Method to the Madness : Donald Trump's Ascent As Told by Those Who Were Hired, Fired, Inspired - and Inaugurated (9781250202819) by Salkin Allen; Short Aaron

Author:Salkin, Allen; Short, Aaron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

19.

ROASTED

Trump kept plotting a 2012 presidential bid while fanning birther rumors. He regularly spoke with strategists Dick Morris and David Bossie and pollster John McLaughlin. He interviewed campaign manager candidates and tried to hire other consultants. And he continued to lean heavily on advisers inside his company, such as Michael Cohen, and outside, including Roger Stone, to promote his candidacy.1 His meetings with Morris and McLaughlin were especially fruitful because they created a campaign plan on spec, laying out how he could run in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina and which key personnel he could tap in each state. One of the names McLaughlin suggested was a New Hampshire operative named Corey Lewandowski, who would become Trump’s campaign manager in 2015.

David Bossie: As the Romney campaign was going, he and I were talking about taking on Romney. That’s why I decided to put together some people to have him hear more voices about what that would be like.

Dick Morris, political consultant: I got to meet him again when he was looking at running for president in 2012. I volunteered to come in, and I met with him three or four times [in 2011] in the company of John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster. The purpose was to brief him on public policy issues preparatory to a presidential campaign. There was no money involved, as often happens with Donald. Michael Cohen sat in and would take notes. He would clarify points so Donald could get it and participate in the conversation. Back then, I gave him what I thought should be his slogan in 2012: “Barack Obama, you’re fired,” taking advantage of his line on The Apprentice.

John McLaughlin, Republican pollster: Dick asked if I wanted to help out with Donald Trump. He was going to run for president and we needed to put together a campaign plan. We spent about a month doing it. The only one who took it seriously in the media was [Time magazine’s] Mark Halperin. We gave him a campaign plan of what he needed to spend, what he needed to do, how to structure the campaign. A lot of the people that we would recommend and put him in contact with then became parts of his later campaign. Jason Miller was going to be the campaign manager and Corey Lewandowski, a friend of mine from when he managed some of Bob Smith’s campaigns in New Hampshire, was going to be the New Hampshire person.

Dick Morris: Many of the bios I’ve read about Trump suggest he has the attention span of a hummingbird, and that’s totally not true. He would sit there for two hours taking notes, listening, asking intelligent questions, occasionally interrupted by a phone call by his secretary. I found him very retentive and very focused. Those issue preparations probably served him well throughout the presidential race. I would make each briefing on a different topic. Defense was one. Education was another. Immigration and trade.

John McLaughlin: We were going to launch polls in these states at the time.

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