What the fuck is going on here?’ ” Bannon believed. “We’re going to bury Biden on January 6th, fucking bury him,” Bannon said.

5) Kevin McCarthy’s flip-flop… flopped

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said on January 13th Trump bears responsibility for the riots, but since then he has backed off that criticism and returned to being an ardent Trump supporter.

According to Woodward and Costa, did that change anything in Trump’s eyes? Nope!

The book also reveals that 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 fucked me. He’s not a good guy,” Trump said, according to the book.

While McCarthy has walked back his initial comments after the insurrection, Trump is quoted as dismissing McCarthy’s attempts to get back into his good graces.

“Kevin came down to kiss my ass and wants my help to win the House back,” Trump said, according to the authors.

Peril is set to be released on September 21.