Summary

Chapter 20 begins with Trump’s decision on troop levels in Afghanistan. He clearly did not want to make this decision, seeing it as holdover problem from the Bush and Obama administrations with no obvious solutions. He was also annoyed with McMaster and angrily lashed out during a meeting, claiming that military leaders left him with no real options. Eventually the President decided to slightly increase troop levels and basically maintain the status quo. The second half of the chapter focuses an effort by Kushner and Ivanka to hire Anthony Scaramucci as communications director. They felt that Scaramucci, as a New York businessman, would side with them in the internal power struggle while protecting the administration’s reputation. The Mooch, as Scaramucci refers to himself, had been trying to get a job in the administration for months and was frequently seen in Trump Tower...