While the presidential transition from Donald Trump to Joe Biden was seemingly chaotic from the public’s standpoint, things inside the walls of the White House were equally hectic as Trump aides sought to create headaches for their successors, according to a new book.
At one point during the final days of the Trump administration, an employee of then-Director of the Presidential Personnel Office John McEntee broke a White House air conditioning unit by stuffing several photos of Hunter Biden into it, according to the book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America by Maggie Haberman. The anecdote is one of several stories reported by Haberman as she offered a glimpse into the nature of the White House under Trump’s rule.
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Members of Biden’s team were also frustrated by Trump aides’ behavior, according to Haberman, as they were delayed in getting information from the Pentagon as they were settling into their positions, among other setbacks.
“I told them to fix it,” then-chief of staff Mark Meadows told Ron Klain, who replaced Meadows in the Biden administration, at the time. But nothing ever happened, Haberman wrote.
At other times, Meadows outright denied requests from Biden’s team that he disagreed with. When aides asked for access to a computer system so they could begin planning Biden’s budget, Meadows refused, telling them they “can’t expect us to endorse your spending plans,” according to the book.
Haberman’s book has already garnered national headlines for its snippets detailing Trump’s rise from a businessman to the president. Trump has repeatedly rejected Haberman’s reporting, releasing a statement in response to Confidence Man that she “knows nothing about me.”
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“Here we go again! Another Fake book is out, this one, supposedly very boring and stale, by self appointed head case, Failing (unfunded liability!) New York Times writer, Maggie Hagerman,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday. “In it she tells many made up stories, with zero fact checking or confirmation by anyone who would know, like me.
Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America is scheduled to be released on Tuesday.
