'The Chief's Chief,' by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is published by All Seasons Press on December 7
Donald Trump would likely have taken the law into his own hands to fight off BLM protesters trying to enter the White House last year and 'knocked their heads in,' according to his former chief of staff, if the Secret Service hadn't led him to a secure bunker.
Mark Meadows' account, in his new book 'The Chief's Chief,' aims to offer a Trumpist twist to a story that embarrassed the former president last year.
Trump insisted he was in the White House bunker in order to inspect it - and not because he was taken there for his own safety as protesters tried to invade the White House in May last year.
'A few hours later, the White House entered Code Red. Protestors had jumped the fence on the Treasury side of the compound, and they were running toward the Oval Office,' writes Meadows, according to excerpts obtained by the Daily Beast ahead of the book's publication next week.
'I'm sure that if President Trump had the choice, he would have headed out to the lawns and knocked their heads in one by one.
'But he didn't have a choice. When it comes to the United States Secret Service, no one does. Either you do what they say, or they pick you up and make you do it.
'So when the Secret Service asked President Trump to head downstairs to the White House bunker, he complied.
'He knew that he could go to the bunker with a few agents by his side, or he could go on their shoulders kicking and screaming. For everyone's sake the first option was better.'
President Trump would likely have taken the law into his own hands as BLM protesters closed in on the White House in May last year, according former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and 'knocked their heads in one by one,' he writes in his new book
The White House was put on 'Code Red' as protesters clashed with police yards from its gates amid national protests on May 29 last year in response to the policy killing of George Floyd
Details of his trip to bunker quickly leaked to The New York Times. Meadows fingers White House officials the president's former Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, Emma Doyle, or members of the vice president's team for revealing Trump's movements.
Meadows' account offers a loyalist take, at a time when he is fighting a rearguard action another story from his book.
The Guardian revealed that he describes how Trump tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the first presidential debate with Joe Biden last year, days before the president revealed he had the virus.
After a second test came back negative, Trump carried on with a normal schedule that included meetings, a press briefing and a rally.
Meadows has since tried to distance himself from the story, by claiming the first test as a 'false positive' after Trump reacted with fury to the revelation
'The story of me having COVID prior to, or during, the first debate is Fake News,' Trump wrote in a statement. 'In fact, a test revealed that I did not have COVID prior to the debate.'
In the statement, Trump doesn't deny he received a positive test.
Meadows writes that the then president tested positive on September 26, the day he held a Rose Garden event announcing Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee, which turned into a super-spreader.
Two White House aides familiar with the test confirmed it was positive to the Washington Post.
It was six days before Trump tweeted that he was infected with the virus and subsequently hospitalized.
As Trump boarded Marine One on the way to a Pennsylvania rally scheduled for after the Saturday Barrett event, White House Dr. Sean Conley told Meadows, 'Stop the president from leaving. He just tested positive for COVID.'
It was too late to stop the helicopter, and when Meadows informed Trump of the positive test while onboard Air Force One, the president said something that rhymes with, 'Oh spit, you've gotta be trucking lidding me.'
President Donald Trump (left) tested positive for COVID-19 three days before his first debate against now President Joe Biden (right) on September 29, Mark Meadows reveals in his forthcoming book
Despite Meadows saying that Trump knew he tested positive for COVID-19 on September 26, the president would go on to suggest that he caught the virus from Gold Star family members at an event on September 27
The Guardian obtained a copy of Meadows' book, The Chief's Chief, which comes out next week, on Tuesday.
Meadows said Trump's initial test had been done using an old model kit and so the president was tested again using 'the Binax system, and that we were hoping the first test was a false positive.'
The second test came back negative, with Trump taking that as 'full permission to press on as if nothing had happened.'
Both tests were rapid tests.
At the time of their showdown in Cleveland on September 29, Trump was 74 years old, while Biden was 77.
'I don't think about the former president,' President Joe Biden replied when asked if he believed Trump put him at risk.
Trump went on to announce that he had COVID-19 in the early hours of October 2, three days after his debate with Biden.
The White House said the then-president announced the positive result within an hour of receiving it.
Trump flew to Walter Reed Medical Center for medical attention later that day.
On Saturday evening, September 26, Meadows wrote that Trump looked 'a little tired' and he suspected the president had a 'slight cold,' but he was 'content' with Trump traveling to the rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
Meadows wrote that Trump was surprised at the positive test results because he was a 'massive germaphobe' and avoided seeing anyone who hadn't been rigorously tested.
At the same time, Trump and those around him mostly refused to wear masks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the Barrett event in the Rose Garden, which likely led to Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, Sens. Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie becoming infected, only a handful of attendees sported masks - and there was an indoor reception as part of the programming.
Meadows said after the initial positive test, he instructed everyone in the president's inner circle to treat Trump as if he was positive, the former chief of staff writes in the book.
'I didn't want to take any unnecessary risks,' Meadows wrote, 'but I also didn't want to alarm the public if there was nothing to worry about – which according to
