Rant of the Town is 100-day bust

This Talk-turned-rant — five pages! — needed to be good to merit the New Yorker’s $8.99 cover price. Sadly, it isn’t. The usually reliable newsweekly dishes up an assessment of President Trump’s first 100 days in office, with Editor-in-Chief David Remnick writing in the usually pithy Talk of the Town:

“His presidency has become the demoralizing daily obsession of anyone concerned with global security, the vitality of the natural world, the national health, constitutionalism, civil rights, criminal justice, a free press, science, public education, and the distinction between fact and its opposite.”

Even among the greatest Trumphaters, Remnick’s rant would feel totally recycled were it not for this quip about leaks and infighting in the White House: “His administration is not so much a team of rivals as it is a new form of reality entertainment: ‘The Circular Firing Squad.’ ”

Recently demoted Trump team member Steve Bannon earns 12 pages in this week’s issue, with writer Connie Bruck questioning his business and personal dealings during the ’90s and early ’00s in Hollywood — specifically the reported millions Bannon earned from “Seinfeld” royalties.

He “was one of those guys who always had big stuff about to happen,” said SG Cowen pro Kim Fennebresque, a former business associate.

Personal failings or not, both Trump and Bannon earn spots in

Time’s “100 Most Influential Peo- ple” list. “Some years the list has the feel of a loose, lively dinner party, people who mostly don’t know one another but would get along if they did. This year is a bit more complicated,” Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs writes.

More like “complicated and boring,” as the entries written by the influencers’ celebrity peers read like they were penned by their publicists. Meanwhile, Joel Stein is already looking to 2018’s influencers, in which he predicts Vice President Mike Pence will earn a spot.