Former President Donald Trump has been talking about his relationship with other leading GOP figures. In particular, he addressed why—as he puts it—South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham “kisses my a**.”
He says it’s to secure endorsements from Trump for Graham’s friends and allies.
The revelation comes in a new book from New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman.
Haberman conducted three interviews with Trump after he departed the White House. It led to her new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Extracts appeared yesterday in The Atlantic.
As told to Haberman, Graham and Texas Senator Ted Cruz persuaded Trump not to endorse a challenger to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). Instead, Trump endorsed Sasse: a decision he went on to regret as Sasse voted to convict the then President during his second impeachment.
“Like a schmuck, I went along with it,” Trump said of the requests to back Sasse.
Related: Lindsey Graham may want to stay off Twitter today
Haberman says she turned up to interview Trump at his Bedminster golf club. When she arrived, Lindsey Graham was there in golf pants. Trump entered the room, followed swiftly by Graham.
Graham gestured toward Trump and said, “The greatest comeback in American history!”
Trump looked at Haberman. “You know why Lindsey kisses my ass?” Trump asked. “So I’ll endorse his friends.”
Haberman says Graham “laughed uproariously” at this suggestion.
Lindsey Graham’s changing position on Donald Trump
Senator Graham was a vocal critic of Donald Trump before the latter became President. Since then, he has become a firm supporter of Trump, even if they have occasionally disagreed.
A few weeks ago, Graham faced backlash after saying there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump faced prosecution for taking classified records to Mar-a-Lago.
As his support for Trump has grown, Graham has turned resolutely against Joe Biden. Although always on the opposite side of the fence, politically, Graham sang Biden’s praises back in 2015, saying he was “the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics. He’s as good a man as God ever created.”
That admiration seems to have evaporated. Over the weekend, Graham blasted Biden as “clueless” for opposing the Senator’s proposed 15-week federal limit on abortion.
Yet another example of Joe Biden not knowing what he’s talking about. He’s clueless.
Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams are extremists who support abortion on demand up until birth putting the United States in the league of China and North Korea. https://t.co/lABr0ARWfa
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 23, 2022
Related: Mary Trump predicts uncle Donald Trump’s next move as his downfall accelerates
Trump on McConnell
Besides Graham and Cruz, Trump also spoke to Haberman about Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.
“The Old Crow’s a piece of sh*t,” he said bluntly. Haberman had asked Trump about his perception of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump appeared to admire his strength. She asked if he thought the White House would operate in the same sort of way as Jinping ran things.
“Well, I figured that the Mitch McConnells would be like him, in the sense of strength.”
Haberman’s book is out October 4.
RIGay
If you can imagine the most revolting, vile, repulsive creature on the planet, then think about a whole pen filled with them, then think about nothing but pools of deep excrement on the the floor of that pen, and then think about these creatures wallowing in it – That is what this article is about.
TomG
Apparently no one bothered to tell Trump that any endorsement by him is a sure loss at the polls. That’s why so many are unsuccessful trying to distance themselves from his as one of his butt kissers.
Fahd
Let’s hope it stops being all about The Count of Monte Crisco before too long.
RIGay
Monte Crisco… LOL!!!!
butchqueen
You just won the internet!!!
Fahd
I meant to say ¨The Count of Mostly Crisco¨ . I think it´s from Steven Colbert.
bachy
The 2016 election can be interpreted – at best – as an appalling aberration of the American political system, the electoral college results tragically jettisoning over 3 million popular votes for Hillary Clinton.
But I am completely baffled as to how anyone could continue to support Failure 45 after enduring his abominable administration and witnessing the GOP’s ongoing circus of abject corruption.
What the fuh is wrong with the American people??
RIGay
In all honesty, I have NO f-ing idea what is wrong with people! Went shopping this morning and there was a woman, I’d estimate mid-40’s, wearing a “Women for Trump” baseball hat. I just don’t get it. At all. I got 2016 – “Ooo! Someone NOT a Washington insider! And a >celebrity< to boot!", but NOW? After all the crud has been lain before the world? Really?
Man, some brains got fried over there.
Kangol2
The 2016 wasn’t an aberration; more than once in US history, though infrequently in the 20th century, a president winning a minority of the popular vote somehow slipped into office. Few were as horrible as the last two who managed this, George W. Bush, with his disastrous wars and economic collapse, or Don the Con, a traitor and psychopath, who let US society, a pandemic, the economy, foreign relations, you name it, spin completely out of control like a gigantic ferris wheel that broke off its axle. But Don the Con leads a cult that has basically taken over the GOP, turning it into the RepubliQanon Party, so his supporters are going to stick with the “Orange Jesus,” as Liz Cheney reportedly said one GQP Congressman referred to Don the Con, through till the bitter end (including if he is sent to prison for life, which would hardly make up for all of his known crimes).
Cam
Maggie Haberman’s mother is an executive at the P.R. firm that did publicity for Trump, yet neither she or the New York Times makes this blatant conflict of interest public when she does her reporting on Trump.
abfab
She must then be crucified! God, you’ve made some dumb statements before but this one takes the cake.
Den
Were she reporting favorably about Trump, or a vocal Trump supporter, your comment might make some sense. In what specific ways does her actual output demonstrate a “blatant conflict of interest”?
Sometimes you display a kind of knee jerk reaction one expects from the right, not from those claiming to be progressive.
Kangol2
This one is going to go over people’s heads, Cam, but yes, Haberman’s reporting straddles the ethical line if she isn’t transparent about her familial connection to Don the Con.
Just as disturbing is the fact that Haberman apparently sat on key facts, like Don the Con telling her that he brought National Archive documents back to Mar-a-Lago, and then apparently LIED to her about returning them, meaning he was admitting to committing a serious federal crime, but yet she did not go immediately to the FBI to report what she’d learned. Her new book seems to hold several notable revelations like this.
abfab
I’m hoping this POS just DROPS DEAD! Like, today!
scotty
from your keyboard to “deity of choice” ears.
abfab
Or wait, what’s that term for when cretins just suddenly combust into flames and the whole body explodes, for no apparent reason at all?
Creamsicle
Trump may be the biggest tumor, but rhe cancer in America has spread throughout the body. Conservatism and Neoliberalism working together for the past 50 years have happily picked apart the power of Labor to successfully lobby Congress and get worker protections that can provide a middle class lifestyle to people with just a high school degree, the way it was possible to do in the 1970s.
Higher education has went from a guaranteed ticket to a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, to an obligation to even be considered for poverty wage entry-level jobs that still require 5 years of experience to work under managers who’ll make you want to blow your brains out by asking rudimentary computer questions because you know for a fact that they make 3 times your hourly rate and they paid for college by working a summer job scooping ice cream.
But I guess it’s all A-OK since China manufactures everything now. It’s not like they’re emitting unconscionable amounts of carbon into the atmosphere with no intention of curbing their fossil fuel use. Just buy and electric car. We can totes consume our way out of a problem driven entirely by consumerism.
abfab
An otherwise boring bunch of babble made tolerable by the run-on sentences.
glennmcbride
You lost me at “Higher education has went.”
Den
More electric cars have been sold IN China than in the rest of the word combined this past year. And they have actually been trying to lower their carbon footprint, though still obviously too dependent on coal. As for “china manufacturing everything” the Democratic party, despite obstruction from the right, is making strides towards bringing back high tech and green industry.
As for the rest of your comment: it is a bit too unfocused to make a whole lot of sense, and clearly suffers from a lack of familiarity with commas and periods.
Den
That should be “rest of the world”. Sadly any use of the editing feature here assures your comment will “await moderation” until the sun becomes a red giant!
GayEGO
Linda Graham Cracker kisses a lot of …..ahem…..!
Mack
Willingly and gleefully.
scotty
the first one on her knees under the dick dock or behind the boathouse or in the cellar or in the tool shed or any oval office will do.
Clamzilla
I thought Miss Lindsey kissed Trump’s ass because it’s what she likes to do. She likes her tongue near the winking starfish.
CNY1983
im still quaking from that threat about crowds in the streets.
Jimmynj
Trump is a deranged monster. Anyone who continues to support his is an idiot. Trump is a criminal and needs to be locked up for treason., among all his other crimes. And Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz are spineless wimps.
dbmcvey
Oh Lindsay, after all this, was it worth it?