It was mid-November, and Donald Trump was once again enveloped in political scandals and legal woes. He and his attorneys were finalizing written answers to Special Counsel Robert Mueller; the administration was trying to defend a lethal-force authorization at a militarized southern border; and the Republican Party was licking its wounds from the 2018 midterm election drubbing.
In the midst of all that drama, however, the president’s mind drifted elsewhere.
News had recently broke that Cliff Sims, a former Trump White House official, had penned a “tell-all” book about life in a backstabbing-filled West Wing. A 2016 campaign veteran, Sims had enjoyed wide access in part due to his personal friendship with Trump. The two men were so close that the president affectionately called him “my Cliff,” according to a source familiar with their relationship.
A storied US agency, one that began under President Kennedy in 1961 with the aim of...
