Fire and Fury: That book everyone is talking about.

I just started reading it, I haven’t gotten far but interesting parts including Donald telling Melania not to worry because they won’t win and insiders calling Donald Jr and Eric “Uday and Qusay” behind their backs.

 

I think Trump was initailly going to use the election as some marketing ploy if he lost

 

The Filth And The Fury was better.

 

Scaramucci was a weirdly likeable character in that book. I know he's kind of a dickhole for other reasons, but he just seemed like a lovable goofball in this book.

 

Does the book seem credible though or just the author's hate-boner?

 

Trump and company have all pretty much done the usual "FAKE NEWS! ZOMG!" thing, but apparently, according to several witnesses, most of the stuff talked about in the book *is* true.

 

That reminds me of my dad's reaction when we watched the George Bush movie years ago.

"I feel sorry for him. He's a likeable idiot who became president during one of the worst times to be president."

 

Sean Spicer comes off as sympathetic, the book describes him as a guy who has to explain what people do, but nobody does anything.

 

Sean Spicer is sort of a tragic figure. He was a respected figure before deciding to work for the Trump admin and now he's sort of a laughing stock who's maybe is never going to work in Washington again.

 

Most commentary on the book seems to suppose that the broad issues and opinions broached in it are honest, but perhaps some scenes and interactions between various parties are exaggerated or hyperbolic in a way to make it more entertaining. I.E., there's a scene early on with Roger Ailes and Steve Bannon during the transition, discussing the upcoming administration's plans, in which the setting seems too vivid and the lines and their delivery feel more like a screenplay than a human conversation, especially considering Wolff could've only gotten information on the meeting out of one party--Bannon--due to Ailes sudden passing last year. However, it's entirely possible, and perhaps probable, that such a meeting would've occurred due to the closeness of Ailes and Bannon, as two right-wing media kingpins, and the general thrust of the conversation certainly seems within reason.

You can also get a general feeling given the way stories are approached in the book that both Steve Bannon, and former Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh, were used heavily as sources for the book's material, since you get a perspective on most events that seems to align often with their views on various internal White House fights (The Ivanka/Jared faction of the White House gets especially trashed in the book).

Also worth mentioning, of course, that if the book was a bunch of hot air/'fake news,' they probably wouldn't have ritually sacrificed Steve Bannon and pushed him into the same relative obscurity that Milo has been hanging out in for the last year, nor would they try to send the lawyers to the publishers with a cease and desist to threaten them, or tweet excessively the way Trump has personally attacking the author. It's sort of equivalent to when someone pisses you off online, and you try to insist that you're not mad while writing a 10-page essay personally attacking them (While insisting you don't care), and trying to dox them and submit a personal army request to /baph/ with it at the same time.

It's almost impressive, in a way, how badly they responded to the dumb book. There's plenty of books criticizing Trump and his administration, but most don't attract their ire anywhere like Fire and Fury. Had they just ignored the book; no cease and desists; no tweets; no executions of Steve Bannon's career, it would've been a news story for 48-hours max before the next scandal swamped the news cycle and it passed.

 

Kinda wish it was Fire and Furry instead tbh fam