Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill described how she was nicknamed ' Russia b****' when she worked at Presid...
Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill described how she was nicknamed 'Russia b****' when she worked at President Trump's White House, in a Thursday interview soon after he called her a 'stiff with a nice accent.'
Her memoir was published this week and offers an unflattering portrait of Trump's grasp of foreign policy.
It also describes a White House riddled with sexism, where the president berated and belittled female aides.
In an interview with MSNBC, anchor Nicolle Wallace asked her: 'How did you get the name 'Russia b****?'"
'At least they noticed me,' said Hill. 'I assumed they hadn't paid that much attention to me, but I'd got a nickname and I decided to make it a badge of pride in the book because this is a word that people use all the time, particularly when it comes to women's anger.
'You are a b**** if you're criticizing something or you're pushing back on something.
'It's obviously a genderized word, men don't get called that.'
Former member of the National Security Council Fiona Hill said she had not known that other officials called her 'Russia b****' until a journalist asked her about it
Former President Trump called Hill 'a Deep State stiff with a nice accent' in an angry statement after her memoir was published in which she reveals the level of misogyny in his White House
In the book she said then White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was among the aides using the name and that it started after a disastrous encounter with the president in the Oval Office in May 2017.
As the National Security Council's Russia expert, she was there for a conversation between Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Hill's memoir was published by Mariner Books on Tuesday, and describes how she grew up in a poor part of England before rising to work at the White House
But she said she was 'thrown off' when the president's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner turned up.
'Trump professed great satisfaction with the call,' she writes in 'There is Nothing for You Here.'
'Putin seemed calm, measured, friendly even. Ivanka and Jared concurred. I was not so sure ... I had detected more menace in what Putin had to say.
Hill, author of a Putin biography, wanted to step in but did not get the chance as Trump demanded that a prewritten press release be redrafted.
'Then the president raised his voice,' she writes. '"Well can she do it? Can she go type it up and bring it back?'"
Then Trump turned to her: 'Hey darlin', Are you listening? Are you paying attention?'
The president had mistaken his Russia adviser for a secretary.
'I hesitated just a little too long,' she writes. 'I thought someone might tell him who I was, introduce me again, or even help me out a bit with the next steps.'
She jumped up, grabbed her notes and a draft of the release and left the Oval Office to do what she could.
She was later told that the president and Ivanka thought she was rude.
Hill said world leaders such as Putin quickly worked out that Trump was amenable to simple flattery. 'What Putin had on Trump is what everybody else had—recognition of his extreme vulnerability to manipulation,' she said in an interview to promote her new book
Trump blasted Hill amid a slew of books lifting the lid on his administration
When she learned of the nickname she said it was just another part of the 'misogyny rife in the Trump White House.'
'Trump fixated on how women looked on TV as well as in person,' she writes.
'If they were having an off day or had some physical feature - height, weight, the appearance of their hair or skin - that he didn't like he would point it out to others and to their face in public.
'Trump would frequently berate and belittle female aides, including senior women, in front of their male counterparts - none of whom would intercede on their behalf.
'Just being a woman became an obstacle to getting their job done.'
Trump, 75, has had to endure the embarrassment of recent books by Hill, 56, and by Stephanie Grisham, 45, his former press secretary, who have lifted the lid on life in his White House.
Trump unleashed his anger in an emailed statement after Hill spent the week touring TV and radio studios to promote her memoir of growing up poor in England before working in the administration.
'Fiona Hill was a Deep State stiff with a nice accent,' said Trump.
'Books are being written by people like her who had virtually no access to me, and who I didn’t even know.'
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