By Andy Sullivan
September 4, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated last year but his defence secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behaviour.
Excerpts from the book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” written by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, which is scheduled for release on Sept. 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump’s 20-month-old presidency.
“It’s just another bad book,” Trump told the Daily Caller.
The Republican president said in a Twitter post that quotes in the book attributed to Defense Secretary James Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and others “were made up frauds, a con on the public.”
