John Boehner Recalls the Time One of His Staffers Got Thoroughly Berated By Trump After a Round of Golf: ‘This Was Real Anger’
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A newly-released preview of John Boehner’s memoir recalls an incident where former President Donald Trump stormed at one of the former House speaker’s staffers during a golf game.
Punchbowl News obtained an early copy of Boehner’s On the House: A Washington Memoir, and they shared an excerpt in which the former House speaker recounted an incident from years ago when he was set to play golf with two high-profile insurance executives as part of a fundraising endeavor. Boehner recalled being told Trump would join them for the outing, and while he wasn’t sure what to think about that at the time, “his name was on the door of the club, and if he wanted to come out with us, none of us were going to say no.”
Trump and Boehner were paired up for the day, but before the round got started, the future president approached one of Boehner’s staffers, John Criscuolo (whom the former speaker calls “BJ”), and asked for the names of the two insurance executives filling out the foursome.
“I think they’re Joe and Jeff,” BJ told him. So Trump said hello to Joe and hello to Jeff and we set off.”
Boehner went on to recall he and Trump beat Joe and Jeff “soundly” that day, and while there was “nothing particularly memorable” about their conversations, he admitted that he would’ve paid more attention if he knew Trump was going to be president. When the game was over, Trump and Boehner shook hands with Joe and Jeff, and that’s when one of them said “Guys, our names are Mike and David.”
Boehner laughed off the embarrassing awkwardness of the situation, but as for Trump, “this sort of glower fell across his face,” and he swiftly rounded on Criscuolo:
He marched over to BJ and got right in his face to the point that BJ might have had to take a step or two back. Then Trump shouted, “What are you, some kind of idiot?” He pointed to the rest of our impromptu foursome. “These guys’ names are Mike and David!” Then he gave the young man a piece of advice that he — and I — have never forgotten. And I hesitate to put an expletive in the mouth of a former president of the United States, but here it goes anyway. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name?” Trump asked. “You fucking LISTEN!”
Boehner goes on to say that Criscuolo still works for him, even as he mused that “this was more than New York bluster,” that he saw from Trump. “This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”
The book shows Boehner having a low opinion of the direction the Republican Party and conservative media have taken in recent years. Other previews show him ripping on Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), calling out “right wing propaganda nuts,” and saying Trump is to blame for the storming of the U.S Capitol.
