Trump was 'near-sadistic' in phone calls with female world leaders, according to CNN report on classified calls

Trump was "near-sadistic" when speaking to leaders like former British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling them "stupid" and "a fool," according to longtime Washington Post reporter of Watergate fame Carl Bernstein, who reported the story for CNN .
One source called Trump's calls with May "humiliating and bullying," while Merkel reportedly took Trump's antics "like water off a duck's back."
"He'd get agitated about something with Theresa May, then he'd get nasty with her on the phone call," One source told CNN. "It's the same interaction in every setting coronavirus or Brexit with just no filter applied."
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President Donald Trump was chummy with autocratic male world leaders in phone calls, but turned "near-sadistic" when he was speaking to women in the same positions, according to a new report from Carl Bernstein for CNN .

Bernstein, who rose to fame at the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal, cites White House and intelligence community sources familiar with highly classified calls sounding the alarm.

Trump's "most vicious attacks, said the sources, were aimed at women heads of state."

The president's overall conduct on these calls was described to Bernstein as a "danger to the national security of the United States" because of how unprepared Trump was.

"The calls caused former top Trump deputies -- including national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and White House chief of staff John Kelly, as well as intelligence officials to conclude that the President was often 'delusional,' as two sources put it, in his dealings with foreign leaders," Bernstein writes .

"More than a dozen officials either listened to the President's phone calls in real time or were provided detailed summaries and rough-text recording printouts of the calls soon after their completion, CNN's sources said. The sources were interviewed by CNN repeatedly over a four-month period extending into June."

Trump reportedly got belligerent with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former British Prime Minister Theresa May.

"Some of the things he said to Angela Merkel are just unbelievable: he called her 'stupid,' and accused her of being in the pocket of the Russian," one source told Bernstein. "He's toughest [in the phone calls] with those he looks at as weaklings and weakest with the ones he ought to be tough with."

Merkel reportedly took Trump's vitriol "like water off a duck's back," in one source's words, and would simply respond "with recitations of fact."

May, on the other hand, was reportedly taken aback by Trump's conduct.

The then-PM would get "flustered and nervous" when being attacked by Trump, according to a Bernstein source.

"He clearly intimidated her and meant to," one of those familiar with the calls told CNN .

The behavior extended to in-person interactions too, according to a German official quoted.

When Merkel visited the White House in 2018, Trump "displayed 'very questionable behavior' that 'was quite aggressive ... [T]he Chancellor indeed stayed calm, and that's what she does on the phone.'"

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