"A Warning": an anonymous disclosure book about Trump

Marie Yovanovitch, William Taylor, Alexander Vindman: These US civil servants have become symbols of civil courage overnight. She and more and more colleagues dare to openly testify before Congress against Donald Trump. Not only do they risk their careers and reputation, but they also risk their physical safety.

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Issue 47/2019

In the service of the truth

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But other Trump-critical insiders prefer to remain anonymous. For example, the author of "A Warning," the latest disclosure book on the US President, which appeared this Tuesday and thus bursting in the middle of the parliamentary prelude of a possible impeachment process: While there the next witnesses in the limelight, the author hides who allegedly works in the White House, further behind the code name "Anonymous".

The 272 pages teem with explosive charges: Trump is ignorant, stupid, childish, vindictive, dangerous and mentally so unstable that several ministers have considered overthrowing him. Nevertheless, he could be re-elected in 2020. "This may be our last chance," writes the author, "to hold the man accountable."

Eva Hambach / AFP

The Whistleblower Report, which started the Ukraine affair

Many scenes are hair-raising. But things are fading because they are not always well-documented - and because most Americans have become accustomed to the absurdities of the Trump era

The highlights:

• Last year, a number of senior government officials had considered mass resignation - a " midnight massacre." They only refrained from doing so because that would have "worsened the situation even more". Nevertheless, most would continue to see on demand: "We all have letters of resignation in the drawer."
• Trump shows growing signs of mental confusion : "He stutters, babbles, is confused, irritable and has problems processing information". Also, Trump often forget "what he said or what he was told".
• Trump is like a " twelve-year-old in an air traffic controller's tower who arbitrarily presses the government switches, regardless of whether planes are skidding across the runway." Elsewhere, "Anonymous" describes him as an "elderly uncle who runs across the courtyard of the nursing home without pants and loudly curses over canteen meals."
• At times, the Cabinet had discussed behind closed doors, to overthrow Trump with the 25th Amendment because of lack of sanity . Vice President Mike Pence apparently supported this. The claim is not new, Pence denies it earlier and did so again.
• Trump had "more than once" considered exchanging Pence in the 2020 election campaign against another vice-candidate, such as ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley .
• Another idea of ​​the "resisters" to sabotage Trump was to simply let him follow his "instincts": "That would lead to his downfall."
• Trump wanted all migrants to "deterrent" as "enemy fighters" in the infamous terror detention camp Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to create.
• Trump ignores the insights of the US intelligence services , because he does not want to read their memos and anyway believe to know everything better: "The level of intellectual laziness is amazing." In contrast, Trump has more confidence in someone else: "I believe Putin," "Anonymous" once quotes him.
• Trump sometimes betrays state secrets to brag. So he once proudly showed a reporter in the Oval Office a secret document: "See?"
• Trump rejects the rule of law and the separation of powers enshrined in the US Constitution: America has "the worst laws," he scolded.

AP

"He stutters, babbles, is confused, irritable": "Anonymous" about Trump

Anonymous, according to the publisher - who made a great effort to protect his identity - is the same collaborator from Trump's closest circle who made a furore last year with an explosive essay in The New York Times. "A Warning" is its long form - a warning to a president whose "toxic combination of amorality and indifference" makes him a threat to national security.

But felt light years have passed between the essay and the book - all that is not new anymore. Many insiders have now sounded similar alarms, others now appear at the Impeachment hearings in front of the TV cameras. In contrast to "Anonymous", they do so without a pseudonym, but more convincingly.

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Anonymous
A warning

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272

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"Anonymity has outlived its usefulness," criticized "Time" journalist Joe Klein, who in 1996 wrote the anonymous keyring "With All Power - Primary Colors" about Bill Clinton, in the Washington Post. "We have long passed the point where we can still adore, when it comes to the President's offenses."

So why is "Anonymous" hiding? Unlike the whistleblower who got the Ukrainian thing rolling, he is not concerned with exposing a specific grievance but with preventing Trump's re-election. If he reveals his name, Trump will use that as a "distraction", the author insists. "What will he do if there is no one to attack?"

But the experience of the last few days has proven exactly the opposite: the more Trump attacks the witnesses, the stronger they work. But will it be able to make a difference in an America whose fronts are hardened?

"Anonymous" should certainly not be able to hide for long. Joe Klein, who traded under the same code name in 1996, was unmasked after six months.