Has my stock been accused of fraud?Join over 160k users who know.

Ticker Price Change($) Change(%) Shares Volume Prev Close Open Gain($) Gain(%)
Ticker Status Jurisdiction Filing Date CP Start CP End CP Loss Deadline
Ticker Case Name Status CP Start CP End Deadline Settlement Amt
Ticker Name Date Analyst Firm Up/Down Target ($) Rating Change Rating Current

News

Donald Trump's Long Rant On Stormy Daniels Once Derailed White House Talks With Former AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson About The Threat Of China, Book Reveals

Author: Nabaparna Bhattacharya | April 13, 2024 12:42pm

Donald Trump’s intense focus on China has been central to his bid for the presidency, but a recent book reveals how his fixation on women and sex reportedly derailed a crucial White House meeting with a top U.S. tech executive aimed at tackling Chinese threats to American telecom networks.

The Presidential Summon Of Randall Stephenson

Randall Stephenson, then CEO of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), revealed to New York Times reporter David Sanger a summons to the White House in 2019.

“You don’t say no to the president,” Stephenson said, according to Sanger’s upcoming book, “New Cold Wars: China’s Rise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West,” reported The Guardian.

Also Read: Will Trump Attempt To Strike Potential Jurors From Hush Money Case After Unsuccessful Last-Ditch Efforts To Delay Trial? DOJ Veteran Weighs In.

According to Sanger, Trump had observed Stephenson discussing China on television and wanted to delve more deeply into the topic. 

However, during the meeting, Stephenson recounted that Trump instead went on a tirade about women, explicitly mentioning Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who had alleged an affair with Trump. 

The hush-money payments Trump made to Daniels are slated to be the focal point of his first criminal trial, which will commence in New York on Monday.

Trump’s Diatribe About Stormy Daniels

“Trump burned up the first 45 minutes of the meeting by riffing on how men got into trouble,” Sanger writes in his book.

“He went into a long diatribe about Stormy Daniels, the former porn star who claimed she had had an affair with him. It was ‘all part of the same stand-up comedy act,’ Stephenson later recalled … and ‘we were left with 15 minutes to talk about Chinese infrastructure,” the book notes.

Read Next: Donald Trump Biopic Gets Cannes Film Festival Premiere: Here’s The Details, When Moviegoers Could Get Their First Look

Stephenson, however, reportedly appeared less alarmed, citing China’s adeptness in hacking, which rendered such concerns somewhat moot. He instead emphasized more significant risks: the potential for China, via companies like Huawei or ZTE, to disrupt the U.S. communications grid, and the prospect of Beijing achieving global dominance through investments in Europe, Africa, and Latin America, according to the book.

But Stephenson “could see that the president’s mind was elsewhere. ‘This is really boring,’ Trump finally said,” Sanger writes.

Ivanka Trump To The Rescue?

Ivanka Trump’s arrival reportedly allowed Stephenson to shift the conversation and gracefully exit. This encounter with Trump wasn’t Stephenson’s only challenging interaction, as it also had ties to the Stormy Daniels affair.

Trump consistently denies any wrongdoing and frames the legal actions against him, including 54 criminal charges across three cases and multimillion-dollar penalties in two civil suits, as politically motivated persecution, The Guardian pointed out.

Check This Out: Salesforce Eyes Major Acquisition Of Informatica, May Face Pricing Challenges Amid Stock Surge: Report

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Photo: Shutterstock

Posted In: T

CLASS ACTION DEADLINES - JOIN NOW!

NEW CASE INVESTIGATION

CORE Finalist