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The Guardian

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
by Michael Wolff
4/5 stars

Amid 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. Like the “burn book” in the film Mean Girls, Fire and Fury 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.
Thank you Trump: that Tweet was just what China needed to tame Pakistan
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 in sorrow 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 takes no prisoners and 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 Jnr, Kushner and Paul Manafort, Trump’s then campaign manager who is now under indictment, as “treasonous”, “unpatriotic” and “bad shit”.

Bannon also sees special counsel Robert Mueller tightening 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 broke-dick campaign in a day, but I don’t see this. I don’t see a plan for getting through.”
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 “a f***ing idiot” after the two men ended a phone call. Given the pending Fox-Disney deal, Murdoch may be wishing Fire and Fury dropped a few months later.
Sean Hannity, Trump’s staunchest ally on television, is audibly disturbed by Trump’s failure to offer condolences to the widow of Roger Ailes, Hannity’s former boss at Fox News. Hannity is caught saying: “What the f*** is wrong with him?”
In a similar vein, Tom Barrack, a 30-year Trump buddy, allegedly observed: “He’s not only crazy … he’s stupid.”

For the record, Barrack – who denied making that statement after the first excerpts of the book were published – chaired Trump’s inaugural, was according to Wolff considered for White House chief of staff, and brought Manafort into the campaign.
Even Jarvanka piles the hurt 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.
Significantly, Trump’s lawyers did not cite national security as grounds for killing the book in its cradle. Rather, this fight is about honour and intimidation
Fire and Fury also captures the ethno-religious tensions that have apparently marred Trump’s White House. Wolff quotes Henry Kissinger’s take on the feud between Kushner and Bannon as “a war between the Jews and non-Jews”. Here, Kissinger and Wolff likely overstate. But the backdrop of Pepe the Frog as a constant campaign meme, coupled with David Duke and white nationalist Richard Spencer’s man-crushes on Trump, leave the reader wondering.
Wolff’s access to Trump and his inner circle is evident. At the outset, Wolff writes of how he sat down with Trump in his Beverly Hills home, while Kushner and Trump aides Hope Hicks and Corey Lewandowski milled about. Likewise, the quotes obviously bespeak knowledge and proximity.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Trump represented a movement, and that fact deserved greater elucidation by Wolff. Said differently, 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. By last Wednesday night, Bannon was on a political respirator and his role as keeper of the Trumpist flame was no more.
In addition to being pummelled by the president, Bannon has reportedly been abandoned by the Mercer Family, his benefactors. Adding insult to injury, Michael Grimm, an ex-congressman convicted of tax evasion, disavowed Bannon’s support for his comeback. Bannon has gone from the leading voice of populism to a caricature. As for Trump, he has reminded the Faithful there shall be no others before Him.
The first amendment may also be tested. In addition to sending a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon for allegedly violating a non-disclosure agreement, Trump’s lawyers threw a legal brushback pitch at Wolff and Henry Holt, the book’s publisher. Without citing any particular false content, Team Trump threatened legal action in an attempt to halt publication.
Significantly, Trump’s lawyers did not cite national security as grounds for killing the book in its cradle. Rather, this fight is about honour and intimidation. Henry Holt responded by bringing publication forward to last Friday. The book, the publisher claimed, is “an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse”.
‘They all say Trump is like a child’: author defends White House exposé as Rex Tillerson insists president is mentally fit to serve
Synchronously, Steven Spielberg’s film, The Post, which portrays the Nixon administration’s unsuccessful attempt to block The Washington Post and The New York Times’ publication of the Pentagon Papers, is now in theatres. Ultimately, that episode became viewed as a prelude to Watergate and Richard Nixon’s downfall.
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.


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Donald Trump

Book review – Fire and Fury is a must-read toxic tale of Trump’s White House, with Bannon’s voice the loudest

Trump’s circle of ‘friends’, family and acquaintances are unsparing in their criticisms of the president throughout Fire and Fury. Photo: Washington Post

CORTE MADERA, CA - JANUARY 05: Copies of the book "Fire and Fury" by author Michael Wolff are displayed on a shelf at Book Passage on January 5, 2018 in Corte Madera, California. A controversial new book about the inner workings of the Trump administration hit bookstore shelves nearly a week earlier than anticipated after lawyers for Donald Trump issued a cease and desist letter to publisher Henry Holt & Co. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

FILE - In this April 12, 2017, file photo, Michael Wolff of The Hollywood Reporter speaks at the Newseum in Washington. Wolff used to worry about the spotlight moving on. No longer. The author of an explosive book on President Donald Trump's administration is the target of a cease and desist letter from Trump's lawyers. And he's the focus of a campaign by the president's allies to cast doubt on the book's claim that Trump is a reluctant and troubled president. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Fire and Fury cover

(FILES): This March 13, 2017 file photo shows then senior White House adviser Steve Bannon (L) listening as US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before meeting with his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC. Rattled by a one-two punch of betrayal and scandal, Donald Trump on Thursday, January 4, 2017 tried to block the publication of a bare-knuckle book that portrays his White House as a fetid stew of backbiting, incompetence and dysfunction. Trump instructed his lawyers to prevent the release of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" -- an expose by author and political muckraker Michael Wolff -- which quotes key Trump aides expressing serious doubt about his fitness for office. The book -- which paints Trump as mentally unstable and far out of his depth -- quotes at length his former ally and chief strategist Steve Bannon, who also received a "cease and desist" order from Trump's attorneys. / AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMM

‘My book will bring down Trump,’ claims Wolff, author of White House exposé

Author Michael Wolff on the set of NBC’s Today show. Photo: Reuters

This photo provided by NBC shows Savannah Guthrie interviewing Michael Wolff on the "Today Show" in New York, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. Wolff, author of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," defended his reporting and saying the president's efforts to halt publication have been good for sales. (Nathan Congleton/NBC Universal via AP)

Rebecca Burgess, left, sells a copy of the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff to Susan Vander Veer, from Peotone, Ill., at Barbara's Books Store, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

CORRECTS FIRST NAME TO KATHY, NOT SUSAN - Kathy Mallin, from Glenview, Ill., looks over a copy of the book "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff at Barbara's Books Store, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Not unlike Trump, author Michael Wolff loves a brawl and the spotlight

FILE - In this April 12, 2017, file photo, Michael Wolff of The Hollywood Reporter speaks at the Newseum in Washington. Wolff used to worry about the spotlight moving on. No longer. The author of an explosive book on President Donald Trump’s administration is the target of a cease and desist letter from Trump’s lawyers. And he’s the focus of a campaign by the president’s allies to cast doubt on the book’s claim that Trump is a reluctant and troubled president. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Michael Wolff seen in the lobby of Trump Tower in January 2017, during the presidential transition. Photo: Washington Post / Jabin Botsford

Culture

Books

Michael Wolff’s eagerly awaited, highly controversial book takes no prisoners, pulling away whatever curtain still cloaks the Trump White House to reveal its cacophonous and dysfunctional inner workings


Books and literature

US Politics

United States

An assessment or critique of a service, product or creative endeavour.  Film reviews, restaurant reviews, reviews of art exhibitions. (Eg. Crazy Rich Asians: an important film, yes, but a good one?)


Review