JAMES MATTIS/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Trump so alarmed his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, during a discussion last January of the nuclear standoff with North Korea that an exasperated Mr. Mattis told colleagues ‘the president acted like — and had the understanding of — a ‘fifth or sixth grader.’’ At another moment, Mr. Trump’s aides became so worried about his judgment that Gary D. Cohn, then the chief economic adviser, took a letter from the president’s Oval Office desk authorizing the withdrawal of the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Mr. Trump, who had planned to sign the letter, never realized it was missing. These anecdotes are in a sprawling, highly anticipated book by Bob Woodward that depicts the Trump White House as a byzantine, treacherous, often out-of-control operation — ‘crazytown,’ in the words of the chief of staff, John F. Kelly — hostage to the whims of an impulsive, ill-informed and undisciplined president. The New York Times obtained a copy of the book, ‘Fear,’ which will be published next Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.”
–Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman, “Jim Mattis Compared Trump to ‘Fifth or Sixth Grader,’ Bob Woodward Says in Book,” The New York Tines online, September 4, 2018