Donald Trump will be banished from the club of living former Presidents when he leaves office after offending them all and shattering thei...
Donald Trump will be banished from the club of living former Presidents when he leaves office after offending them all and shattering their unspoken conventions, according to a new book obtained by DailyMail.com.
The President burned his bridges after trashing his predecessors and failing to show them respect - all 'cardinal sins' in the exclusive club of former leaders.
Not that Trump gives a damn and he is 'proud' he won't be welcomed by a group he considers to be establishment elitists, Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump reveals.
The book, which is out next week and by bestselling author Kate Andersen Brower, says the former Presidents feel that the 'mantle of decency that used to rest with the sitting President has now fallen to the men who used to hold that job'.
That includes Barack Obama, whom Trump is currently attacking for 'Obamagate', an unspecified crime that he claims his predecessor is guilty of.
Andersen Brower writes that with the rise of Trump the Presidents Club has been put in an impossible position: don't respond to his insults and let him run the conversation - or speak up and break the Presidents' Club rules.
Donald Trump will be banished from the club of living former Presidents when he leaves office after offending them all and shattering their unspoken conventions, according to a new book obtained by DailyMail.com
The President burned his bridges after trashing his predecessors and failing to show them respect - all 'cardinal sins' in the exclusive club of former leaders. Pictured: Former President George H.W. Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter pose together in the Oval Office on January 7, 2009
The book describes how before Trump, all the ex-Presidents got along out of respect for the institution of the Presidency.
Their unofficial rules included: honor a shared history, don't under any circumstances criticize the incumbent; respect the office and one another; don't be too proud to ask for help; come together for celebrations; unite in tragedy and respect the White House.
Trump threw all of that out the window.
In his inauguration address he said that the country was suffering 'American carnage', earning a rebuke from George W. Bush who said it was 'weird s***'.
Not that Trump gives a damn and he is 'proud' he won't be welcomed by a group he considers to be establishment elitists, Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump reveals
Trump claimed Barack Obama wasn't born in America, he furthered divisions during a tragedy - most notably his comments about Charlottesville - and called the White House a 'dump'.
The book notes it is 'extraordinary' that Trump has not leaned on his predecessors for advice and 'even the worst, most strained' relationship of previous presidents was not like this'.
His 'scorched earth path he's chosen has made it impossible to maintain friendships, or even civility with the men who once occupied the Oval Office'.
'There has always been intense partisanship in politics but before Donald Trump there was also a chance for real connection and empathy,' the book states.
As a result Andersen Brower writes that Trump will 'not receive a warm welcome' once he leaves office, and the coldness is mutual.
Asked about being invited to Obama's Presidential library opening, an invitation ex-Presidents typically extend to each other as a mark of respect, Trump said: 'Why should he?'
Leon Panetta, Obama's former secretary of defense, said: 'I think they (The former Presidents) view Trump as damaging to the office of the Presidency.
'Maybe deep down they feel that if they can create that bond by being close to one another, maybe they can somehow get America through this administration'.
Obama's secretary of state Tony Blinken added: 'They are all institutionalists and that would be their biggest problem with Trump - what he's done to the FBI and the intelligence community'.
Each ex-President has grappled with Trump in their own way.
Trump claimed Barack Obama wasn't born in America, he furthered divisions during a tragedy - most notably his comments about Charlottesville - and called the White House a 'dump'. Asked about being invited to Obama's Presidential library opening, an invitation ex-Presidents typically extend to each other as a mark of respect, Trump said: 'Why should he?'
Trump is currently attacking Obama for 'Obamagate', an unspecified crime that he claims his predecessor is guilty of
Obama's response has been to set up a 'war room' style cabinet ready to rebut Trump's attacks at his personal office in Washington, which is staffed with 20 people and a dozen interns.
His wife Michelle's office is there too and an aide described it as being like 'the East Wing meets the West Wing meets the Oval Office.
When issues come up they decide which former cabinet secretaries should write op-eds and to TV interviews to defend Obama's policies, as if he never left the White House.
Obama has tried not to publicly criticize Trump too much but reportedly has called him a 'bulls**ter in private.
Obama was recently caught telling Democratic donors that Trump's response to the coronavirus has been an 'absolute chaotic disaster'.
That sparked a Twitter meltdown from Trump and his efforts to get 'Obamagate' trending.
George H.W. Bush was 'baffled' by Trump's rise in the Republican party, which put him and his son in the White House.
As a war hero he was particularly offended about Trump's attacks on John McCain, who Trump ridiculed for being captured and tortured in Vietnam.
George H.W. Bush's dislike of Trump 'ran deeper than Trump assumes' but, in a sign of his respect for the offices he wanted him at his funeral to rise above partisan politics.
The awkward scene that unfolded showed Trump looking out of place while George W. Bush gave Michelle Obama a cough sweet, a gesture of friendship that went viral and made the contrast with Trump all the more startling.
George H.W. Bush's dislike of Trump 'ran deeper than Trump assumes' but, in a sign of his respect for the offices he wanted him at his funeral to rise above partisan politics
The awkward scene that unfolded showed Trump looking out of place while George W. Bush gave Michelle Obama a cough sweet, a gesture of friendship that went viral and made the contrast with Trump all the more startling.
'Team of Five' says that George W. Bush tried to be 'sphinx like' with Trump, meaning that he kept a low profile and tried not to respond.
But Trump has goaded him and said that the invasion of Iraq 'the single worst decision ever made and it threw a 'big fat brick into a hornet's nest'
Andersen Brower writes 'Trump's attacks on Bush have cut far deeper than anything Obama said during the heat of the 2008 campaign', partly because he's supposed to be a Republican.
Relations improved with Trump after he appointed Brett Kavanaugh, a former top Bush White House aide, to the Supreme Court, and Bush even called some Congressmen to help get the judge confirmed.
But Bush has bristled at Trump's policies, especially the separation of migrant families from their children.
A close friend of Bush's said: 'He's not happy with (Trump) - it's not in the long term interest of the country. Will we get past this? Yes, we will. This country has been through the Civil War'.
Team of Five recounts a startling conversation between a Trump aide who told Bush not to be critical of Trump in public.
Bush asked why not and the Trump aide said: 'Out of loyalty'.
Trump even managed to offend the family of a President who was dead by the time he took office - Ronald Reagan. After his 2016 victory, Trump tweeted a photo of himself shaking hands with Reagan (pictured in 1987). But Reagan's widow Nancy Reagan was 'not a fan' of Trump's and 'did not appreciate candidates using his legacy for their own political ends'
Bush replied sarcastically: 'Oh yeah, because he's been so loyal to you'.
Trump even managed to offend the family of a President who was dead by the time he took office - Ronald Reagan.
After his 2016 victory, Trump tweeted a photo of himself shaking hands with Reagan.
But Reagan's widow Nancy Reagan was 'not a fan' of Trump's and 'did not appreciate candidates using his legacy for their own political ends'.
Reagan's son Ron said: 'She didn't see any of them as being the reincarnation of her husband'.
Apparently Nancy Reagan had one pithy word to describe Trump to her friends: 'Silly'.
Surprisingly Jimmy Carter is the ex-President who seems to have got on with Trump the best, in part because he is an outsider in the Presidents Club.
Carter has been given 'occasional suspensions' for criticizing others too much, notably George W. Bush and Iraq, and Clinton for lifting sanctions on Cuba.
Asked if the Presidents Club were a team, Carter said: 'You can't put all the Presidents in the same box. Some make a lot of money'.
Such is the dislike of Carter among members of Presidents Club that they tried to exclude him from the historic 2009 photo of all the living former Presidents in the Oval Office.
According to Team of Five, the event was deliberately scheduled so it would happen while Carter was away on a trip for the Carter Center, his charitable and philanthropic foundation.
Surprisingly Jimmy Carter (pictured in 2019) is the ex-President who seems to have got on with Trump the best, in part because he is an outsider in the Presidents Club. Carter has been given 'occasional suspensions' for criticizing others too much, notably George W. Bush and Iraq, and Clinton for lifting sanctions on Cuba
But Carter canceled the trip and came - in the photo he stands awkwardly to the side while everyone else seems much closer.
Carter was 'clearly disappointed' when Obama didn't ask him for help while in office and he felt Obama 'did not pay him the proper respect', Team of Five states.
When Carter called Obama to offer advice, he was called back by Tom Donilon, the President's national security advisor, who had been an intern in the Carter White House.
That, for Carter, was the 'ultimate humiliation'.
Carter did make an effort with Trump and was one of the first people to call him after his 2016 victory.
He held off attacking him like the other former Presidents because the Carter Center has to work with the State Department.
But he eventually couldn't hold back and Carter told CBS that the American people deserve a President who has 'loyalty to his own wife', a nod to Trump's infidelity.
He also suggested Trump is an illegitimate leader because the Russians helped him get elected.
To that Trump shot back: 'Jimmy Carter, look, he's a nice man, he was a terrible president'.
Carter's wife Rosalyn has been more blunt and has said of Trump: 'He is a train wreck'.
No comments