ROGER STONE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Roger Stone I met for a drink in the bistro across the street from a Barnes & Noble bookstore was not the right-wing merry prankster, the con man, I expected. Yes, he looked like he’d stepped from the set of Guys and Dolls—with a spread collar, natty tie, pocket square and that navy-blue chalk-striped suit he wears. And, yes, he was on his way to said book shop to tout his latest volume of risible conspiracy theories. It was autumn 2014…Stone may have a native inclination for intrigue. Or maybe not. But as we talked it struck me how much Watergate had fed his cynicism. If a politician like Nixon could be destroyed, Stone seemed to believe, then the system was corrupt, a rigged game, just another opportunity to exploit—with dirty tricks, dishonest ads, phony history books, whatever. By the time Donald Trump came calling, Roger Stone was ready.”
–John A. Farrell, “Watergate Created Roger Stone. Trump Completed Him.,” Politico, January 29, 2019