NEW YORK (Dagbladet Bok): – Donald Trump is almost like a cancer for the Republican Party. He is not just a tumor, but he has entered the tissue. With diffusion. This will continue if an adequate agreement is not reached, Høeg tells Dagbladet.
– In the past, Republican politicians had to resign quickly if they were discovered for adultery or if they did not live up to Christian values. Then came Trump, and he survived countless accusations and scandals. He gave people permission to play assholes. Unfortunately, this is probably why so many top voters like it.
Hans Høeg is the man from Drammen who became the cabinet chief of an American congressman in 2012 and joined the inner circles of power in the United States.
Now he has written the book “Our man in Washington”, in which he describes the dirty tricks and corruption in American politics. A world he experienced as strikingly similar to the Netflix series “House of Cards,” about the cynical power game in Washington DC
– I should have shot him in the head
Høeg makes no secret of the fact that neither he nor any other elected Republicans are particularly big fans of Trump.
– Behind closed doors, I’ve heard all kinds of bad words about that boy. They called him an asshole, son of a bitch, fool and idiot. It is said that he has no ideology other than himself. It is no secret whether a measure is conservative or liberal. We saw it in the beginning, he is not a good man, says Høeg.
He points out that the insults did not come from Massie, but from other Republicans.
PRIMARY ELECTION CAMPAIGN: Hans Høeg campaigns for Thomas Massie in Kentucky in 2012. Photo: Privat
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A man you can trust
It started in 1991, at the elite university of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Here Høeg and mountaineer Thomas Massie became good friends.
Høeg decided that when Massie started something exciting, he would join him. In 2012 Massie entered politics in Kentucky on the Republican side and was elected to Congress. She needed a cabinet chief she could trust. It was Hans Høeg, a Norwegian with an entrepreneurial and technological background.
The meeting with Washington DC was brutal and one of the things that most shocked Høeg was the position of power of bureaucrats and lobbyists.
– The elections in the USA are held democratically. The problem is that democracy largely ceases when candidates arrive in Washington, and people don’t see the zombification that is taking place. Eventually, lobbyists get a bigger role than voters.
Book bomb: – I was almost shot
Since his job in Congress, Høeg has stood on the sidelines and resumed Donald Trump’s journey as president.
– I don’t think the plan was to end up with a guy like Trump, but many of the voters were so frustrated with what happened in Washington. They felt they had been exploited and would take almost anyone but Hillary Clinton and more or less the same.
He soon saw Trump’s chances of victory.
– We were laughed at. I was at home in Norway during the summer holidays in 2016 and I said Trump was going to win. People said I was crazy.
Trump’s adviser
On November 8, 2016, it was clear that the United States had just elected Donald Trump as president.
The work of putting together an administration began and Hans Høeg was on the lobbyist list as a candidate to become Trump’s chief science officer.
That would make him Trump’s chief scientific advisor to the White House.
Hans Høeg went into the box of thoughts. In Norway, the family was surprised that they didn’t jump at the opportunity.
– I probably wouldn’t have survived the first meeting with him. We probably disagreed and he threw me out the door. No, it wasn’t for me.
Instead, he continued as Massie’s chief of staff until early 2018.
Bald
Høeg believes Trump completely lacked knowledge of how politics actually works and has several stories of colorful phone calls from the then US president.
When Congress met to adopt one of the crisis packages during the pandemic in 2020, Thomas Massie is said to have asked the House of Representatives to hold a debate and vote before the package was adopted. It wasn’t Trump’s plan. And while Massie was on the floor of the House of Representatives, his phone began to ring intensely. Again and again. It is not allowed to answer the phone inside the hall, so Massie went out and called back.
– It was Trump who scolded him, says Høeg and imitates the former president:
– The marriage may not survive
– “Massie, this is the third time you’ve done this to me. It’s the third time. I’ll come after you in a way you’ve never experienced before.” Trump was so pissed off, but he didn’t understand what was really going on.
Høeg explains how Massie alone hasn’t really had the opportunity to stop anything.
– But Trump thought he could destroy the whole plan.
Childhood quarrels
Trump would also have won the election in 2020 if he had acted a little smarter, Høeg believes
– If that boy managed to avoid some of his childhood discussions, show a little more humanity around the pandemic and a little empathy, then he could have won.
In the book Our Man in Washington, Høeg wrote about the deadly attack on Congress on January 6 last year. On that day, Trump supporters stormed Congress in an attempt to overturn the election results.
Høeg was not in Congress that day, but he communicated with Massie, who barricaded himself in his office. By connecting two cell phones to FaceTime and placing them outside the door, he was able to monitor the outside corridor as the violent crowd raged.
After the attack, many Republican politicians initially chose to distance themselves sharply from Trump. However, the former president managed to retain control of the party and most Republicans have begun to ally with him again.
– There are probably diehard Trump supporters, so if you’re a conservative candidate, you have no chance of winning without taking them with you, says Høeg about why more politicians don’t oppose Trump.
– Republican politicians have to balance. In a way, they have to try to sound reasonable, while at the same time having to satisfy this slightly crazier crowd. It is a very difficult dance.
– He’s your favorite president
Massie was among the Republicans who voted to approve Biden as the next US president in January 2021, quite contrary to Trump’s wishes. He could survive politically because he was very strong in his he constituency.
The year before, for example, Massie won the primary election in his Kentucky constituency with 81% of the vote against an opponent who was bidding everything to challenge him as Trump’s running mate. He was well on his way to a landslide when he got the call from Trump
Slaughtered: – Ugly even by Trump’s standards
– “Thomas! He is your favorite president. I have decided to support you,” said Trump. Thomas thanked politely. In reality, it was the opponent who was about to suffer a crushing defeat. So Trump wanted to make sure at the last minute that he was supporting the winning horse and not being associated with the underdog, says Høeg.
He believes November’s mid-term elections may send signals as to how parts of Republicans are preparing to move from Trump.
Everything should be ready for early elections for Republicans. Democratic president Joe Biden is unpopular. There are major problems on the Mexican border. The economy is doing badly, inflation is skyrocketing, and gasoline prices have risen dramatically.
Undress Trump
– But instead of focusing on that, Republican candidates face the Trump dynamic, says Høeg.
– Do you think Trump will be re-elected if he runs again?
– For a long time I thought he wouldn’t be back. Now I have some more doubts, unfortunately, says Høeg.
He points to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as Trump’s most likely successor.
IN CONGRESS: Republican Congressman Thomas Massie addresses the House of Representatives. Behind him sits his chief of staff, the Norwegian Hans Høeg. Photo: private
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No nonsense
Høeg left politics in 2018. Massie is still in Congress. At the same time, the two are still collaborating on a business project.
– We run a tech start-up, as we discussed in our student dorms at MIT 30 years ago, says Høeg.
The project began on the farm where Massie lives in Kentucky and involves the development of high-tech chicken coops powered by solar energy.
NEW CAREER: Hans Høeg overlooking San Francisco. Photo: private
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– Would you consider entering American politics again?
– Believe it or not – I actually considered running in the primary against Trump in 2020. I have no chance, but at least it would be a lot of fun for Norwegians to follow. And it would be good for book sales, but I’d be devastated, says Høeg and laughs.
At the same time, he adds that he is much more likely to get involved in local politics if he wants to get back to being politically active.
– What if Thomas Massie decides to run for president then?
– Then I have to go in, yes. It is not possible to say no to this.
