Wolff’s book is an elaboration of what the best WH reporters have been chronicling in real time his year, not a contradiction of it.
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) January 4, 2018
Michelle Goldberg, in the NYTimes, “Everyone in Trumpworld Knows He’s an Idiot”:
… There are lots of arresting details in the book. We learn that the administration holds special animus for what it calls “D.O.J. women,” or women who work in the Justice Department. Wolff writes that after the white supremacist mayhem in Charlottesville, Va., Trump privately rationalized “why someone would be a member of the K.K.K.” The book recounts that after the political purge in Saudi Arabia, Trump boasted that he and Kushner engineered a coup: “We’ve put our man on top!”
But most of all, the book confirms what is already widely understood — not just that Trump is entirely unfit for the presidency, but that everyone around him knows it. One thread running through “Fire and Fury” is the way relatives, opportunists and officials try to manipulate and manage the president, and how they often fail. As Wolff wrote in a Hollywood Reporter essay based on the book, over the past year, the people around Trump, “all — 100 percent — came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.”…
And yet these people continue to either prop up or defend this sick travesty of a presidency. Wolff takes a few stabs at the motives of Trump insiders. Ivanka Trump apparently nurtured the ghastly dream of following her father into the presidency. Others, Wolff writes, told themselves that they could help protect America from the president they serve: The “mess that might do serious damage to the nation, and, by association, to your own brand, might be transcended if you were seen as the person, by dint of competence and professional behavior, taking control of it.”…
Maybe, at the moment, people in the Trump orbit feel complacent because a year has passed without any epic disaster, unless you count an estimated 1,000 or so deaths in Puerto Rico, which they probably don’t. There’s an old joke, recently cited by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, that describes where we are right now: A guy falls from a 50-story building. As he flies by the 25th floor, someone asks how it’s going. “So far, so good!” he says.Eventually, we’ll hit the ground, and assuming America survives, there should be a reckoning to dwarf the defenestration of Harvey Weinstein and his fellow ogres. Trump, Wolff’s reporting shows, has no executive function, no ability to process information or weigh consequences. Expecting him to act in the country’s interest is like demanding that your cat do the dishes. His enablers have no such excuse.
There will be questions about the reporting but a surprising number of people in WH, referenced in this book, basically say this – he’s not capable of being President. These are not his political enemies. https://t.co/MgkfJYZhrw
— Katty Kay (@KattyKayBBC) January 4, 2018
James Fallows, in the Atlantic, “It’s Been An Open Secret”:
… Based on the excerpts now available, Fire and Fury presents a man in the White House who is profoundly ignorant of politics, policy, and anything resembling the substance of perhaps the world’s most demanding job. He is temperamentally unstable. Most of what he says in public is at odds with provable fact, from “biggest inaugural crowd in history” onward. Whether he is aware of it or not, much of what he asserts is a lie. His functional vocabulary is markedly smaller than it was 20 years ago; the oldest person ever to begin service in the White House, he is increasingly prone to repeat anecdotes and phrases. He is aswirl in foreign and financial complications. He has ignored countless norms of modern governance, from the expectation of financial disclosure to the importance of remaining separate from law-enforcement activities. He relies on immediate family members to an unusual degree; he has an exceptionally thin roster of experienced advisers and assistants; his White House staff operations have more in common with an episode of The Apprentice than with any real-world counterpart. He has a shallower reserve of historical or functional information than previous presidents, and a more restricted supply of ongoing information than many citizens. He views all events through the prism of whether they make him look strong and famous, and thus he is laughably susceptible to flattering treatment from the likes of Putin and Xi Jinping abroad or courtiers at home.
And, as Wolff emphasizes, everyone around him considers him unfit for the duties of this office…
Who is also in on this open secret? Virtually everyone in a position to do something about it, which at the moment means members of the Republican majority in Congress.
They know what is wrong with Donald Trump. They know why it’s dangerous. They understand—or most of them do—the damage he can do to a system of governance that relies to a surprising degree on norms rather than rules, and whose vulnerability has been newly exposed. They know—or should—about the ways Trump’s vanity and avarice are harming American interests relative to competitors like Russia and China, and partners and allies in North America, Europe, and the Pacific…
They know. They could act. And they don’t. The failure of responsibility starts with Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, but it doesn’t end with them. Every member of a bloc-voting majority shares responsibility for not acting on their version of the open secret. “Independent” Republicans like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski share it. “Thoughtful” ones, like Ben Sasse and Jeff Flake. Those (in addition to Flake) who have nothing to lose electorally, from Bob Corker to Orrin Hatch. When they vote as a majority against strong investigations, against subpoenas, against requirements for financial disclosure, and most of all against protecting Robert Mueller and his investigation, they share complicity in the open secret.
Hacks pushing “Bannon was the problem” and not that he was a symptom of the problem are also part of the problem.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) January 5, 2018
Drew Magary, in GQ:
… Wolff has spent this week thoroughly exploiting Trump and his minions the same way they’ve exploited the cluelessness of others. And he pulled it off because, at long last, there was a reporter out there willing to toss decorum aside and burn bridges the same way Trump does.
Everyone around Donald Trump is too polite to Donald Trump. Democrats, foreign dignitaries, underlings… all of them. And the White House press is perhaps the worst offender. From the media pool playing along with Sarah Sanders during press conferences—conferences where Sanders openly lies and pisses on democracy—to access merchants like Maggie Haberman doling out Trump gossip like so many bread crumbs, too many reporters have been far too deferential to an administration that is brazenly racist, dysfunctional, and corrupt. And for what purpose? It’s clear to me that Haberman and the like aren’t saving up their chits for just the EXACT right time to bring this Administration down. No, the only end goal of their access is continued access, to preserve it indefinitely so that the copy spigot never gets shut off. They are abiding by traditional wink-wink understandings that have long existed between the government and the press covering it.
But Wolff didn’t do that. He did not engage in some endless bullshit access tango. No, Wolff actually USED his access, and extended zero courtesy to Trump on the process, and it’s going to pay off for him not just from a book sales standpoint, but from a real journalistic impact. I am utterly sick to death of hearing anonymous reports about people inside the White House “concerned” about the madman currently in charge of everything. These people don’t deserve the courtesy of discretion. They don’t deserve to dictate the terms of coverage to people. They deserve to be torched.
Trump ascended into power in part because he relied on other people being too nice. It’s fun to rampage through the china shop when the china shop owner is standing over there being like, “SIR, that is not how we do things here!” If Trump refuses to abide by the standard (and now useless) “norms” of the presidency—shit, if he doesn’t even KNOW them—why should ANYONE in the press adhere to needless norms of their own? They shouldn’t, and it appears that Michael Wolff was one of the few people to instinctively grasp that, and I hope more White House insiders follow his lead. Sometimes you need a rat to catch a rat.
Betty Cracker
Amen. The Trump-appointed insiders who are supposedly “protecting” us from Trump have in reality staged a soft coup; they imagine they’re actually running the country — who elected them? Their patriotic duty is to tell the only body with the power to do anything about it — congress — what’s going on.
Aimai
I don’t understand Magary’s assertiin that Wolff is a “rat.” He did his god damned journalistic duty. Nothing less.
Roger Moore
You know who else is in on it? All of the Democrats in Congress. Unlike the Republicans, they’ve been shouting about this since January 20th, 2017, if not before. The media has blown off everything they’ve been saying as sour grapes, just politics, etc. even though those same media figures know damn well it’s true. The media have been enablers just as surely as anyone else.
mai naem mobile
I don’t know who Drew Magary is but he is completely on point. All these people around him pulling this shit are also unpatriotic assholes and some are straight out traitors.
Chip Daniels
Add to this list what I call the “Tut-Tut” chorus, such as the Wall Street Journal and Federalist, who loftily tell us not to fret good man, that regardless of the vulgarian, there are Top Men surrounding Trump who will guide his hand.
The scandal is that they cheerfully accept that Joffrey is on the Iron Throne.
Monala
As much as Goldberg’s line about expecting your cat to do dishes is apt, I’m worried that sentiments like that will eventually lead to a push not to hold Trump accountable. “Well, he didn’t know, he couldn’t have known!”
Quinerly
@Aimai: Wolff saying his book will help end Trump’s presidency. We can only hope: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367725-fire-and-fury-author-predicts-his-book-will-help-end-trumps
Quinerly
Has Corner Stone picked another fine time to just abandon us?? When AM Joy is on I always think of CS. Any comments lately?
Nicole
@mai naem mobile:
Look up the 2017 Hater’s Guide to the Williams Sonoma Catalog. You’re welcome.
clay
@Quinerly: We’ll see. There is really only one way to curtail the Trump administration — Congressional oversight and investigation.
So the question becomes: will the Wolff book influence Republicans in Congress? (Doubtful.). Or will it help votes give Congress to the Democrats in November? I’m a bit more optimistic on that one, but the book won’t replace donations, phone calls, and GOTV.
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: It goes beyond that. And I’ve got a post I’m thinking through on this, but the reality is there is no Trump Doctrine or MAGA agenda (as Slimey Steve calls it). What there is is a set of grievances, some long held, some much more recent, held by the President. And his agenda is that he will be treated well and his grievances will be acted on. Everyone who is working for them have their own agendas. This is why AG Sessions won’t resign, he’s where he wants to be doing finally what he has thought needed to be done his entire life. Secretary Mattis and LTG McMaster think they’re overall protecting the country in nat-sec terms, while the former protects the DOD and Services and the latter protects the Interagency and Interagency process. I’m not sure anyone has a good handle on Gen. Kelly’s reasons any more, but it appears he thinks he’s serving to serve because that’s what he does. Pruitt is pursuing what his patrons have always wanted. Carson is pursuing his life long quest to deny poor people, especially poor people of color, all the public aid and assistance he received because it will make them dependent leeches because that’s what happens to people who receive public aid and assistance. Mulvaney is defunding the government, because that’s why he ran for Congress. DeVos is on a nutty religious crusade out of line with the official teachings of her own denomination. I’m not sure anyone actually has a clue as to what Tillerson is doing or why.
So we’re back to what I wrote about back in Spring 2016 when the President gave his foreign/nat-sec speech at the Mayflower. There is one coherent through line of the speech, which marries up to the through line of his campaign: the President (then candidate), as he perceives himself the avatar of the US, will be treated fairly. This is the real Trump Doctrine. It was the only coherent message from start to finish throughout his campaign. The media will treat the President fairly or else he’ll stop showing up for events and ratings will tank. The RNC will treat the President fairly or he will run third party and blow up the GOP primary. The other candidates will treat the President fairly or he will run third party and blow up the GOP primary. And only the President can assure that all the people who are treating the American people unfairly will stop and be punished. Regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign. And the American people’s grievances are the President’s and the President’s are the American people’s. And only the President can successfully prosecute those grievances and ensure that he and the American people can and will be treated fairly. Or else.
That is the Trump Doctrine. It isn’t principled realism. Or neo-isolationism. Or American Firstism. Or national-populism. It is the President, and because he represents the American people by extension the American people, will be treated fairly. Or else.
Starfish
@Monala: I doubt that Trump will be held accountable, but his behavior will show that he did know like the time that he asked everyone to leave the room so he could speak to Comey privately.
Adam L Silverman
@clay:
Fixed it for you.
clay
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, but who’s going to pay for that wall?
schrodingers_cat
@Monala: That’s why I don’t like the child or toddler metaphors. The man knows the hurt he is causing, he revels in it.
Adam L Silverman
@clay: McDonald’s. As soon as the President signs the EO making them the official food purveyor of the US and requiring all Americans to receive all their meals from McDonald’s, they’ll have plenty of extra cash on hand.
BC in Illinois
@Adam L Silverman:
Les États-Unis, c’est moi.
Starfish
@Adam L Silverman: I thought Tillerson was disabling the state department so that corporations could engage in corruption overseas without any interference from the government?
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman:
Character assassination of Rep Wilson was in service of which ideal?
bemused
@Adam L Silverman:
Love this!
chris
@Quinerly: Indeed we can only hope. In the meantime I shudder to think of what fresh hell will come to blow this book off the front page and into the remainder bin.
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore:
This. I think a lot of those overpaid fuckers oughta lose their jobs. Sexual harrassment is not the only reason for removing media hacks from their perches.
ETA: Tide going out, hacks.
Adam L Silverman
@BC in Illinois: That’s his understanding. It is wrong. And it is every American’s responsibility to make sure he knows it.
donnah
I agree that Trump believes he should be treated in a certain way, but “fairly” is a relative term. I think he wants to be treated as if he were a monarch, which isn’t actually fair by democratic standards. He demands respect and he demands that things be done as if he were writing actual law instead of executive orders. He doesn’t understand checks and balances or the democratic process.
The Republicans who support him are also demanding their own agendas be fulfilled, and yes, they are filled with grievances as well. The American people who are loyal Republicans are grateful to their leaders for normalizing racism and discrimination and misogyny. It’s a winning party for them.
But I don’t think it’s sustainable. I think Wolff’s book is another wedge that we can use to expose their party’s weaknesses. I just hope we can capitalize on it.
Adam L Silverman
@Starfish: Your guess is as good as mine.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: His inability to publicly admit he had a faulty memory.
I have no idea. I don’t know the man. I’ve never met the man. Three close friends and colleagues who have served with him are stumped and alarmed (the most senior who knows him well) by what they’ve seen.
cmorenc
Over in the Fox Bubble, it’s crickets + Clinton Foundation Probe with a dash of how far out of legit line Mueller is on a partisan witch-hunt. Geez, you’d get the feeling he was the D version of Ken Starr.
piratedan
@Adam L Silverman: so Trump really is all of the ugliness of America personified…
Rich people having to abide by laws and rules that mean that they have to be nice and pay people instead of just having servants and slaves to make them money
racists having to treat people of color and different cultures as if they’re real people
evangelicals no longer have to have people look sideways at them because of their special relationship with Gawd
Its the resentment presidency… every fucking petty nuisance is given full attention as we hurt EVERYONE in order to have our national pity party…
and the media just glosses over this like they;re covering some awards show and only offer critiques if someone’s lack of style is showing….
I hope we put people in jail over this, not just the idiots who didn’t think that the rules don’t apply to them, but all of the greasy duplicitous bastards who knew better, looked the other way and got smoothed over with some cash or some self satisfaction knowing that some petty gripe was being “settled”.
I want those fuckers to pay.
clay
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t wanna put words in Adam’s mouth but
doesn’t speak to any sort of ideology.
Adam L Silverman
@bemused: Thank you. That’s a bit rough because I’m still thinking through it. The line of reasoning got jogged on Wednesday when I was at the gym. I looked up between sets at one of the TVs and CNN had a clip of Senator Gardner was giving his speech about the DOJ change on marijuana. He remarked that this wasn’t part of the agenda the President campaigned on. Which is true, but pointless. Because there really was no there there to the agenda the President ran on beyond buzzwords and slogans. The President was an empty vessel that his supporters and hangers on were able to pour their wants and desires into. He was a mirror that when they looked into what they saw was their wants and desires reflected back at them.
sdhays
@Quinerly: I remember back around the middle of last year, I looked up who was in the Cabinet and tried to game out who might be a Republican troglodyte with little personal loyalty to Donny John so that they would be willing to pull the trigger on the 25th Amendment. Simpler times. Now loyalty to Dondon is a litmus test for being a Republican…
The only thing that I’ve read from the reports in this book that’s (slightly) surprising is how it was written. It’s totally understandable given what we already knew about Donny-boy and the anthropomorphized shit who serve him, but it’s still a bit breathtaking how Don John essentially shrugs and that turns into this Wolff guy having unfettered access to the White House for a year because no one has the guts to challenge it. Even though it makes sense, it’s still just…wow.
RSA
@mai naem mobile:
Also check out his Deadspin Funbag, which is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. Sports emphasis but not exclusively.
Bobby Thomson
@mai naem mobile: Magary is a sports columnist for Deadspin who also writes about politics, in the vein of Charles Pierce and Hunter Thompson.
Adam L Silverman
@piratedan: Yep. The President’s platform, for lack of a better term, is grievance, resentment, and resentiment.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: The man he is serving brings out the worst in people, makes them revert to their basest instincts. You can see that at T’s rallies too.
Adam L Silverman
@clay: He had a reputation before he became Secretary of DHS as apolitical. When he was asked during the primaries if he would consider a cabinet or other senior political appointment if asked, his answer was he hadn’t considered it, but he would regardless of who was elected and regardless of whether it was a Democrat or a Republican.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: I’m not arguing against that.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: You left out cruelty and personal enrichment.
DissidentFish
@schrodingers_cat: I believe the words to describe the ideal behind Kelly’s treatment of Rep. Wilson are “white supremacy.”
laura
@LanceThruster: please to be taking a red-hot poker up the ass.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Yup. Always the personal enrichment. It might help bring him down.
Baud
@Roger Moore: Truth.
Davebo
@schrodingers_cat: Kelly is not in serving the country.
He’s servicing Trump. Quit literally. He’s shown he’ll happily give the Donald a rim job whenever he asks.
Adam L Silverman
sdhays
@Elizabelle: It’s bizarre how these people are able to keep their jobs. I’m still astounded at how NBC has insisted upon resurrecting Brian Williams, who was fired in disgrace for lying about his exploits in Iraq. I’m sure he doesn’t come cheap, so why is MSNBC paying him instead of developing a fresh face who hasn’t disgraced her/himself yet? In any other industry, the executives would have seen his implosion as a great opportunity for cost savings (except, of course, the industry of being an executive).
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman:
This observation right here sort of rings an alarm for me. Did Priebus, in his position with the RNC basically undercut the other members of the cattle caucus, preventing them from forcefully attacking Trump when they actually had a decent chance to derails him? Because if he did, then he is the first significant institutional support that ended up putting this moron in the office he currently besmirches with every breath. His subsequent toadying on behalf of Trump becomes a reward for job well done – but done on whose behalf?
Davebo
@Adam L Silverman:
Faulty memory my ass. That’s far too charitable an assumption given what has transpired.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Damn straight, the KKKeebler Elf will not resign.
He is living out his White Supremacist fantasies.
He will only be fired.
And, he’s so up involved in the Russia stuff, he can’t be fired.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: Might want to enclose them in biodomes, just to be sure.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: I’m pretty sure that’s been said of Donny John too. In fact, I’m certain that Don-boy has said it himself.
trollhattan
@Nicole:
He also authors and curates the on-going series “Why your team sucks” for every NFL team and their fans and owners. Busy lad.
No Drought No More
Trump called himself a genius in a tweet today. Does anyone doubt that if FOX “news” ran old road runner cartoons, he would have claimed to be a super genius instead?
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman:
“Gimme what I want, and no one gets hurt”. Just like every abuser ever.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
He’s the Festivus President.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: My nym.
Wipe them out. All of them.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: What is your take on withdrawing aid to Pakistan? Whose agenda does that serve? How will US troops get to Afghanistan? Iran is not going to oblige that leaves Russia.
Jeffro
@piratedan:
Close. It’s the old, white, privileged resentment presidency.
Nicole
@trollhattan: I don’t watch football, but I read every one of those, every year. As a Pennsylvanian by birth, the Steelers one always has me weeping with laughter.
schrodingers_cat
@trollhattan: No he is the Nazi President.
sdhays
@Gravenstone: I don’t think that Priebus needed to, or that he even had that power. The Republican electorate did that for him. As tRump said, he could shoot someone in cold blood on 5th Avenue, and his supporters would stick with him. The other Republicans knew that they needed his supporters if they had any chance of beating Hillary, so they had to try to thread the needle of bringing him down without becoming the anti-Trump.
Kasich might have tried, but the Republican Party owners wouldn’t give him the money to make a real run of it. I wonder, though, if he had had that money if it would have made him as lily-livered as the rest.
Mnemosyne
As I keep saying, the success of this book is a HUGE embarrassment for Haberman and the NYT as a whole in front of their journalism peers. Wolff has shown very publicly that he not only had better access than Haberman, he used it better to produce this scathing book. And, even better, he’s a lowly freelancer for a Hollywood trade paper.
The Grey Lady got scooped by the Hollywood Reporter. I guarantee you that that fact is resonating through their entire building right now. They got shown up by a goddamn trade paper in fhe most public way possible.
Gravenstone
@schrodingers_cat:
Question asked
Question answered.
Adam L Silverman
@No Drought No More:
SRW1
Degenerative diseases have the nasty habit of getting progressively worse. Trump isn’t getting better and the dirty secret has now been named. There is no way for his handlers to successfully bury it again.
Any time Trump blunders from here on in, if only by giving disjointed interviews like the one to the NYT recently, his mental faculties will be in question, publicly. And good luck preventing Trump from performing the peacock for the media. That and his continued campaign stops are the essence of his being.
There is no way Trump is getting through three more years of the presidency, especially not if the Democrats take the House in November. The challenge for the GOP is now one of damage limitation by ending the Trump misadventure in as controlled a manner as possible. Good luck with that.
Kay
Or they just wanted hard Right economic policy- huge tax cuts for themselves, a playing field permanently rigged to benefit them, massive deregulation, far Right ideologues on the court for decades to come – and they decided to make a deal. Or that.
It was either patriotism or pure greed and self interest. One or the other. I know which I’m betting on.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: It is pure Festivus Policy.
Aimai
@Adam L Silverman: this will be an excellent post. Its something I have thought a lot about from a psychological standpoint. Trump “coregulated” with his voters as a mother does with a toddler —matching their intensity with his intensity, orchestrating their experience, and giving voice to their inarticulate wants. They experienced him as reflecting and magnifying (MAGAfying) their needs and wants, getting for them what they could not get frim “elites.” But thinking that he could do so is the same error we would make if we were monkeys, gestuculating in a mirror, who thought the mirror minkey was king.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Adam L Silverman: There’s another F-word that comes pretty close to describing that ideology. And it’s not “fairness” ;/
schrodingers_cat
@SRW1: Rs are arranging the deck chairs on Ttanic.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: That’s perfect. Makes me want to get back on Twitter.
Adam L Silverman
Ruh Roh!
jc
Republicans in Congress: you are *not* in charge of protecting a president who cheated his way into power and then obstructed justice. You are in charge of protecting our system of government. Grassley, Nunes, Graham – you are complicit in the corruption that is consuming your party.
CarolDuhart2
@LanceThruster: Thanks for the sexism, you twerp. Women who want to be President are selfish who only care about ambition and power. No man is ever even asked if this is an issue with them.
Blame the bigoted voters who wanted a fellow bigot. Blame the voters who fell for the Celebrity Apprentice persona, like they did in California with Arnold Schwartzenegger. And the only reason we do have President Arnold is because he was born in Austria of Austrian parents. If one of his parents was a U.S exchange student or a GI, it would have been Donald, that old hack? Donald would still be in NYC scamming people with Trump Trade Academy or Trump Wines.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@schrodingers_cat: “Then you write, ‘Oh, they’re just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.’ First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!” -Colbert
Everything old is new again.
trollhattan
@sdhays:
Kasich was a cut above the rest of the (very large) bunch but was still a pernicious fraud, based on comparing his stated moderate positions and how he actually governed, which was more well-behaved Brownback than Republican Jerry Brown.
Kay
I would find this easier to believe if Trump’s lackeys weren’t benefiting so much from his destroying the country, but they ARE.
They’re all getting rich. They’re all cashing in. There’s no “sacrifice” from these brave patriots. They’re doing very, very well. They’re getting MUCH more out of this than Trump’s voters ever will. The big winners here are Donald Trump and his enablers. Everyone else is losing.
This was a straight transaction. They sold their reputations and credibility for money and power. Let’s not romanticize this.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: OOpsie, I saw you beat me there. And contrary S. Cat, he is not a Nazi and saying that gives him too much credit and misapprehends the threat.
Jeffro
@SRW1:
This is so true. And it makes a great pair of questions for GOP elected officials at every level (media, are you listening?): “Do you think the president* will be able to serve out his term? If so, do you think the country can stand three more years of this kind of chaos and abuse from the president*?”
Their best bet is to let Trumpov take the fall for everything, to completely sell him out, and run their own ‘reform’ candidates (2018) and candidate (2020) pretending that they’ve saved the country from both T’s abuse and the Democrats’ impending socialist takeover. I said ‘best’ bet, not a good one.
Quinerly
@(((CassandraLeo))): My favorite is the passengers and crew aren’t rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. They are eating each other as the ship goes down.
Jeffro
dang it, I said the soshulist word again…modz help please?
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: @Immanentize: I call dibs for feats of strength!
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: It is an absolutely stunningly stupid idea. I don’t know who suggested this to the President, but it’s just dumb. It will make things worse, not better.
Quinerly
Trump speaking live at Camp David now. Very subdued, more squinty eyed than usual and doing that snorting/breathing thing.
Ohio Mom
@trollhattan: Yes. Kasich is no moderate. His big talent is convincing people he is.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
Admit to believing they’re living in such a beautifully crafted artisan bubble there’s little if any such discussion occurring there. I’d like to be wrong but suspect they’ll continue serving as WaPo’s favorite punching bag.
sigaba
Just came over that Trump will be holding a press conference at Camp David shortly.
Kay
The only victims in this mess that deserve our sympathy and understanding are the career federal employees who have to work for Trump’s low quality hires. The low quality hires will come out of this better off- which they knew that when they made the deal. There was never any risk. They risked nothing. They’ll cycle out when they get bored, collect their fat tax cut and go work in the private sector. They’ll be hailed as godammned heroes for putting all that billionaire-friendly policy.
MikeS
@Adam L Silverman: and “fairness” to Drumpf means other people acknowledging he’s right and/or him winning in every situation and in what ever way is most meaningful in a given context. (i.e. money, adoration, everyone recognizing how great the is and how big it “button” is!)
Adam L Silverman
@Aimai: Thanks. I’m aiming to put it up Monday midday or so.
Quinerly
@Adam L Silverman: LA Times has done some great reporting. Read and posted this on that early morning thread. I’m not seeing this really reported anywhere else.
Adam L Silverman
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: I don’t think the President is aware enough to understand fascism. Even the shorthand ways that it is used, as opposed to the more delineated and nuanced lay down by scholars of ideology. Authoritarianism he gets. Instinctively.
Quinerly
@SRW1: Well put.
Ken
@Quinerly:
That’s his style for when he’s been told, “Get out there and read it, and remember – stay on topic, or no chocolate sundae with your chicken nuggets.”
Adam L Silverman
@CarolDuhart2: I’d actually pay good money for Arnold to be president right now. He may be an ineffective executive manager, but he’s not uninformed, poorly read, or unstable.
ArchTeryx
The real people that got torched in Fire and Fury aren’t the Trumpolytes. They’re the Beltway media, who got shown as the bunch of knaves, naifs and trustafarians that they really are. He actually calls out Maggie Haberman and the Vichy Times by name, something that’s needed doing ever since the Bush years. They’re just another bunch of Good Germans, writing Hitler’s hagiography while studiously ignoring the stench from the ovens in the background.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
A theory of those still trying to prop him up: I think when this is all over, the [expletive deleted][*] administration will be used as a classic illustration of the Sunk Cost Fallacy: they’ve put so much of their energy and time and their own reputation that they HAVE to see it through now, sooner or later it will get better and pay off, right? It’s the same psychology that drives people who fall for the Nigerian scam, once they get the first few bucks out of you.
Of course it’s called a Fallacy because it’s not actually true. Investors who fall into it frequently end up broke.
[*] The phrase “expletive deleted” will be well familiar to those who remember Watergate, which is much on my mind these days for obvious reasons.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: Much of National Socialism had to do with resentment: of the Diktat, of Jews (because the perception that they have all the monies because, well, Jews), of ungrateful for Nordic civilization Slavs, of decadent democracies, etc.
Quinerly
@Ken: TRUMP TAKING QUESTIONS LIVE RIGHT NOW. Just took a question about the morning tweets today.
kindness
It just dawned on me. Ivanka wants to use Daddy’s coat tails to ride into political power. Kinda like Marie LePen did in France. But ooooh, that brings up a really ugly thing. How’s a nice Jewish girl going to lead a Nazi party?
Mike J
Has anybody else had visions of Camp David in the midst of a blizzard turning into the Overlook hotel?
Adam L Silverman
@Quinerly: Never book a cruise when the cruise line is advertising a Donner Family themed set of events aboard ship. The all you can eat buffet is killer. Party of 12, your table for 4 is ready!
Villago Delenda Est
@Quinerly: Had a couple of lines to give him some confidence.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t think the President is aware enough to understand fascism.
Or democracy. It’s pretty clear, certainly been noted by many BJers, that he thinks President is “boss of everybody in the US”. I’m sure he thinks he can literally fire (as in kick out of their job and the country) any citizen. The concept of government “by the people” or “for the people” is way beyond him.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: OK that’s hysterical … maybe you should give up your day job Adam
Villago Delenda Est
@kindness: She’s not really a Jewish girl. Anyone conversant with the Reich Racial Purity Laws knows that conversions don’t count, either way.
Adam L Silverman
@MikeS: Yep.
Aleta
I expect Trump believes he should get pure loyalty back from the players he ‘gave’ money to with ‘his’ tax cuts, and will fume himself into tailspins whenever he doesn’t get it. I want to see how many Republicans oppose offshore drilling off their state’s coastline, as Collins and Polliquin just have. Afaik it’s the first time that the craven-weasel-livered Polliquin has spoken against anything on the radical Republican agenda. Maybe he’s received assurance that he’s secure in doing so (bc Maine’s not on the gift registry), or maybe he’s nervous about 2018. Or both.
The Dangerman
I am Donald J. Trump,millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.
/bugs bunny
CarolDuhart2
@Adam L Silverman: And he wouldn’t have played the bigot card either. If he had it in him, he would never have won Governor of California even with a special election boost.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Here’s Donnie!
patrick II
@Adam L Silverman:
I think many of us have been stumped and alarmed by friends since the normalization of racism is freeing them to say what they have really wanted to for a long time.
Sloane Ranger
They are obviously worried by the book. This press conference has all the hallmarks of something put together quickly to show that Trump is sane and “with it” and has support of Thug leadership.
He is explaining himself and if you have to do that, you are losing.
Quinerly
@Villago Delenda Est: Not reading the speech now. Saying he has a great relationship with Mexico and Mexico will pay for the wall.
sdhays
@trollhattan: My only point about Kasich is that he seems to be the only one who didn’t buckle and remained a (rather quiet) Never Trumper. It’s at least plausible that if he’d had Jeb! kind of money he could have drawn some blood on tRump and brought him down. But I doubt it. None of the morons running against Preznit Shit-for-Brains understood that he was going to be the nominee unless one of them took him down hard until it was far too late for them to do anything about it. Basically, only Scott Walker was smart enough to see where this was going in time to take action, and he did (by going away).
Ken
@Quinerly: Psychiatrist hmms and writes “delusions persist…”
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: I believe the official terminology you’re looking for is willowy shiksa.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Thank you, thank you very much. Tip your waitress.
kindness
@Villago Delenda Est: Awkward though, don’t ya think? Look at today’s Base and tell me what the difference is with the LePen supporters.
Adam L Silverman
@CarolDuhart2: Arnold has been very solid on that:
Ruviana
@CarolDuhart2: Jesse Ventura also too. Celebrity is a very shiny object.
Adam L Silverman
@Sloane Ranger: What is the deal with the VP’s creepy expression?
Also, Senator McConnell should not wear jeans if he’s going to button his sport coat over a sweater. And he’s got both buttons buttoned.
Quinerly
@Ken: Also says Wolff’s interviews of him are in Wolff’s imagination.?
Doug R
@LanceThruster:
F*ck Off.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jeffro:
Good luck with that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8AgOozM8KQ
Brachiator
@Mike J:
If Trump stars tweeting “All work and no play makes Donald a dull boy” over and over again, watch out!
ETA I slept in “late” this morning, looked at the news and see that Trump is already at it, just nuttier than two fruitcakes.
And we are barely into January.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Had not seen that before. Kudos to Arnold for a very powerful message from somebody with a personal connection to Nazism.
MisterForkbeard
@Doug R: Don’t. He’s a huge idiot of a troll who’s here to derail actual conversation and get people angry.
The thread is doing a remarkably good job of ignoring him.
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman:
Ugh. what a bounder!
Suffragette City
I imagine Wolff had the access he did because who was going to question his presence and get screamed at in a hallway if it was assumed Trump had granted it.
Preibus unable to leave Penn Station for 2 hours..LOLLLL Jesus Christ!!!
That is how it is everyday with this administration. LOL, Jesus Christ.
Immanentize
@Quinerly: I don’t think Trump will win that particular battle, except to the faithful Moore supporters. Wolff has receipts (HT rikyrah)
PS So sorry and sad about Ivan. Terrible no more in this realm but hopefully raising hell in the next.
sdhays
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The performances in that movie were amazing all around. And the story was a wild ride too.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
You can take the Turtle out of Kentucky, but you can’t….
Come to think of it, the junior senator from Kentucky is quite the fashion plate also, too.
Elie
@Betty Cracker:
Well I sure hope that the Dems are readying themselves to respond to the government closure by calling their bluff. If they don’t they will know we can be rolled. Trump don’t care. He will break every institution and tool of government. The Dems will have to be very courageous but also start messaging to the people what is happening. That the corrupt administration is coercing their wishes on the backs of the immigration issue and that we won’t be coerced. No Deal. We must avoid having this turned on us. That may be tricky
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, authoritarianism is probably more accurate – and definitely only understood at a gut level. I guess fascism is too sophisticated for empty donny. He certainly loves him some wannabe fascists, though.
clay
@Adam L Silverman:
“Other countries aren’t paying their fair share” seems to be one of the few ideas to originate from Trump himself. I’d bet that he was the one who insisted on it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Immanentize: A cad, even.
schrodingers_cat
@(((CassandraLeo))): I don’t think they are soaring their moves are increasingly coming out of desperation and they have set the course to collide with an iceberg. Their current course is going to lead to disaster, the question is just for them or for all of us.
Immanentize
@Villago Delenda Est: I am not sure the Kentucky Talking Turtle is a cad. But Trump sure is — “Sleeping with friends’ wives makes life worth living?”
ETA Changed the State to correct one. but “Tennessee” just fit so nicely with “Talking Turtle.”
sdhays
@Immanentize: Dammit, I had already banished that quote from my memory. Eeewwww!!!
Frankensteinbeck
@sdhays:
Because the national press is a social club – a country club, even – first, and a business second. As Wolff has shown, there has been way more money in going all out on revealing Trump’s stupidity, but that would be rude to their Republican friends, reflect badly on their own beliefs, and go against conventional wisdom – especially how everybody knows the Republican Party simply can’t be racist.
@Jeffro:
“Give me what I want, and I will hurt you less.”
And because @Kay: reminded me…
They have been perfectly happy to crap on Democrats and be willing to lose access that way. Yes, they love their access, but protecting the Republican Party’s reputation as the strong, mature, responsible daddy party is at least as foundational.
@Immanentize:
He has obvious white supremacist policies, retweets Nazis, treasures a book of Hitler’s speeches, and not only has to be pushed into repudiating them, once he has he backsteps and calls them ‘very fine people.’ I think we have to accept the serious possibility he thinks of himself as a Nazi.
An incompetent one too stupid to understand all the technical details of the ideology, sure.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@LanceThruster:
This is completely psychotic and you need professional help. That isn’t healthy.
Adam L Silverman
@clay: He’s held that view since he first went public with it in 1987. Shortly after returning from a Roger Stone organized exploratory visit to the USSR.
Villago Delenda Est
@clay: Of course, in Donald’s world, the other party needs to pay everything, Donald nothing, for it to be “fair”.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
Schwartzenegger is hardly a prince, and for example has his own ugly record with women. He was still far and away the best Republican governor of the time, and did his best during a period when the rest of his party had mutilated the budget and the state was close to ungovernable. He zealously encouraged green energy, handled the swine flu outbreak responsibly, and his response to other Republican governors bitching about the stimulus was ‘If they don’t want their share, give it to California.’ He did not repudiate Obama at all.
Now, I mean, these are bare minimum details of sanity and reasonableness, not qualifiers as a ‘good’ governor, but compared to his colleagues he shone like a god.
Immanentize
@Frankensteinbeck: I don’t think it is that way at all. But I could be wrong. I think he thinks Hitler was a great media figure who could manipulate crowds; that Steve Miller is telling him that the whites are his base and fuck the browns and blacks and hippies; and that he is indeed a white supremacist, but that is hardly the sole defining characteristic of Nazis.
I think Trump probably thinks Hitler was a loser, but that he, Trump, is not.
Karen Potter
@Mike J: I do now, thanks for the mind picture
Adam L Silverman
@Frankensteinbeck: No arguments here.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
Yep. Trump defines himself by his resentments and his grievances. And strangely, he becomes more belligerent and resentful when he is challenged, defied or mocked.
He absolutely fears mockery, even though he takes pleasure in mocking and humiliating others.
And yeah, he found a way to mind meld with groups of citizens whose anger and resentment were a perfect match for his.
Gravenstone
@MisterForkbeard: Near universal pie coverage is good for that.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
The Guardian gleefully reported on how the Times got pantsed by Wolff and made the book a sensation. The NYT doesn’t care what us little people think of them, but they were just embarrassed in front of their professional peers.
That’s what stings. Every other newspaper in the world is enjoying the hell out of this, and the NYT knows it.
Boatboy_srq
@Adam L Silverman: Except that, from what we see, tRump does NOT want fair treatment, but rather the same “special” treatment that tRump and his sycophants insist is inappropriate foe Dems because mumble-munble illegitimate mumble unAhmurrrrkkkan mumble different mumble Other mumble. If “fair” were on the table then the call to Australia, the WTF-was-that seance in Saudi Arabia and the sharp-elbows moments at the NATO gathering would none of them have happened.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: They’re all laughing at Haberhack and Thrush.
It’s got to hurt.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Also, the NYT doesn’t really mind getting punched by the WaPo. The WaPo is their peer — a large metropolitan daily with a storied history.
The Hollywood Reporter is a fucking entertainment trade paper. In the journalism hierarchy, they are the NYT’s inferior, and yet they pwned the NYT. HARD.
That’s why the other papers are so gleeful.
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
Their peers are laughing at them. Not us little people. Their friends are coming up to them at cocktail parties and making fun of them for getting scooped by the lowly Hollywood Reporter.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: Yup. My Schadenfreude meter is pegged, and bouncing against the peg repeatedly.
Suffer, Haberhack and Thrush. Suffer.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
The NYT likes to imagine that it has no peer in the English language world, with the possible exception of the Times of London.
Yep!
(((CassandraLeo)))
@schrodingers_cat: The quote in question is from the Colbert Report days – more specifically, the 2006 WHCD. Colbert was being sarcastic, and I would’ve thought the Hindenburg reference would be a dead giveaway, since it’s best known for crashing (much like the Titanic is best known for sinking).
I must concur with others’ schadenfreude at seeing the FTFNYT scooped by the Hollywood Reporter.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I was pretty sure you would find this as amusing as I do. ?
The NYT could handle being pwned by another large metro daily, but the Hollywood Reporter?!? That’s a public pantsing in front of all of their colleagues.
randy khan
@Aimai:
Wolff is known as something of a jerk and a guy who’s not entirely fastidious about accuracy in his reporting (which is the nice way to say it). I figure Magary is saying more or less that you need someone who’s not too fussy about journalistic norms to do what Wolff did here. While I might not have chosen to use “rat” as the term of comparison, given Wolff’s reputation I’m not surprised another journalist did.
Mnemosyne
@randy khan:
That reputation is why Wolff made it very clear that he has tapes and notes to back up his book.
And IMO he’s a “rat” because his strategy of sucking up and then burning all of his sources makes it tougher for other journalists to do their jobs, for better and for worse.
randy khan
@Mnemosyne:
The tapes were a very smart move on his part, for that reason and many others.
I will say that he’s a very good writer. I really enjoyed reading him when he was at New York magazine.
lowtechcyclist
@Quinerly:
To steal from Modest Mouse, they were dead before the ship even sank.
oclday
@Aimai:
You mean he is a patriot