Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House

[Serious]

I just ordered this on amazon

Great minds think alike
we should have a higher learning book club reading movement, where we discuss books we're reading at the same time, like this thread more often

 

[Shogun]

Steve Bannon was telling people he thought there was a 33.3 percent chance that the Mueller investigation would lead to the impeachment of the president, a 33.3 percent chance that Trump would resign, perhaps in the wake of a threat by the cabinet to act on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (by which the cabinet can remove the president in the event of his incapacitation), and a 33.3 percent chance that he would limp to the end of his term. In any event, there would certainly not be a second term, or even an attempt at one.

...

Less volubly, Bannon was telling people something else: he, Steve Bannon, was going to run for president in 2020. The locution, “If I were president . . .” was turning into, “When I am president . . .” The top Trump donors from 2016 were in his camp, Bannon claimed: Sheldon Adelson, the Mercers, Bernie Marcus, and Peter Thiel. In short order, and as though he had been preparing for this move for some time, Bannon had left the White House and quickly thrown together a rump campaign organization. The heretofore behind-the-scenes Bannon was methodically meeting with every conservative leader in the country—doing his best, as he put it, to “kiss the ass and pay homage to all the gray-beards.” And he was keynoting a list of must-attend conservative events.

“Why is Steve speaking? I didn’t know he spoke,” the president remarked

 

[Shogun]

Great minds think alike
we should have a higher learning book club reading movement, where we discuss books we're reading at the same time, like this thread more often

I'm in.

 

[Shogun]

Trump had been upstaged in other ways as well. He had been scheduled for a major 60 Minutes interview in September, but this was abruptly canceled after Bannon’s 60 Minutes interview with Charlie Rose on September 11. The president’s advisers felt he shouldn’t put himself in a position where he would be compared with Bannon. The worry among staffers—all of them concerned that Trump’s rambling and his alarming repetitions (the same sentences delivered with the same expressions minutes apart) had significantly increased, and that his ability to stay focused, never great, had notably declined—was that he was likely to suffer by such a comparison. Instead, the interview with Trump was offered to Sean Hannity—with a preview of the questions.

...

Most of all, Bannon was focused on fielding candidates for 2018. While the president had repeatedly threatened to support primary challenges against his enemies, in the end, with his aggressive head start, it was Bannon who would be leading these challenges. It was Bannon spreading fear in the Republican Party, not Trump. Indeed, Bannon was willing to pick outré if not whacky candidates—including former Staten Island congressman Michael Grimm, who had done a stint in federal prison—to demonstrate, as he had demonstrated with Trump, the scale, artfulness, and menace of Bannon-style politics. Although the Republicans in the 2018 congressional races were looking, according to Bannon’s numbers, at a 15-point deficit, it was Bannon’s belief that the more extreme the right-wing challenge appeared, the more likely the Democrats would field left-wing nutters even less electable than right-wing nutters. The disruption had just begun.

Trump, in Bannon’s view, was a chapter, or even a detour, in the Trump revolution, which had always been about weaknesses in the two major parties. The Trump presidency—however long it lasted—had created the opening that would provide the true outsiders their opportunity. Trump was just the beginning.

Standing on the Breitbart steps that October morning, Bannon smiled and said: “It’s going to be wild as shyt.”

Done

 

[Hood Critic]

Trump is no genius, but he’s smart at playing dumb

But Fire and Fury is also an incomplete portrayal – and here is why the book is useful to Mr. Trump. The book begins with a bold and implausible claim: that Mr. Trump never wanted to win. It is followed by a secondary claim: Mr. Trump, not expecting to win, wandered haplessly into the White House as a political neophyte. He is presented as clueless instead of corrupt, as are the staffers surrounding him.

This is simply false: Donald Trump sought the presidency for 30 years, flirting with a run or running in 1988, 2000, 2012 and 2016. His campaign team consisted of seasoned GOP operatives like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, both of whom are implicated in the Russia probe. Mr. Trump very likely wanted to win, and then keep winning – which means ruling like a king instead of a president, a goal he hasn't quite achieved. Mr. Wolff omits the president's political history as well as his abuses of power in office: there is nothing about his slick violations of the emoluments clause, for example, or even his infamous confession of obstruction of justice to Lester ****.

The "Trump is too much of a neophyte to have knowingly committed a crime" narrative is a favourite of the GOP, and they have been spouting it since the spring. Fire and Fury gives it renewed life, as do Trump's tweets on Saturday, in which he proclaimed in an ostentatiously moronic way that he's not a moron. As evidence mounts in the Mueller probe, Mr. Trump seems to be casting himself as a dupe instead of a deceiver.

I agree with Sarah's assessment but naivety has never worked as a defense against a crime and in this case it won't prevent crimes from being investigated.

 

[Arianne Martell]

Bush, Obama advisers address WH response to book - CNN Bush, Obama advisers address WH response to book — CNN

 

[Hood Critic]

If you haven't, you really have to read Seth Abramson's live reading of F&F. He really raises some great points and calls Wolff out on missing the mark on a lot of topics.

Here is a link to part 2 of the "unrolled" tweet thread - part 1 is linked in the first post:

Unrolled thread from @SethAbramson

As you read through and finish this book you realize that Bannon was definitely the primary source for a majority of the content.

 

[Shogun]

If you haven't, you really have to read Seth Abramson's live reading of F&F. He really raises some great points and calls Wolff out on missing the mark on a lot of topics.

Here is a link to part 2 of the "unrolled" tweet thread - part 1 is linked in the first post:

Unrolled thread from @SethAbramson

As you read through and finish this book you realize that Bannon was definitely the primary source for a majority of the content.

Definitely a pro-Bannon book. Also just poorly written and sloppy.

 

[Recca Gatsby]

Is there a scroll to that audiobook? I could use that tonight during work

 

[Cat piss martini]

the comb over is really a fukkin joke.

 

[Pressure]

Lol they really expected Democrats to cheer on the Comey firing

That's the narrative Coli Trumpset was trying to push.

Maybe they really are agents.

 

[Serious]

Surprised @Shogun didn't drop this update:
Bannon expresses 'regret' for comments attributed to him in 'Fire and Fury'

 

[Shogun]

Surprised @Shogun didn't drop this update:
Bannon expresses 'regret' for comments attributed to him in 'Fire and Fury'

Had to look away from the Trump variety hour for a while.

And, that seems like bullshyt. These dudes are always playing the game.

 

[Mook]

Ivanka and Kushner sound like they watch too much GoT. Bannon thinaks they leaked everything. Lmao.

 

[IceDragon]

That's the narrative Coli Trumpset was trying to push.

Maybe they really are agents.

Hell there are still posters on coli talking about "Stay home, don't vote Dem" and all of that shyt