Journalists (and other Democrats) are pouncing and seizing on the leaked excerpts from Confidence Man, the forthcoming book about former president Donald Trump by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. The book doesn't come out until Tuesday, but you can read all about it in articles like this one from New York magazine: "Bonkers Revelations From Maggie Haberman's Trump Book, Ranked."
Trump's enemies couldn't be happier. It goes without saying that many of them suffered irreversible brain damage between 2015-2020. These days the only thing that brings them any comfort is reading new articles about Donald Trump, getting worked up about it, and lashing out on social media. They need those book excerpts the way Hunter Biden needs a smoldering crack pipe and a caravan of Russian hookers.
Alas, they probably aren't going to like the following excerpts from Confidence Man, which were exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon from a source close to the subject of the book. They portray Trump in a remarkably different light than the supposedly "bonkers revelations" leaked to mainstream media outlets. Here are three of the most compelling passages from Haberman's reporting that you won't find anywhere else:
1) The plot
The team of medical experts watched in awe as the White House physician instructed Trump to repeat the list of words in order. "Person, woman, man, camera, TV," the president said, his voice oozing with charisma. Trump would boast to aides about the "awkward silence" in the examination room as the brain doctors struggled to comprehend what they'd just witnessed.
Unbeknownst to Trump, that now-infamous cognitive test would prompt a series of secret meetings between academic experts and senior intelligence officials to determine the course of America's future. "I've never seen anything like it," one leading cognitive scientist said in an encrypted group text to high-level operatives. "It's the highest score I've ever observed in my career. BY FAR. I didn't think it was possible to be that smart, but science never lies. Let's meet tomorrow to discuss."
Experts were flown in from around the world. One of America's most respected historians, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, described telling the group—which called itself "Project Zeus"—that Trump had already amassed enough accomplishments during his first term to go down in history as one of the most successful (and most unfairly treated) leaders in the country's history. "Except for Lincoln," the historian recalled. "Maybe."
Project Zeus ultimately arrived at a consensus: Trump's preternatural intelligence was a clear and present danger to the country. He must not be allowed to win reelection in 2020. They hatched a plan to rig the presidential contest in favor of Joe Biden, whom they viewed as a malleable simpleton whose rapidly deteriorating health would make him easy to control. "We stole the election, plain and simple," said a former FBI official with knowledge of the anti-Trump conspiracy.
2) A perfect love
The First Lady's public persona—reserved and soft-spoken supermodel—was just an act. Trump's aides in the White House often went out of their way to avoid Melania, who had a habit of cornering people to boast in great detail about her husband's prowess in the bedroom. On at least one occasion, a group of junior staffers hid for nearly half an hour in the White House freezer, huddling together for warmth, to spare themselves another conversation about the commander in chief's unprecedented capacity for passionate lovemaking.
"I thought I was going to lose a foot to frostbite," one aide said of the incident, which occurred around the time of Trump's first impeachment trial in December 2019. Multiple aides and allies confirmed that Melania was especially eager to discuss the president's notorious phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. "She'd ask you how your day was, and then immediately start talking about the call and how she insisted on playing it in the bedroom to set the mood," another former White House aide recalled. "She'd say: 'It really is perfect, like my Donald.' TMI, you know?"
3) The truth will set you free
Days after the 2020 election, which Trump had come to suspect had been rigged by a secret cabal of deep-state operatives, an envelope appeared on the Resolute desk. The president noticed it one day while drinking a Diet Coke and thinking about all the documents he wanted to declassify. Inside was a piece of paper certifying the birth of "Barack Hussein Obama II" at Mombassa Hospital in Kenya on August 4, 1961.
Trump convened a meeting with senior intelligence officials, who were able to verify the document's authenticity with "100 percent certainty," according to three high-ranking operatives with knowledge of the situation. The officials turned to the president, eager to know what he planned to do next. Trump, who has never shared this information with anyone, sighed thoughtfully as he considered the implications of this bombshell. "You know what?" he said, according to multiple sources in the room. "Let's just pretend this never happened. It wouldn't be good for the country. We're too divided and the temperature's too high, okay? I was right all along, and that's enough for me. Burn it."
So they did.