New York Magazine has posted a fascinating adapted excerpt from the forthcoming book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by veteran journalist, Michael Wolff.
From New York Magazine:
Wolff, who chronicles the administration from Election Day to this past October, conducted conversations and interviews over a period of 18 months with the president, most members of his senior staff, and many people to whom they in turn spoke. Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Wolff says, he was able to take up “something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing” — an idea encouraged by the president himself. Because no one was in a position to either officially approve or formally deny such access, Wolff became “more a constant interloper than an invited guest.” There were no ground rules placed on his access, and he was required to make no promises about how he would report on what he witnessed.
Since then, he conducted more than 200 interviews. In true Trumpian fashion, the administration’s lack of experience and disdain for political norms made for a hodgepodge of journalistic challenges. Information would be provided off-the-record or on deep background, then casually put on the record. Sources would fail to set any parameters on the use of a conversation, or would provide accounts in confidence, only to subsequently share their views widely. And the president’s own views, private as well as public, were constantly shared by others.
I just finished reading the online excerpt and it is riveting in its frank behind-the-scenes accounts of a presidency that apparently no one expected to happen.
According to the article:
• The entire Trump campaign team, including Donald Trump, was expecting to lose the election. But the loss was to set up each Trump player for the next chapters of their lives. Trump reportedly told Roger Ailes, “I don’t think about losing, because it isn’t losing. We’ve totally won.”
• Melania Trump had been promised her husband wouldn't win; Kellyanne Conway had already interviewed with news networks before election day to become a political pundit/star; Steve Bannon was to become the defacto head of the Tea Party. And then Trump won.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night, when the unexpected trend — Trump might actually win — seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears—and not of joy.
There was, in the space of little more than an hour, in Steve Bannon’s not unamused observation, a befuddled Trump morphing into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump. But still to come was the final transformation: Suddenly, Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be, and was wholly capable of being, the president of the United States.
[snip]
Early in the campaign, Sam Nunberg was sent to explain the Constitution to the candidate. “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment,” Nunberg recalled, “before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.
• Donald and Melania Trump sleep in separate bedrooms.
• Bannon says the Russian collusion investigation is heading towards the issue of money laundering.
• Katie Walsh, former Deputy Chief of Staff, told Wolff that working with Trump in the White House was “like trying to figure out what a child wants.”
And then there's a bombshell report from The Guardian, who got ahold of an advance copy, wherein Steve Bannon called Donald Trump Jr. "treasonous" and predicted that the investigation into Russian collusion will "crack Don Junior like egg."
It's an enthralling read. Wolff is an absolute pro - you can be certain nothing here is made up. With oveer 200 documented interviews, and folks too inexperienced to set parameters on those chat with Wolff, I'm sure many will be denying they said a lot of stuff Wolff recorded.
From the folks in the Twitterverse:
Ok. When Steve Bannon is way out in front of even ME on the use of the word “treasonous” I’m guessing we’re approaching the proverbial End Game https://t.co/1yHaTWEYU2— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) January 3, 2018
NEW: Ivanka Trump on her father’s hair, as reported in Michael Wolff’s “Fire & Fury,” including detail about “scalp reduction surgery.” pic.twitter.com/0nOEDxTaLP— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 3, 2018
NEW: Here's the Bannon quote regarding the July 2016 Trump Tower meeting: "The chance that Don Jr. did not walk these Jumos up to his father’s office of the 26th floor is zero,” per "Fire & Fury." (pg. 255)— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 3, 2018
The big loser in the latest Trump-Bannon crisis is the dignity of the US. The big winner is Michael Wolff and his book sales. Next time I have a book coming out, I invite President Trump to rage against it.
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 3, 2018
Trump had three campaign managers.— Pé Resists (@4everNeverTrump) January 3, 2018
1. Corey Lewandowski: accused of sexual assault
2. Paul Manafort: indicted for money laundering and conspiracy
3. Steve Bannon: accused top campaign aides of treason
NEW: Mike Flynn “had been told by friends that it had not been a good idea to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. “Well it would only be a problem if we won,” he assured them, knowing that it would therefore not be a problem.”— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 3, 2018
Fire & Fury, by Michael Wolff, page 17.
More witch hunt #TrumpRussia attacks by Democrats who are upset @realDonaldTrump won.— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 3, 2018
Oh wait ... this is Steve Bannon. https://t.co/1E90ZeAi2T
No wonder schizophrenic Steve Bannon has been walking around with a small army of bodyguards...— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) January 3, 2018
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