Trump Didn't Demand to Watch the Gorilla Channel, but He Did Fast-Forward Through the Exposition in

[EasyAce]

Sorting out truth from gossip and rumor in Michael Wolff's new book.
By Peter Suderman
http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/05/trump-didnt-demand-to-watch-the-gorilla/print

Michael Wolff's new book on the Trump presidency, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, has generated a lot of attention and controversy recently, both for its apparent revelations about the chaos in the White House, and for the vague sourcing and hard-to-believe anecdotes. (Did Trump, who has tweeted repeatedly about John Boehner over the years, really not know who the former Speaker of the House was?)

The book has already sparked a feud between the president and his former adviser, Steve Bannon. And yesterday, Trump's legal team demanded that the publisher cease and desist publication. The publisher responded by releasing it four days early, and a number of journalists spent the evening pouring through the book, hunting for scoops . . .

. . . My sense, based on the excerpts we've seen so far, is that Wolff's book probably relies in part on dubious gossip. Much of, I suspect, is based in partial truth, or at least in things that Wolff was told, but that Wolff, who has a history of producing journalism that relies on synthesis and creative interpretation, did not always make an effort to fully verify. As Andrew Prokop writes, the book is probably "a collection of stuff Wolff heard" — which is not the same as saying that it's entirely, strictly true.

At the same time, Wolff isn't just concocting stories out of whole cloth. UGC Worldwide DistributionUGC Worldwide DistributionHe does appear to have been present for at least some of the events he describes. A private dinner with Steve Bannon and Roger Ailes that figures heavily into Wolff's excerpt in New York magazine turns out to have taken place at Wolff's house. He had consistent access to top players in the White House. Wolff reportedly has hours of interviews on tape, and Steve Bannon has not disputed any of the incendiary quotes Wolff attributes to him.

And the basic picture that Wolff paints of a chaotic White House operation that revolves around a mercurial and easily distracted president who simply wasn't prepared for the role is one that has been described before, and confirmed by any number of more rigorous high-profile political journalists. For what it's worth, I consistently cencounter the same impressions in my own conversations with others in Washington: People who work in Trump's orbit find it difficult to get him to focus or process information, and tempermentally unfit for the demands of the presidency.

So it would be a mistake, I think, to simply dismiss Wolff's book as a work of pure fiction or baseless speculation. Yet it's also worth approaching any individual story or event it describes with some amount skepticism, unless independently corroborated or backed up with some sort of verification . . .

[goatprairie]

I think the truth (as in many cases) is somewhere in the middle. Trump is not the Super Genius is biggest backers would have us believe, but neither is he the dope the libs would like us to believe.
You can't be involved in the kind of high finance games Trump has engaged in his career and be stupid to succeed. In fact, you have to be very intelligent. Even if Trump hasn't been as successful with many of them as he claims.
However, that doesn't automatically translate into knowing how to be a good president.  Looking at the Reagan model, Reagan made it clear what he wanted to do without the histrionics and other sideshows Trump is conducting.
Reagan's clear, conservative message and exemplary self-conduct remain the gold standard for Pubbie presidents.
I don't care  so much about the exaggerations or "lies" Trump spouts....I care more about his actions.
That means I've liked a lot of what he's done so far but don't much like all the juvenile squabbles and twitter rants he engages in. 
Who gives a good g-damn if he likes to eat cheeseburgers in bed or watch a lot of tv?  I'd like him to act more presidential and get more conservative things done.