Trump Claims Mueller Investigation Has Made Him Stronger, According To New Book
The Russia investigation is helping the president, not hurting him, by solidifying his base of supporters across the nation, President Donald Trump alleges in a new book written by some of his strongest political allies.
Comments by Trump suggesting he’s stronger as a result of the investigation come from a book due out this week by former campaign aides Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, according to reporting from the Telegraph. The book takes aim at a supposed conspiracy of federal workers and members of Trump’s own administration, alleging some in the executive branch are part of a “deep state” conspiracy to work against his agenda.
The book also looks at an investigation that the president has largely been critical of since assuming office. The Russia investigation, which began as an examination of the Kremlin’s work to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections, has since turned its head toward looking at whether evidence of illegal collusion occurred between members of Trump’s campaign team and the government of Russia or actors closely associated with Russia President Vladimir Putin.
So far, as reporting from Vox has shown, special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and companies from that nation whom investigators say played a part in interfering with our nation’s elections. A handful of higher-ups in the Trump campaign have also either been charged or made plea deals with Mueller’s team regarding the investigation.
Trump has made repeated claims of the inquiry as being a “witch hunt” and derided the work that has thus far unearthed these charges and led to these plea deals, according to reporting from CNN. Despite these qualms with the investigation, the book by Lewandowski and Bossie demonstrates that Trump feels stronger, not weaker, as a result of the Russia inquiry.
Trump Brags That Mueller Probe Has Made His Support Stronger and Increased the ‘Level of Love’ https://t.co/CMH4JbpvJO pic.twitter.com/1oI7TBddFi
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 25, 2018
“I think it makes my base stronger,” Trump said in the book. “I would have never said this to you. But I think the level of love now is far greater than when we won.”
Trump also asked Vice President Mike Pence in the book for his opinion. “I don’t know, what do you think, Mike?” Trump said.
“As strong or stronger,” Pence responded.
Criticisms of the new book, which is decidedly pro-Trump, have been released by book reviewers, who suggest that much of what’s written mirrors what the president himself has been complaining about for the past couple of years, in terms of a supposed “deep state” conspiracy of workers and agency heads trying to undermine him within the federal government.
“The narrative reads in part like Trump’s Twitter grievances in book form,” a review from the Washington Post pointed out.
