Trump asked who John Boehner was the day after the election: report

President Trump reportedly asked who former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was on the day after the 2016 presidential election, according to an excerpt from a new book about the Trump administration.

An excerpt from Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” published in New York Magazine on Wednesday details the early days of the Trump transition team.

During a meeting at Trump Tower the day after the election, former Fox News head and Trump friend Roger Ailes urged Trump to pick someone for chief of staff who would be able to impose order on the White House, according to the excerpt. 

{mosads}“You need a son of a bitch as your chief of staff,” Ailes reportedly told Trump. “And you need a son of a bitch who knows Washington. You’ll want to be your own son of a bitch, but you don’t know Washington.”

Ailes suggested to Trump that Boehner, who had retired from Congress just one year earlier, would be a good pick.

“Who’s that?” Trump reportedly asked in response.

Despite the claims in Wolff’s book, Trump has tweeted about Boehner in the past, even mocking the Ohio Republican in October 2015 for crying.

Wacky @glennbeck who always seems to be crying (worse than Boehner) speaks badly of me only because I refuse to do his show–a real nut job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 8, 2015

Trump’s tweets about Boehner date back years.

Speaker John Boehner, who I like, should never have agreed to raise taxes because the Republicans got absolutely nothing for it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2013

Maybe Boehner will stop this one sided deal in the House…I hope so!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2013

No taxes in Boehner or Reid Plan—-important victory for America.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2011

Trump and Boehner have also reportedly golfed together in the past. 

Following publication of the excerpt, Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to dispute the claims. 

“More lies, go back and look, Boehner and [Trump] spent time together well before the election. Just another pathetic attempt to smear @realDonaldTrump,” he tweeted, adding the hashtag #fakenews. 

More lies, go back and look, Boehner and #potus spent time together well before the election. Just another pathetic attempt to smear @realDonaldTrump #fakenews https://t.co/xxuhdiQU8f

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 3, 2018

According to the book, Trump wanted to tap his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for chief of staff, until conservative commentator Ann Coulter told him that he couldn’t.

“Nobody is apparently telling you this,” Coulter reportedly told Trump. “But you can’t. You just can’t hire your children.”

Snippets from Wolff’s book, which will be published next week, have been making headlines Wednesday with explosive revelations from former Trump staffers. Former chief strategist Stephen Bannon is quoted in the book as calling the 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians “treasonous.”

This report was updated at 1:18 p.m.