Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff
“Fire and Fury” is a gossipy insightful look into the unstable Trump White House. Best-selling author, Michael Wolff takes the reader inside the White House and with extraordinary access provides an eye-opening expose. This revealing 328-page book includes the following twenty-two chapters: 1. Election Day, 2. Trump Tower, 3. Day One, 4. Bannon, 5. Jarvanka, 6. At Home, 7. Russia, 8. Org Chart, 9. CPAC, 10. Goldman, 11. Wiretap, 12. Repeal and Replace, 13. Bannon Agonistes, 14. Situation Room, 15. Media, 16. Comey, 17. Abroad and at Home, 18. Bannon Redux, 19. Mika Who?, 20. McMaster and Scaramucci, 21. Bannon and Scaramucci, and 22. General Kelly.
Positives:
1. As interesting a book as you will find. A page turner.
2. In the Author’s Note, Wolff describes his methodology and in some instances acknowledges that some accounts are in conflict and lets you the reader be the judge.
3. The book is easy to follow as Wolff engages the reader with interesting stories and characters. Who knew we had a reality TV soap opera in the White House?
4. In spite of all that the press has leaked on the book, it is still worth reading.
5. This book is a gossip wonder fest, everybody has an opinion on everybody and it’s out in the open for you to read. “In Ivanka and Jared’s view, Conway was a cussed, antagonistic, self-dramatizing cable head, and Powell, they hoped, would be a deliberate, circumspect, adult guest on the Sunday morning shows.”
6. Interesting insights throughout. “As the campaign came to an end, Trump himself was sanguine. He had survived the release of the Billy Bush tape when, in the uproar that followed, the RNC had had the gall to pressure him to quit the race.”
7. Trump’s traits are here for the world to view. “Early in the campaign, in a Producers-worthy scene, Sam Nunberg was sent to explain the Constitution to the candidate: “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.””
8. Get your soap out; it’s going to be a dirty ride. “Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends’ wives into bed.”
9. Trump the president. “He had somehow won the race for president, but his brain seemed incapable of performing what would be essential tasks in his new job. He had no ability to plan and organize and pay attention and switch focus; he had never been able to tailor his behavior to what the goals at hand reasonably required. On the most basic level, he simply could not link cause and effect.”
10. Bannon’s views are the backbone of this book. Here is his philosophy. “Bannon’s strategic view of government was shock and awe. Dominate rather than negotiate. Having daydreamed his way into ultimate bureaucratic power, he did not want to see himself as a bureaucrat. He was of a higher purpose and moral order. He was an avenger. He was also, he believed, a straight shooter. There was a moral order in aligning language and action—if you said you were going to do something, you do it.”
11. The greatest asset of Trump the candidate. “The Apprentice, and embracing a theory that would serve him well during his presidential campaign: in flyover country, there is no greater asset than celebrity. To be famous is to be loved—or at least fawned over.”
12. Trumpism. “He is uncomfortable when the men around him are not wearing suit and ties. Formality and convention—before he became president, almost everybody without high celebrity or a billion dollars called him “Mr. Trump”—are a central part of his identity. Casualness is the enemy of pretense. And his pretense was that the Trump brand stood for power, wealth, arrival.” Bonus, “But not only didn’t he read, he didn’t listen. He preferred to be the person talking. And he trusted his own expertise—no matter how paltry or irrelevant—more than anyone else’s. What’s more, he had an extremely short attention span, even when he thought you were worthy of attention.”
13. The Russians! “On January 6, 2017—nearly six months to the day after Foer’s piece was published—the CIA, FBI, and NSA announced their joint conclusion that “Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.””
14. Clever observations included. “It is an anomaly of Republican politics that young people motivated to work in the public sector find themselves working to limit the public sector.”
15. The three forces in the White House exposed. “Bannon was the alt-right militant. Kushner was the New York Democrat. And Priebus was the establishment Republican. “Steve wants to force a million people out of the country and repeal the nation’s health law and lay on a bunch of tariffs that will completely decimate how we trade, and Jared wants to deal with human trafficking and protecting Planned Parenthood.” And Priebus wanted Donald Trump to be another kind of Republican altogether.”
16. Jarvanka, better known as Jared and Ivanka. “What’s more, the success of the speech confirmed the Jared and Ivanka strategy: look for common ground. It also confirmed Ivanka’s understanding of her father: he just wanted to be loved.”
17. Wolff describes all the players in Trump’s world and their roles. “Hicks remained his closest and most trusted aide, with, perhaps, the single most important job in this White House: interpreting the media for him in the most positive way it could be interpreted, and buffering him from the media that could not be positively spun.”
18. Controversial and troublesome insights. “Shortly after Lewandowski, with whom Hicks had an on-and-off romantic relationship, was fired in June 2016 for clashing with Trump family members, Hicks sat in Trump Tower with Trump and his sons, worrying about Lewandowski’s treatment in the press and wondering aloud how she might help him. Trump, who otherwise seemed to treat Hicks in a protective and even paternal way, looked up and said, “Why? You’ve already done enough for him. You’re the best piece of tail he’ll ever have,” sending Hicks running from the room.”
19. Fake news! “All news was manipulated and designed, planned and planted. All news was to some extent fake—he understood that very well, because he himself had faked it so many times in his career. This was why he had so naturally cottoned to the “fake news” label. “I’ve made stuff up forever, and they always print it,” he bragged.”
20. The Comey fiasco explained. “On May 17, twelve days after FBI director Comey was fired, without consulting the White House or the attorney general, Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller to oversee the investigation of Trump’s, his campaign’s, and his staff’s ties to Russia. If Michael Flynn had recently become the most powerful man in Washington for what he might reveal about the president, now Mueller arguably assumed that position because he had the power to make Flynn, and all other assorted Trump cronies and flunkies, squeal.”
21. The Trump doctrine. “In practice, the new foreign policy, an effective Trump doctrine, was to reduce the board to three elements: powers we can work with, powers we cannot work with, and those without enough power whom we can functionally disregard or sacrifice.”
22. Was there obstruction of justice? “The point could hardly have been clearer: if the president was pressuring the director because he feared that an investigation of Michael Flynn would damage him, then this was an obstruction of justice.”
23. Interesting insights that are in play right now. “In fact, said, Bannon, eyes rolling and mouth agape, it was the Jarvanka idea to try to trade off amnesty for the border wall.”
24. The military firewall. “Roger Stone, one of those people whose calls Kelly was now shielding the president from, spread the dark scenario that Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly had agreed that no military action would ever be taken unless the three were in accord—and that at least one of them would always remain in Washington if the others were away.”
25. In short, what do they have in common? “In the wake of the immolating news conference, all eyes were suddenly on Kelly—this was his baptism of Trump fire. Spicer, Priebus, Cohn, Powell, Bannon, Tillerson, Mattis, Mnuchin—virtually the entire senior staff and cabinet of the Trump presidency, past and present, had traveled through the stages of adventure, challenge, frustration, battle, self-justification, and doubt, before finally having to confront the very real likelihood that the president they worked for—whose presidency they bore some official responsibility for—didn’t have the wherewithal to adequately function in his job.”
Negatives:
1. No references, nor links to speak of.
2. A glossary of the players with short bios would have been helpful.
3. Lack of supplementary material like charts, graphs, photos or tables.
4. No formal bibliography.
5. How much of this is factual? It’s hard to tell but it seems that the author is willing to back up his claims with recordings.
6. Trump fans will be disappointed, that may actually be a positive.
In summary, let’s face it, this book is like a car wreck, you just can’t take your eyes off of it. Even if you don’t like politics this is just one of those books that are guaranteed to entertain. The biggest shortcoming of the book is the lack of supplementary material and the fact that most of the book is hearsay though I presume that some can be backed by recordings and confirming testimony. That said, this is worth reading based on entertainment value and its implications.
Further suggestions that will help you get acquainted with their views: “Devil’s Bargain” by Joshua Green, “Collusion” by Luke Harding, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” by Bandy X. Lee, “Unbelievable” by Katy Tur, “What Happened” Hillary Rodham Clinton, “The Plot to Hack America” by Malcolm Nance, and “The Making of Donald Trump” by David Cay Johnston.
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This is an extremely powerful book. It is also the first of the major exposes on the Trump Administration, and the book that caused Steve Bannon to be fired from the Trump White House for being too open with the author. It’s actually quite amazing since Bannon often comes out poorly in this book and is ridiculed as a “misanthropic” person who believes he lives “on a higher moral plane than all others.” (p. 172). And it goes on like this. This book also has one of the most unflattering portrays of Trump that I have ever seen, and that is no small statement. If 1/10 of this is true it’s absolutely frightening.Also, whatever its faults, the book is an absolute page turner or in the case of an audiobook a disk turner.
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Top reviews from the United States
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"Fire and Fury" Best Political Reporting, Most Interesting Romp Since Hunter Thompson's "Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 5, 2018
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 5, 2018
Top reviews from other countries
David
A good book which gets to the dysfunctional heart of the Trump administration in the style of Vanity Fair
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 4, 2018M. Mather
Definitely a swamp to drain here - worth the effort - you decide.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 27, 2018Claire Sayer
Frightening stuff...be careful what you wish for!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 17, 2018O'Boulez
Madness, complete madness.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 23, 2018
