THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE C3
were lined up for a photo. Some of
them felt abused for their Trump
support, just as Don Jr. writes
about in “Triggered.”
Fashion designer Andre Soria-
no was mingling in the lobby and
holding a copy of the book. He
created the “MAGA” gown that
musician Joy Villa wore at the
2017 Grammy Awards, and says
he has lost friends and job oppor-
tunities because of his politics. He
thinks Don Jr. and his family
represent compassion and class.
“I think they have a very good
message,” said Soriano, wearing a
black peacoat and a cascade of
pearls. “You know, it’s so hard for
me to really see what’s happening
in our great nation, because
there’s so much divisiveness and
hatred that’s going on.”
On the way out of the hotel, this
reporter attempted to engage a
well-dressed woman who had
three copies of “Triggered”
wedged into her purse. She re-
sponded with a look of disgust.
“No, you’re fake news,” she said.
“We love President Trump and we
love Don Junior.”
The reporter turned to leave
and nearly ran into Jacob Wohl,
the right-wing agitator who has
tried to defame various Demo-
crats through “investigations”
that generate nothing but weird
stunts and empty promises.
Wohl, wearing a sharp suit, swag-
gered into the president’s lobby
like he belonged among the
wounded wealthy, the “vaccine
injured,” and the s--- talkers par
excellence.
[email protected]Libowitz, communications direc-
tor for Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington. “An-
other way the Republican politi-
cal apparatus is lining the pockets
of the Trump family.”
The rollout of “Triggered” be-
gan smoothly Oct. 30 with “Fox
and Friends,” where Don Jr.
claimed that he basically grew up
in the Rust Belt because the elite
boarding school he attended is
located in a former steel town in
Pennsylvania. (Students there
wear blazers and ties; classes are
referred to as “forms” in the tradi-
tion of British nomenclature.) On
“CBS This Morning” on Nov. 5, he
made an oblique reference to
“what I’ve been through for the
last few years.” Later that after-
noon, he was more explicit on
Dana Loesch’s talk-radio show.
“You back me into a corner, and
threaten my life and my family for
two and a half years, and guess
what, boys and girls?” he told the
former spokeswoman for the Na-
tional Rifle Association. “I’m go-
ing to fight back.”
The fighting back is conta-
gious. On Thursday, “The View”
co-host Meghan McCain told him
that he and his family have “put a
lot of people through a lot of
pain.” On Sunday, nationalist
trolls disrupted Don Jr.’s book
event at UCLA, as part of a turf
war launched by the extreme
wing of the pro-Trump right.
But on Tuesday, at the Trump
International Hotel, the recep-
tion was warm. The book event
started a half-hour late, and by
then a couple hundred peoplejacket promotes him as “the voice
of our political future.”
What does that voice sound
like? It sounds shrill. Ranty. It
sounds like it’s fueled by ven-
geance and a half dozen Red
Bulls, an energy drink that Don
Jr. mentions multiple times in the
book. In public appearances, he
works himself into the type of
lather that his father generally
avoids. In writing, well —
“I consider myself a s--t-talker
par excellence,” he writes on page
9.
Barack Obama’s name is
spelled incorrectly on p. 170.
In a chapter titled “Not Exactly
the Statue of Liberty,” he cites
data from the Center for Immi-
gration Studies, which has repu-
diated its designation as a hate
group by the Southern Poverty
Law Center.
“For far too long the Left ham-
mered away at our values and we
did nothing,” writes Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-Texas) — once “Lyin’ Ted,” ac-
cording to Don Jr.’s father — in a
blurb of praise on the back cover.
“Donald Trump Jr.’s new book is a
roadmap on how we fight back.”
The book has ranked in Ama-
zon’s Top 10 sellers, although Don
Jr. has had some help from his
father’s campaign. Last week, the
Republican National Committee
promised signed copies of the
book to anyone who contributed
$50 or more to Trump’s reelec-
tion.
“As long as it paid the publisher
the fair market value for the
books, the RNC can do this and
Don Jr. gets paid,” said Jordan“It doesn’t garner me friends,”
Hines said of her advocacy, “but
at the same time, I have a wonder-
ful support community of people
who are just like me.” She
could’ve been describing Trump
fandom in general: devout, con-
troversial, moved by the idea of
solidarity against a vast threat.
When Hines and her fellow
advocates reached the backdrop,
they crowded around Don Jr. for
the photo. Hines was told to pass
her note to a staffer, but Don Jr.
asked for it himself.
“All these ladies,” said Don Jr.,
dressed business casual. “I’m go-
ing to enjoy this. Although I’m not
allowed to say that anymore.”
As a straight, white, conserva-
tive male, Don Jr. writes in his
book, he is not allowed to have an
opinion (although his book has
284 pages of opinions). Radical
leftists and the complicit media,
he writes, are trying to turn
America into a socialist dystopia
of gender-bending, “unlimited
abortions” and the smearing of
men who are not “lining up to
date women with beards and pe-
nises.” It’s the type of book that
William F. Buckley Jr. might’ve
written if his vocabulary and rhe-
torical skills were halved.
Don Jr. politely declined to
answer a question when it was
this reporter’s turn for a photo —
“The author of this book seems
like an aggrieved and vindictive
man; do you ever wish your fami-
ly had never entered politics?” —
so we are left to look for answers
in the text itself. “Triggered” is a
memoir, a tirade, a stab at policy
prescription, a love letter to dad
— sometimes all on the same
page.
The Trump presidency is “a
gold mine for brand building,” he
writes about his father’s critics,
but this book seems like the cul-
mination of Don Jr.’s own myth-
making. He once espoused an
approach to life that differed
from his father — genteel, re-
served, moderate, more at home
in nature than in public combat —
but that has changed since 2016.
Now, he feels his father’s “unstop-
pable” energy flowing through
him.
“I’m much more like my father
than I’d ever thought,” he writes.
“It took getting backed into a
corner for those traits to mani-
fest.”
He is the only Trump child who
performs frequently at rallies,
where he’s auditioned many of
the lines that are in the book. His
“sole focus” right now is his fa-
ther’s reelection. He used to de-
mur when asked about running
for office some day, but the book
BOOK TOUR FROM C1
At D.C. book tour stop, Trump Jr. seems at home
JOHANNES EISELE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
“I’m much more like my father than I’d ever thought,” Donald Trump Jr. writes in his book,
“Triggered.” “It took getting backed into a corner for those traits to manifest.”chael Bloomberg in a story, note his
role as founder and majority owner
of Bloomberg L.P. When reporting
on his actions as a newsmaker, we
should call him for comment as we
would contact any other public fig-
ure.”
Poynter’s McBride said
Bloomberg the company should
“articulate a strategy” that ensures
fairness in its coverage of
Bloomberg the candidate. It could
include an outside review panel or
an internal ombudsman or public
editor.
“Transparency is important for
their credibility and to manage the
perception that they’re being fair”
to all the candidates, she said. “It
really is a PR problem” as much as a
journalistic one.
[email protected]tions about conflicts of interest.
Bloomberg, 77, faced questions
about his business holdings during
his 12 years as New York mayor.
During that time, he recused him-
self from day-to-day management
of the company but did not divest
himself of his holdings. He re-
turned to the company as chief ex-
ecutive in 2014 after his time as
mayor.
Bloomberg News covered
Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor, but it
devotes far more resources to cov-
ering national politics and econom-
ic policy and trade, all of which are
affected by the 2020 presidential
contest.
But Michael Bloomberg’s com-
mitment to editorial transparency
has at times been questionable.
During an exploratory visit to Iowa
last year, he sent chills through his
newsroom when he told a radio
interviewer: “Quite honestly, I don’t
want the reporters I’m paying to
write a bad story about me. I don’t
want them to be independent.”
According to the “Bloomberg
Way” guidebook, “Bloomberg Edi-
torial doesn’t originate stories
about the company.”
It adds: “Whenever we name Mi-covering politics if he ran for presi-
dent.
Alternatively, he could place his
financial holdings in a blind trust to
maintain an arm’s-length relation-
ship from it. (Trump has declined to
do so with his own businesses, rais-
ing questions about whether he is
continuing to profit from his deci-
sions in office.)
Questions about journalistic
conflicts have irregularly come up
about other wealthy owners of me-
dia properties. The Washington
Post is owned by Amazon founder
and chief executive Jeff Bezos, a fact
regularly disclosed online or in
print when Bezos or Amazon are
covered by The Post. Other billion-
aires with interests in the news
media include Rupert Murdoch
(Fox News, the Wall Street Journal),
John Henry (the Boston Globe) and
Patrick Soon-Shiong (the Los Ange-
les Times).
Only one such wealthy media
mogul has run for president in the
past few decades. Republican Steve
Forbes first sought his party’s presi-
dential nomination in 1996 — he ran
again in 2000 — at the same time he
was the majority owner of Forbes
magazine. His run drew few ques-ny of Bloomberg News.”
And that is about all Bloomberg
News is willing to say about it. A
spokeswoman, Kerri Chyka, issued
a brief statement Monday: “Mike
Bloomberg has not yet announced
that he’s running. If and when he
does, we will share our coverage
plans with the newsroom.” Gordon
declined to comment, referring a
reporter back to Chyka.
According to people at
Bloomberg, the news organiza-
tion’s top editors, including editor
in chief John Micklethwait, have
given no special guidance to its staff
about how to tackle a Michael
Bloomberg candidacy.
Yet his running would inevitably
raise internal questions, such as
whether Bloomberg News can fair-
ly cover its founder. Its reporting
and style guide, called “The
Bloomberg Way,” has long banned
Bloomberg reporters from covering
the founder’s “wealth or personal
life,” two obvious areas of interest
for any presidential candidate.
What’s more, a Bloomberg can-
didacy would extend the fairness
issue to Bloomberg News’s cover-
age of his political rivals, including
President Trump: Would coverage
(or non-coverage) of them tilt in
favor of the boss?
“For starters, the minute he for-
mally announces, you would expect
a statement about how they intend
to manage the conflict of interest,”
said Kelly McBride, an ethics expert
at the Poynter Institute, a journal-
ism education organization. “The
ideal way is that he would have
nothing to do with the company. He
has to somehow recuse himself
from any editorial management.”
Easier said than done, McBride
acknowledged. Bloomberg L.P., the
parent company of Bloomberg
News, is a globe-spanning news
and financial-information enter-
prise owned principally by
Bloomberg himself. Although he is
unlikely to sell his interest in the
company in time to run for presi-
dent, he said in an interview last
year that he would sell his stake if he
became president. He even mused
that Bloomberg News would stop
BLOOMBERG FROM C1
Bloomberg (News) and Bloomberg (newsmaker)
JOHN LOCHER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Bloomberg recused himself from day-to-day management of Bloomberg News during his
tenure as mayor of New York but didn’t divest his holdings. Now, he’s hinting at running for president.self in a fierce back-and-forth
with a recalcitrant witness. No, he
arrives without the jacket, fully
expecting a fight — champing at
the bit for one. The former wres-
tling coach has defined himself as
the guy who readily goes toe-to-
toe. And his Republican col-
leagues assigned him to the
House Intelligence Committee
last week to go to the mat for
President Trump.
Jordan, in his pale blue shirt
and yellow tie, began his ques-
tioning Wednesday afternoon by
rereading Taylor’s previous testi-
mony, racing through his own
statements that stood in for ques-
tions and interrupting the wit-
ness when he attempted to re-
spond. Jordan stared at Taylor
over his reading glasses. Jordan
yelled at him and then nodded
impatiently when Taylor man-
aged to utter a few words. The
congressman made references to
“church prayer chains,” which
served as a reminder that he is the
sort of man for whom religiosity
and righteousness are always
front of mind. Jordan began at
least one sentence with “No disre-
spect.. .” which always means
that disrespect is forthcoming. It
came in the form of a smirk. By
then, Jordan’s first five minutes
were up.
When he got into the ring for
his second round, Jordan was
speaking so fast that he was swal-
lowing his words. It was an “in-
vesgashun” not an investigation.
“It didn’t happen! You had to be
wrong,” he yelled at Taylor. It was
a double accusation, not a state-
ment of fact. It was a jab and then
an uppercut. One could practical-
ly see the foamy sweat of pugilism
dripping from Jordan’s brow. Tay-
lor was resolutely nonplussed.
When his fellow Republicans
put Jordan in for a third round, he
skipped the questions altogether
and just delivered a monologue
on the injustice of the entire
proceeding.
The congressman had come to
pummel the witnesses, not to
interrogate them. It doesn’t mat-
ter whether any of his punches
landed or whether his opponent
fought back. The man in the shirt
sleeves was prepared to shadow-
box to the death.
[email protected]9/11 first responders, he wore a
suit jacket and tie. When comedi-
an Hasan Minhaj went to Capitol
Hill to discuss student loan debt,
he also wore a suit.
The extras in the audience as
the impeachment drama unfold-
ed were wearing suit jackets. The
witnesses were in suit jackets.
George Kent, the deputy assistant
secretary of state, wore a three-
piece suit, no less. He paired it
with a genial bow tie and an
expression of bemused patience
when questioning veered off
road. His right eyebrow, with its
rise and fall, was a soliloquy on
professorial forbearance. Acting
ambassador William Taylor was
also duly attired in a suit, with a
green four-in-hand — his brow
furrowing with his efforts to sort
the questions from the chaff.
But Jordan, in his role as a
representative of the American
people, couldn’t be bothered to
suit up.
When Jordan was interviewed
recently by a Wall Street Journal
reporter about why he doesn’t
wear a jacket, the congressman
responded with a chuckle and
then a statement that was the
equivalent of a shrug, “I’m not
even sure,” he said. “I don’t know
why.”
But, of course, that was disin-
genuous. After a pause, he admit-
ted that he does wear a jacket
when the rules require him to do
so, as when he’s on the House
floor. And he wears a jacket when
he aims to be respectful, such as
when he is in the company of the
president or on a visit to the
White House. Presumably, he
doesn’t consider sitting alongside
his colleagues during a matter of
national importance to be a situa-
tion that deserves his high regard.
Jordan says he doesn’t wear a
jacket when in committee be-
cause “I get fed up at these wit-
nesses who I think aren’t being
square with me or my colleagues
and, more important, the Ameri-
can people. I can’t really get fired
up and get into it if you’ve got
some jacket slowing you down.”
Perhaps Jordan worries all that
mental jousting will cause him to
overheat. If so, his wardrobe se-
lection is a preemptive move.
Jordan doesn’t wait to slip out of
his jacket if he should find him-NOTEBOOK FROM C1A jacket is required if
you want to show dignity
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent was the un-Jim
Jordan of the day’s proceedings, wearing a three-piece suit.The
Reliable
Source
Helena Andrews-Dyer and Emily Heil
have moved on to new assignments at
The Post. A search is underway for a
new Reliable Source columnist. The
column will return.