Trump’s ‘Nasty List’ Included Foreign Officials Who Made ‘Bad’

Fiona Hill, former President Donald Trump‘s one-time Russia adviser, alleges that part of the State Department’s job was to keep tabs on negative comments foreign officials made and ensure they weren’t included in meetings with the Republican president.

Hill, who worked at the National Security Council from 2017 until 2019, wrote in her new book There Is Nothing for You Here that Trump thrived on positive reinforcement, often being swayed by those who paid him compliments before offering their opinions. He also sought to seek “payback” for those who were even perceived to have insulted him, a group of people who found themselves on the “nasty list.”

“At times like this I felt like Alice in Wonderland watching the Queen of Hearts constantly calling ‘Off with his head!’ or ‘Off with her head!’ whenever someone displeased her,” Hill wrote in the book. “And the president was forever wanting people ‘taken out.'”

Hill left the NSC in July 2019 and served as a witness in the November 2019 House hearings during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry. She wrote in her book that State Department officials were instructed to “scour the pronouncements of world leaders” for harsh comments they may have made “at any point in the past or present.” That was an “impossible” task, and the former National Security Council official said she found herself “in trouble” after a 2017 meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

After the press conference, John Roberts, a Fox News reporter, asked the Greek prime minister if he stood by a March 2016 comment that Trump was “evil.” Tsipras downplayed the comment, saying that the two leaders have “common values,” noting that democracy and freedom were “born in Greece.”

Trump, who appeared to be taken by surprise at the mention that Tsipras had once called him “evil,” said, “I wish I knew that before my speech.”

Hill, who attended the press conference, said the team “missed these comments entirely” in their search for negative remarks. She wrote in her book that she was later yelled at by a White House deputy press secretary because they were caught off guard about the comment.

“After the Rose Garden episode, all U.S. embassies and the respective country offices at the State Department were directed to keep tabs on anything ‘bad’ a foreign official said about Trump,” Hill wrote. “We had to compile this material before a visit as part of the briefing package.”

The incident with Tsipras wasn’t the only time Trump was caught off guard with a foreign dignitary. Hill noted a meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump, where Trump learned that the Canadian prime minister said something negative about him at a press conference. Before the meeting, Trump had praised Trudeau and Hill called…