President Donald Trump was more enthusiastic about buying “good maple trees” for the White House than discussing his recently-launched war with Iran when visited by two reporters in March, a new book claims.
In the latest advanced extract from Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, the authors recount an Oval Office meeting with the president in the early weeks of the conflict.
Trump had attacked Haberman on Truth Social three days before the sitdown as a”SLEAZEBAG writer” but, according to a passage read aloud by Lawrence O’Donnell on MS NOW Monday, the pair found him in a buoyant mood.
“Trump entered the Oval Office from the corridor connected to his private dining room,” O’Donnell read.
“He was in smiling salesman mode. ‘Nice to see you,’ he said, gesturing for us all to sit down opposite him at the desk. It was the 17th day of his war with Iran.
“Thirteen American service members had already been killed, and more than 200 had been wounded. Thousands of Iranians were dead, including the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
O’Donnell continued: “As he greeted us, the war seemed the furthest thing from Trump’s mind. On the Resolute Desk, instead of a map of the Middle East, were printouts of maple trees. ‘I’m ordering trees for the White House,’ Trump told us. ‘I know how to buy good trees. Maples.’
“Trump held another printout. The headlines screamed ‘339 billion all-time views’ of Trump TikToks. ‘Can you believe it?’ the president asked us.
“Then Trump showed us two final printouts, renderings from different angles of the grand ballroom he was building on the White House grounds. He was in a convivial mood.”
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
Regime Change, which arrives in book stores Tuesday, has already created waves after it was revealed that top administration officials met in the Situation Room of the White House last year to discuss the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Another extract says that Trump “vented” at Vice President JD Vance for failing to echo his precise rhetoric regarding the damage done to Iran’s nuclear facilities by last summer’s Operate Midnight Hammer air strikes.
The authors also claim that administration officials discussed the prospect of suspending a centuries-old constitutional right to speed up the president’s anti-immigration agenda and deport tens of thousands more people.
Other tit-bits to have emerged include the claim that Trump and first lady Melania Trump entered into a redecorating contest to make over the official residence, that White House staff habitually monitor the president’s trash for fear he might have thrown out expensive silverware and that he addresses his son Barron as “Honey.”
