Explosive book tells all and burns all
Michael Wolff has written a book to shake America to its foundations, writes Lloyd Green.
Amidst the daily din of Donald Trump’s White House comes Fire and
Fury, Michael Wolff’s tell-all, just in time for the first anniversary of the Trump inaugural and it contains a toxic tale that singes all.
In Wolff’s telling, Trump World is cacophonous and dysfunctional. Trump and those who work for him come across as all too happy to ‘‘share’’, while loyalty is almost wholly devoid from their landscape.
Trump purportedly mocks his own sons’ intellectual shortcomings and derides Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, as a suck-up. Melania Trump, the president’s third wife, cries on election night over her husband’s electoral college win. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former senior adviser, pummels Jared and Ivanka, aka Jarvanka, for their incredible lightness of being.
As to be expected, Bannon speaks with the loudest voice. He brands the now infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that was attended by a passel of Russians, Don Jr, Kushner and Paul Manafort, Trump’s thencampaign manager who is now under indictment, as ‘‘treasonous’’, ‘‘unpatriotic’’ and ‘‘bad s...t’’.
Bannon also sees special counsel Robert Mueller tighten his noose around the Oval Office. ‘‘I’m pretty good at coming up with solutions,’’ Wolff quotes Bannon as saying. ‘‘I came up with a solution for his broken-dick campaign in a day, but I don’t see a plan for getting through this.’’ To his credit, Wolff catches the parallels between Bannon and Trump: ‘‘If Trump is incapable of sounding like a president, Bannon had matched him; he was incapable of sounding like a presidential aide.’’
Trump’s circle of ‘‘friends’’, family and acquaintances are depicted as no less unsparing in their criticisms of the president. According to Wolff, Rupert Murdoch called Trump ‘‘ af.....g idiot ’’ after the two men ended a phone call.
In a similar vein, Tom Barrack, a 30-year Trump buddy, allegedly observed: ‘‘He’s not only crazy… he’s stupid.’’
Even Jarvanka piles on. Upset by his father-in-law’s indecision over America’s response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons, Kushner complains that the president just doesn’t get it. As for Ivanka, she is reported to have mocked her father’s hair.
Among Fire and Fury‘s shortcomings are its failure to adequately explain how Trump arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and its insufficient appreciation for the bond forged by Trump and his base. In that sense, the book lacks the connective tissue present in Devil’s Bargain,
Joshua Green’s take on the Trump campaign and the first few months of the presidency.
Clearly, Fire and Fury has set off a storm that has left its share of casualties.
Make no mistake, Wolff’s latest is a must-read. It pulls away whatever curtain still cloaks the Trump White House, leaving those who know Trump best to do the talking. –