NEW YORK (AP) — Six years after departing as national security adviser, H.R McMaster is releasing a book about his brief, contentious time in the Trump administration.
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Tuesday that “At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House” will be published Aug. 27. Harper is calling his book a “riveting” account of a “disruptive” president and of an administration “beset by conflict and the hyper-partisanship of American politics.”
“He writes frankly about some of Trump’s more unscrupulous political advisors who were determined to undermine McMaster and others to advance their narrow agendas as well as cabinet officials who, deeply disturbed by Trump’s language and behavior, prioritized controlling the president over collaboration,” Harper's announcement reads in part.
“With a candid and fresh assessment of the achievements and failures of his tenure as National Security Advisor, McMaster rises above the fray to lay bare the good, the bad, and the ugly of Trump’s presidency and give readers insight into what a second Trump term would look like.”
McMaster was the second of four security advisers under former President Donald Trump. He was brought in soon after Trump took office, in February 2017, as a replacement for Michael Flynn, forced out over his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
But McMaster lasted just over a year, clashing often with Trump, who publicly reprimanded McMaster for saying Russian interference in the 2016 election was beyond dispute. In March 2018, Trump announced he was giving McMaster's job to John Bolton. Bolton left after 17 months and wrote the bestselling “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir."
McMaster, 61, is a retired Army three-star lieutenant general who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and is also known for writing a candid study of political and military leadership during the Vietnam War, “Dereliction of Duty." He touched upon his year with Trump in “Battlegrounds,” published in 2020, but much of the book was an assessment of national security and foreign policy.
“This is not the book that most people wanted me to write," McMaster wrote at the start of “Battlegrounds,” acknowledging that “friends, agents, editors, and even family” wanted him to write a “tell-all.” During a “60 Minutes” interview aired around the time the book came out, McMaster said he was not looking to tell a story of “palace intrigue.”
This cover image released by Harper shows "At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House" by H.R. McMaster. (Harper via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — A defense witness in Donald Trump's hush money case whom the judge threatened to remove from the trial over his behavior will return to the stand Tuesday as the trial nears its end.
Trump's lawyers are hoping Robert Costello's testimony will help undermine the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen.
“They have no case," Trump said outside the courtroom Tuesday. "There’s no crime.”
But Costello angered Judge Juan Merchan on Monday by making comments under his breath, rolling his eyes and calling the whole exercise “ridiculous," prompting the judge to briefly kick reporters out of the courtroom to admonish him.
The judge told Costello, a former federal prosecutor, he was being “contemptuous," adding, “If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand," according to a court transcript.
Costello didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday from The Associated Press.
The chaotic scene unfolded after prosecutors rested their case accusing Trump of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign. The criminal trial, the first of a former U.S. president, is in the final stretch, with closing arguments expected the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
The charges stem from internal Trump Organization records in which payments to Cohen were marked as legal expenses. Prosecutors say they were really reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public before the 2016 election with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump. Trump says nothing sexual happened between them.
Trump has said he did nothing illegal and has slammed the case as an effort to hinder his 2024 bid to reclaim the White House. Trump, a Republican, called the judge a "tyrant" in remarks to reporters while leaving the courthouse Monday and called the trial a “disaster” for the country.
After jurors left for the day Monday, defense attorneys pressed the judge to throw out the charges before jurors even begin deliberating, arguing prosecutors have failed to prove their case. The defense has suggested that Trump was trying to protect his family, not his campaign, by squelching what he says were false, scurrilous claims.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that there was nothing illegal about soliciting a tabloid's help to run positive stories about Trump, run negative stories about his opponents and identify potentially damaging stories before they were published. No one involved “had any criminal intent,” Blanche said.
"How is keeping a false story from the voters criminal?” Blanche asked.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo shot back that “the trial evidence overwhelmingly supports each element” of the alleged offenses and said the case should proceed to the jury.
The judge didn't immediately rule on the defense's request. Such long-shot requests are often made in criminal cases but are rarely granted.
The defense called Costello because of his role as an antagonist to Cohen since their professional relationship splintered in spectacular fashion. Costello had offered to represent Cohen soon after the lawyer’s hotel room, office and home were raided and as Cohen faced a decision about whether to remain defiant in the face of a criminal investigation or to cooperate with authorities in hopes of securing more lenient treatment.
Costello in the years since has repeatedly maligned Cohen’s credibility and was even a witness before last year’s grand jury that indicted Trump, offering testimony designed to undermine Cohen's account. In a Fox News Channel interview last week, Costello accused Cohen of lying to the jury and using the case to “monetize” himself.
Costello contradicted Cohen's testimony describing Trump as intimately involved in all aspects of the hush money scheme. Costello told jurors Monday that Cohen told him Trump “knew nothing” about the hush money payment to Daniels.
“Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments, that he did this on his own, and he repeated that numerous times,” Costello testified.
Cohen, however, testified earlier Monday that he has “no doubt” that Trump gave him a final sign-off to make the payments to Daniels. In total, he said he spoke with Trump more than 20 times about the matter in October 2016.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove told the judge that the defense does not plan to call any other witnesses after Costello, though it may still call campaign finance expert Bradley A. Smith for limited testimony. It has not said definitively that Trump won’t testify, but that’s the clearest indication yet that he will waive his right to take the stand in his own defense.
Long reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin and Michelle Price in New York; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C.; and Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
Former president Donald Trump waves while leaving Trump Tower on his way to Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Members of the press and public stand outside the courtroom after being asked to leave by Judge Juan Merchan during former President Donald Trump's hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court, Monday, May 20, 2024 in New York. Judge Juan Merchan briefly kicked reporters out of the courtroom after admonishing defense witness Robert Costello for his behavior on the stand. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Judge Juan Merchan, left, castigates witness Robert Costello about his "decorum" in the courtroom in Manhattan criminal court, Monday, May 20, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
Former President Donald Trump sits in Manhattan Criminal Court during his ongoing hush money trial, Monday, May 20, 2024, in New York. (Mark Peterson/Pool Photo via AP)
Donald Trump, far left, watches as defense attorney Emil Bove questions Robert Costello, right, with Judge Juan Merchan presiding in Manhattan criminal court, Monday, May 20, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
