2018 has already started off with a bang. Only about two weeks into the brand-new year and we have already seen many bizarre events take place, specifically with our president, Donald Trump. Just today he insulted several struggling nations like Haiti and the nations in the African continent. He had a bizarre interview with “The Wall Street Journal” where he answered some questions with puzzling responses.
But probably the craziest thing that has happened was the release of the book “Fire and Fury” written Michael Wolff and published on January 5th. No matter what your political leanings are, you must admit that the content in this book really makes you scratch your head. What the heck is going on in the White House?
Personally, I did not read the book but from what I have seen through articles online is that Wolff made some insane accusations about the Trump administration. Some of these claims include things such as going in depth to marriage troubles between Melania Trump and Donald Trump. According to an article by Variety, Trump eats McDonald's instead of food prepared for him because of a fear of being poisoned.
Apparently, many of the people that were a part of his campaign did not believe he would win and some articles say the book claims even Trump and Melania were just as shocked as everyone else about the election results. As a candidate Trump apparently had no interest in learning about the Constitution, that they got as far as the Fourth Amendment before Trump lost patience. This is according to the former adviser to the Trump campaign Sam Nunberg.
Trump would talk about getting in bed with other women, “Trump liked to say that one of the things that made life worth living was getting your friends’ wives into bed” according to the book. More of the claims that the book makes target Ivanka (Trump’s daughter) and her husband while most of the book tries to portray that the President’s administration is in chaos as many of the White House Staff believe he is unfitting to be in office.
Quite honestly, it is very difficult to believe a lot of what this book claims. That’s why if you do decide to read it you should have a feeling of skepticism as this could be as credible as a gossip article in a tabloid magazine. Autor of the book, Michael Wolff claims he has “100%” credible sources and that his book details specific information of how the Presidential Administration functions.
Wolff claims that his reasoning for writing this book is to allow the American people to see through the walls of the White House and that his intentions were not to try to hurt the President’s public image. However, it is difficult to believe that Wolff wrote the book with an unbias point of view.
As far as anybody knows, his best source is Steve Bannon, a key part of Trump’s campaign staff and was the White House Chief Strategist until resigning back in August of last year. Wolff believes that the book will end Trump’s presidency with what he believes are revelations that will make the people believe that Trump is truly unfit to be in office.
However, even though his book is selling well so far, this is very unlikely to happen.
Many critics put into question Wolff’s political knowledge as he made several errors in his book, also, according to an article by National Review, claims that Wolff often does not take a critical view for his sources and will take anything he is told as factual. Many critics put into his lack of sources aside from Steve Bannon who is also considered not an accurate source as well. One thing that might help gain Wolff some credibility would be that he was at the White House on several occasions acting as a “fly on the wall”.
But besides that, he does not have much ground for his claims. Not to mention some claims are not news to the American people, we know he makes bizarre and sometimes inaccurate statements that don’t come as a shock. As for some of the other claims, including accusations of Russian connections, have little to no ground beside some unnamed sources.
It was already clear that Trump’s administration hasn’t run the most smoothly either, maybe some of the claims in Wolff’s book are true. Who knows. It’s just very difficult to believe. What a crazy way to start off the new year right?
I know I’m curious to see how this all gets played out in the future. Many of Trump’s staff including Trump himself obviously discredited the book as simple gossip. Whether you like or hate Trump give Michael Wolff’s book a read, even if it’s out of curiosity.
I only scratched the surface of all the claims the book makes. If you enjoy politics like myself and want to go more in depth look for “Fire and Fury” in the closest book store. I know I definitely want to give it a read.
