Donald Trump became so unhinged as he railed about Black Lives Matter protesters in a 2020 conference call with state leaders that the governor of Maine feared he was having a “nervous breakdown,” according to an upcoming book.
Gov. Janet Mills (D) even called a security guard into her office to listen to the rant, New York Times journalists Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns reported in their book “This Will Not Pass,” a copy of which was obtained by The Hill.
“You gotta sit here and listen to this because I think the president of the United States is having a nervous breakdown or something, and it’s scary,” Mills recalled telling the guard, according to the book, which is out on Tuesday.
Oregon’s Democratic Gov. Kate Brown called her husband into her office to listen to Trump roar during the call, the book recounted. “You can’t make this shit up,” Brown said she told her husband.
Trump was furious over national protests in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and demanded a massive crackdown.
The book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election,” by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender, recounted last year that Trump and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley went at it in a tense meeting in the Situation Room after Trump made “exaggerated claims about the violence at the protests and alarmed officials” by saying he’d put Milley in charge of quelling the protests.
In a separate Oval Office meeting, Trump told Milley that he wanted the military to “beat the fuck out of” Black Lives Matters protesters “or shoot them.” When Milley said that wasn’t possible, Trump reportedly responded: “Well, shoot them in the leg ― or maybe the foot.”
“This Will Not Pass” reported that Trump at the time derisively scoffed at calls to reschedule his upcoming political rally in Tulsa so it wouldn’t be held on Juneteenth, which marks the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of slavery in America. He didn’t appear to comprehend the significance of the date — especially in the wake of Floyd’s death.
Can you imagine “changing the day of the rally in Oklahoma to accommodate these people?” Trump asked New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) during dinner at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, the book recounted. “Have you ever heard of such a ridiculous thing?”