Under min korta men minnesvärda tid i fastighetsbubblan hade ägaren regelbundna möten där han la ut texten inför beundrande medarbetare. (Det ingick i jobbet att åtminstone verka beundrande.) Jag skrev sammanfattande protokoll, men det räckte inte –  alla hans guldkorn spelades dessutom in på band. Kassetterna låg i osorterade högar i några lådor. När jag frågade vad som skulle göras med dem kunde ingen svara. Undrar vart de tog vägen i konkursen?

Varför kommer jag att tänka på det här just när jag i New York Times läser utdragen ur Trumps samtal med journalister?

Under resan till Paris nyligen pratade Trump med journalisterna ombord på presidentplanet “Air Force One”. De uppfattade samtalen som “off the record”, men efter ankomsten undrade Trump varför pressen inte skrivit om dem. Och Vita Huset publicerade ett redigerat utdrag ur samtalen, som NYT nu citerar. (***) och (. . . .) markerar text som Vita Huset utelämnat.

Nedan har jag plockat ut några stycken och försökt mig på några sammanfattande översättningar.

Om besöket i Frankrike:

Q: When were you last in Paris? When were you last in France?

THE PRESIDENT: So I was asked to go by the President, who I get along with very well, despite a lot of fake news. You know, I actually have a very good relationship with all of the people at the G20. And he called me, he said, would you come, it’s Bastille Day — 100 years since World War I. And I said, that’s big deal, 100 years since World War I. SO we’re going to go, I think we’re going to have a great time, and we’re going to do something good. And he’s doing a good job. He’s doing a good job as President.

På svenska ungefär: Jag har goda relationer med alla i G20 och Frankrikes president inbjöd mig. Vi ska göra nåt bra. Han gör ett bra jobb. (Inget svar på frågan)

Om Nordkorea, Kina och handel:

THE PRESIDENT: A big thing we have with China was, if they could help us with North Korea, that would be great. They have pressures that are tough pressures, and I understand. And you know, don’t forget, China, over the many years, has been at war with Korea — you know, wars with Korea. It’s not like, oh, gee, you just do whatever we say. They’ve had numerous wars with Korea.

They have an 8,000 year culture. So when they see 1776 — to them, that’s like a modern building. The White House was started — was essentially built in 1799. To us, that’s really old. To them, that’s like a super modern building, right? So, you know, they’ve had tremendous conflict over many, many centuries with Korea. So it’s not just like, you do this. But we’re going to find out what happens. (…)

I have a very good relationship with him. I think he’s a tremendous guy. But don’t forget. He’s for China. I’m for the U.S. So that’s always going to be.

På svenska ungefär: Det vore toppen om Kina kunde hjälpa oss med Nordkorea. De har haft många krig med Korea. Men de är pressade och kan inte bara göra som vi säger. Men vi får se vad som händer. Jag har en mycket god relation till honom. Han är en fantastisk kille. Men glöm inte: Han håller på Kina. Jag håller på US.

Om sjukvårdsreformen (Trump lovade ju att snabbt ersätta nuvarande “Obamacare” med något mycket bättre, oklart vad):

THE PRESIDENT: No, I think, first, I want to do — well, we have a few things. We have a thing called healthcare. I’m sure you haven’t been reading about it too much. It is one of the — I’d say the only thing more difficult than peace between Israel and the Palestinians is healthcare. It’s like this narrow road that about a quarter of an inch wide. You get a couple here and you say, great, and then you find out you just lost four over here. Healthcare is tough.

But I think we’re going to have something that’s really good and that people are going to like. We’re going to find out over the next — you know, we just extended for two weeks. Which, that’s a big —

På svenska ungefär: Det här är svårare än att skapa fred mellan Israel och Palestina. Men jag tror att vi kommer att få nånting riktigt bra som folk gillar.

Om muren mot Mexiko:

One of the things with the wall is you need transparency. You have to be able to see through it. In other words, if you can’t see through that wall — so it could be a steel wall with openings, but you have to have openings because you have to see what’s on the other side of the wall.

And I’ll give you an example. As horrible as it sounds, when they throw the large sacks of drugs over, and if you have people on the other side of the wall, you don’t see them — they hit you on the head with 60 pounds of stuff? It’s over. As crazy as that sounds, you need transparency through that wall. But we have some incredible designs.

På svenska ungefär: Man måste kunna se igenom muren. När de kastar 30 kg tunga säckar med droger över den kan människor på andra sidan annars få det i huvudet. Men vi har några otroliga konstruktioner.

Om Donald Trump, Jr.:

Bakgrund: Det har nyligen avslöjats att två dagar efter att Donald Trump blivit republikanernas presidentkandidat deltog hans son i ett möte tillsammans med Trumps kampanjledare och Trumps svärson (då nyckelperson i kampanjen, nu seniorrådgivare till presidenten.) De träffade bland annat en advokat med kopplingar till Kreml och en spionanklagad  ryss.

Trump Jr inbjöds till mötet med ett e-mail, som utlovade komprometterande information om demokraternas kandidat Hillary Clinton. Mailet fortsätter (min fetning): ”Detta är självklart väldigt viktig och känslig information, men det är en del av Rysslands regerings stöd för Trump”. I sitt svar skrev Trump Jr : ”om det är vad du säger så älskar jag det”.

Denna bekräftelse på Rysslands stöd för Trump är förstås fatal: flera större utredningar pågår om Rysslands inblandning i det amerikanska presidentvalet och graden av samröre mellan Ryssland och Trump med omgivning. Men när man tidigare frågat Trump Jr om ryska kontakter har han förargligt nog glömt det här mötet – ända tills tidningarna upptäckte det och började publicera e-mail.

THE PRESIDENT: Don is — as many of you know Don — he’s a good boy. He’s a good kid. And he had a meeting, nothing happened with the meeting. It was a short meeting as he told me — because I only heard about it two or three days ago.

As he told me, the meeting went — and it was attended by a couple of other people who — one of them left after a few minutes — which is Jared. The other one was playing with his iPhone. Don listened, out of politeness, and realized it wasn’t . . . .

Honestly, in a world of politics, most people are going to take that meeting. If somebody called and said, hey — and you’re a Democrat — and by the way, they have taken them — hey, I have really some information on Donald Trump. You’re running against Donald Trump. Can I see you? I mean, how many people are not going to take the meeting?

På svenska ungefär: Trump Jr är en bra grabb. Han lyssnade mest för att vara artig, och mötet var kort. Svärsonen var inte med så länge, och den andre lekte med sin I-phone. Och förresten: Demokraterna skulle ha gjort precis likadant om de fått chansen.

(Det låter som om det inte var så farligt? Jfr dock nedan i svaret om Putin – min fetning.)

Om president Putin och Ryssland:

Q Are you mad that Putin lied about the meeting that you had with him, especially about —

THE PRESIDENT: What meeting?

Q At the G20, when he said that you didn’t — you know, you accepted that the hacking wasn’t real.

THE PRESIDENT: He didn’t say that. No. He said, I think he accepted it, but you’d have to ask him. That’s a big difference. So I said, very simply — and the first 45 minutes, don’t forget, most of the papers said I’d never bring it up. Had to be the first 20 to 25 minutes.

And I said to him, were you involved with the meddling in the election? He said, absolutely not. I was not involved. He was very strong on it. I then said to him again, in a totally different way, were you involved with the meddling. He said, I was not — absolutely not.

Q Do you remember what the different way was that you asked —

THE PRESIDENT: Somebody said later to me, which was interesting. Said, let me tell you, if they were involved, you wouldn’t have found out about it. Okay, which is a very interesting point.

Q But did you say, okay, I believe you, let’s move on?

THE PRESIDENT: What I said, I asked him, were you involved? He said, very strongly — said to him a second time — totally different — were you involved? Because we can’t let that happen. And I mean whether it’s Russia or anybody else, we can’t let there be even a scintilla of doubt when it comes to an election. I mean, I’m very strong on that.

And I’m not saying it wasn’t Russia. What I’m saying is that we have to protect ourselves no matter who it is. You know, China is very good at this. I hate to say it, North Korea is very good at this. Look what they did to Sony Studios. They were the ones that did the whole deal to Sony. You know, we’re dealing with highly sophisticated people.

So, China is very good. You have many countries. And you have many individuals that are very good at this. But we can’t have — and I did say, we can’t have a scintilla of doubt as our elections and going forward.

På svenska ungefär: Jag frågade Putin två gånger om de varit inblandade i valet. Han sa: Absolut inte. Fast sen sa någon till mig att om de var inblandade skulle jag inte ha fått veta det – intressant synpunkt. Men det får inte finnas minsta antydan till misstanke om främmande inblandning i våra val. Det är jag mycket tydlig med.

(Jfr alltså svaret ovan apropå sonens möte.)

Plötsligt kommer jag att tänka på Hitlers bordssamtal: Mellan åren 1941 och 44 höll Hitler ofta långa monologer i sina hemliga högkvarter runt om i Europa. En liten skara nazipolitruker fick då reda på vad Hitler tänkte och tyckte – i ändlösa monologer om allt från hur hans svettning avtagit sedan han blev vegetarian, till hungersnöden i Leningrad..

Då fastnar skrattet i halsen. 😱