Lindsey Graham on Trump, Per New Book: ‘A Lying Motherf*cker’ But ‘A Lot of Fun to Hang Out With’

A new book is revealing all sorts of dishy stories and red alerts from behind the scenes of Donald Trump’s time at the White House.

New York Times correspondent Peter Baker and New Yorker writer Susan Glasser have been giving news outlets a sneak peek of their upcoming book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021. The book is already drawing media intrigue — with the duo previously revealing that Trump gave them an interview in which he said he’ll never run for president with his former running mate, Mike Pence, ever again.

Axios and CNN also obtained the book early, and they shed some more light on other tumultuous episodes from the Trump administration:

1. Lindsey Graham called Trump a “lying motherf*cker” but “a lot of fun.”

In the last few years, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went from vocal Trump critic, to Trump follower, to post-January 6th rejector of Trump, to Trump flunky yet again. While this might paint a picture for where Graham is at any given moment, Baker and Glasser got a quote from him regarding his attitude toward the former president.

From Axios:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called his friend Donald Trump “a lying motherf—er” but “a lot of fun to hang out with,” according to The Divider, by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, out next Tuesday.

Why it matters: Graham said it with “a what-can-you-do shrug,” the authors report — the mindset of so many Trump allies and enablers

2. Melania said her husband was “blowing” it on Covid.

The book describes a phone call between former First Lady Melania Trump and Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. During this call, Mrs. Trump was expressing concern that her husband wasn’t doing enough to give a serious response to the coronavirus pandemic

Per CNN:

“‘You’re blowing this,” she recalled telling her husband,” the authors write. “‘This is serious. It’s going to be really bad, and you need to take it more seriously than you’re taking it.’ He had just dismissed her. ‘You worry too much,’ she remembered him saying. ‘Forget it.'”

In the end, the Trumps and Christie all wound up catching Covid during a superspreader event at the White House. Christie, who was a Trump confidante at the time and became seriously ill, has made this a point of criticism against the former administration.

3. “The public will come to your grave and piss on it.”

Trump’s dislike for the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is a deeply-rooted fact that he been publicly established on multiple occasions. The former president claims that he called for the lowering of the American flag after McCain’s death “without hesitation or complaint,” though former White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly had to make a vulgar threat to Trump to get him to do it.

White House chief of staff John Kelly was so furious when Trump refused to lower the flag after Sen. John McCain died that he told the president: “If you don’t support John McCain’s funeral, when you die, the public will come to your grave and piss on it.” Trump gave in.

4. Rocky relationships with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The book describes less-than-idealic relations Trump kept with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford and his successor, Mark Milley.

Axios reports that Trump stormed at Dunford by railing against the military and accusing America’s generals of being “f-cking leakers.” Dunford’s reponse: “We’re not f-cking leakers.”

Separately, CNN reported that when Milley was the head of Trump’s national security team, there were “deep concerns” that the former president “would ignite a conflict with Iran in the waning days of his presidency or that he could stumble into nuclear war with North Korea.”

One administration official told Trump before the 2020 election that if he lost, he should strike Iran’s nuclear program, the authors report. “Milley at the time told his staff it was a ‘What the f-ck are these guys talking about?’ moment,” they write. “Now, it seemed frighteningly possible.”

5. Buying Greenland

Remember when Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland from Denmark before railing against the “nasty” Danish prime minister when she said the island was not for sale? Well, the book explores how that idea came from Trump’s longtime friend, billionaire cosmetics heir Ron Lauder.

“I said, ‘Why don’t we have that?’ You take a look at a map. I’m a real estate developer, I look at a corner, I say, ‘I’ve got to get that store for the building that I’m building,’ etc. It’s not that different,” Trump told the reporters for their book.

Lauder proposed to Trump’s then-national security adviser John Bolton that he act as a “back channel” to the Danish government. Instead, top National Security Council aides engaged for months in secret talks with Denmark’s ambassador to the United States about Greenland.

Eventually, however, public revelations about Trump’s plans to buy the island prompted indignation in both Greenland and Denmark, scuttling any effort to enhance the US role in an increasingly strategic area.