![]() ![]() During the steakhouse phone call, which took place in December, 2020, Cruz agrees to argue the President’s election-fraud case before the Supreme Court, if the Justices take it. The second function of those moments is to point to one of the major, if less-examined, themes of “Peril”: the cozy, woozy, familiar complacency of leading Republicans when it comes to Trump, which persists long past the point when his contempt for American democracy has become clear. ![]() Who but someone very close to the events would know about the bun? That is true of many other such moments in “ Peril,” such as when Senator Ted Cruz “was at a steakhouse, in the middle of dinner, when the President called.” And when, before a meeting with Trump, Attorney General Bill Barr steeled himself “in the little dining room off the Oval Office.” Or when Kellyanne Conway called Trump at Walter Reed, where he was being treated for COVID-19, and said to him, “Enjoy your hospital food.” No word on whether they served ice cream. First, it stands, as do many slice-of-life vignettes in this and other books in the Woodward œuvre, as a legitimator of sourcing. ![]() But the function of the exchange, in the book, is different, and twofold. Or, perhaps, for a planner of political lunches, the information that Trump still likes ice cream but may be losing his taste for hamburger buns counts as news you can use. Maybe there’s a grand metaphor here: there are times when Trump makes healthy choices and times when he doesn’t. ![]()
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