Fire and Fury, a comedy of errors in the West Wing.

Fire and Fury, Inside the Trump White House, would better be subtitled A Comedy of Errors in the West Wing. It is about what has played out in both the Trump Administration and even in the Trump campaign to win office.  This can be summarised is in Sean Spicer’s lament:  “You can’t make this shit up”.  

For all his bluster Emperor Trump’s New Clothes are badly soiled and the stench of incompetence carry from the Oval Office to the corridors of power in the West Wing.  Fire and Fury is a rattling good read although depressing: it’s about the same Donald we have long known and loathed for some time: the Donald whose mantra is you’re fired. This mantra should apply to him.

Now it's totally predictable that Trump brushes the book aside as fake news, his usual line when news stories don’t flatter his colossal ego. He tries to discredit the author, Michael Wolff by saying that he made it all up, but to repeat Spicer’s words,  like the inauguration photos.“You can’t make this shit up”. Perhaps some parts may be embellished, but there’s more than enough rope to hang the credibility of the 45^th POTUS. I wish I could say that the end is nigh for this train wreck, and although the signs are very good in this respect, there’s a lot of fumes, dirt, and despair to be played out ahead. 

But first who is this interloper, this acting Commander in Chief of the United States? Well, united states is a bit of a stretch as since the civil war the country has never been more divided. By all accounts, there are a lot of skeletons in Teflon Don’s cupboard. A list follows but skimming only the bold text will suffice as you probably already know the details.

1. Trump’s racist tendencies. In the 70s the Trumps had colour bans on their substantial rental accommodation and were taken to task by the Department of Justice. This can be fact-checked on Google and YouTube. More recently Trump dog-whistled support for white supremacists in the Charlottesville incident, and he never rebuffed his strong support by the KKK and other white supremacists. The result of his Charlottesville tweets led many top CEOs to abandon membership of his business council.  
2. Discriminates against all, including people with disabilities, which has been widely reported. There’s hardly a group he hasn’t insulted at some time, even the physically handicapped. He famously mocked a New York Times reporter with disabilities. 
3. Trump is a cheat, who doesn’t pay his bills and has had over 3500 lawsuits against him, a record for any presidential candidate. See USA Today article at https://tinyurl.com/mbd8mf4 and Google for many instances of his double dealings. Former New York Mayor, Michael Bloomsberg was quoted as saying, “I knew Donald Trump. We mixed in the same circles. He stiffed a lot of people.” Trump often used his financial weight in court to defeat those chasing him for unpaid bills. Many he bankrupted with long court battles. He saw paying bills as optional and avoided doing so in every way possible. It was a me-win, you-lose because I'm a smart guy, right?
4. A bankrupt. For all his trumpeted business acumen, and he has tall Towers to attest to his brand and ego, he has been bankrupt at least 4 times, and his companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcies many times more, eleven in fact. This way they can keep trading despite unpaid bills.
5. Criminal associations - much of the concrete for Trump Tower was ordered from and delivered by the mafia. See a BBC doco on YouTube. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. Trump will maximise profit whatever it takes.
6. A tax cheat as he continues to conceal his tax records, or is he trying to hide some dubious business dealings, probably both.
7. A sexual abuser, revealed by “Grab them by the pussy” tape, and a number of women who have come forward about Trump’s crossing of boundaries. Typically the bully threatened to sue them. Fire And Fury mentions a legal fund and lawyers paying off women to silence them, such as the porn star Stormy Daniels. More to come.
8. A crony capitalist who talks about draining the swamp but hand-picks appointments from the financial swamp he so often criticises. Is on the phone every morning to his billionaire or swamp buddies.
9. A draft dodger who as president fawns on malleable generals but avoided the draft due to bone spurs on his feet, but had no problem playing baseball or tennis.
10. Uninformed and refuses to listen and learn. He has tin ears.
11. Has limited reading ability and won’t read background briefing pages that are more than a few paragraphs. Even makes up his own words, like bigly and covfefe. Would fail many basic English tests.
12. Has an ego bigger than Texas and flies into a fury if he is not flattered. Has been described as being a malign narcissist. He’s certainly a blowhard and this “stable genius” is not prone to fits of modesty.
13. Can be cruel as those around him have noted to their peril. The book is full of such cases of his blasting and bad mouthing people, including his sons, Eric and Donald Junior, who he once said were in the back room when God handed out brains. He believes in a world of winners and losers, and of winners like himself are to be lauded.
14. Has a short attention span, or that of a 6-year-old. Repeats himself endlessly and may contradict himself within 20-minute cycles. 
15. His mental health has been questioned by many serious health professionals. His rages and tantrums set off alarms, and his junk food diet is legendary.
16. He doesn’t understand democracy and that there are limits to his power. Ruling by executive orders can only go so far and FBI Directors and Special Prosecutors can’t be sacked on his every whim.
17. He’s a hypocrite attacking Obama for his few games of golf when he sets new records on the golf course, his putting under par. The same criticism for Obama’s Executive Orders which he far exceeds. He hasn’t relinquished his stake in Trump enterprises and brushes away conflict of interest concerns. Hey, I’m Donald Trump and what are you doing on my planet?
18. The Art of the no deal. According to Tony Schwartz, his “co-author” in the book, Trump had little to do with writing it but nevertheless used it for self-promotion. Schwartz deeply regrets his role in this and donates his royalties as a penance.
19. Like fellow New Yorker, Robert De Nero, countless millions would love to remove that imperious smug look off Trump's face, but punching the president is a step too far, even for the popular actor. Better the ballot box, than clenched boxing fists.
20. His hair, like his persona, is totally fake. His appetite for junk food is gross. 

One could go on about this swindler, cheat and thief who is dubious from A to Z. Indeed there’s more to come from the Mueller’s Russian investigation, so stay tuned. The findings could be treasonous, which is perhaps why he's so desperate to stop the investigation. 

Of course, we know all the above if we follow international news even only slightly. Leaks are the order of the day in the West Wing even occasioning the confiscating of mobile phones at one stage. Fire and Fury is full of intrigues, quotes and behind the scenes commentary.

The White House has built a firewall around Trump but never-ending crisis management remains the new norm. It’s all about tending to the feelings and the sensitive ego of the sulking POTUS, and damn the consequences. And nepotism and the Trump kids get to play leading roles in this family business, not to mention the civil war between Bannon and Jarvanka of which much is made in the book.

Some glimpses of the man from Fire and Fury.

Trump lost his cool in a debate about the US in Afghanistan: withdraw, use private military contractors and the CIA, or business as usual with a slight increase of troops, the option the military expected Trump to sign off on. After threatening to fire all his generals the fury followed. He demanded to know, why, if we have to be in Afghanistan we couldn't make money out of it. Blood money is no issue to Trump providing there's enough of it. He’s Dracula at the blood bank.

McConnell and Ryan may pose together sweetly with Trump but we know how many Republicans, including them, he has trashed publicly, and the GOP even had a Never Trump faction. Essentially it’s if you’re not with me 100% then look out! While Trump is a winner then the GOP will cozy up but they will turn harshly when he trips up electorally. Seriously what kind of Republican would name a son Barron. Why not Duke or Earl?

You have to feel sorry for Barron. His grandfather was a regular bastard and noted bully, like his dad. Donald could never please his old man no matter his achievements, which perhaps explains his neurosis since his childhood. We can only hope that Barron is not being similarly trashed by his crazy dad.

How did we get to this?  How did we get to this a B-grade TV celebrity strutting the world stage like twist in a bad movie plot: and is his mantra of Make America Great Again simply a call to return to the 50s when political correctness didn’t exist, unlike segregation and the cold war? Is he retrofitting the country for a return to an unfair past that included slavery? Some of his alt-right supporters would like that.

See https://tinyurl.com/y9sdq2qf

The entire planet is rolling its collective eyes and is aghast at this farce. Was it Comey or Russian interference? Was it the record low turnout on Election Day? Was it a national lapse in concentration that got Trump over the Electoral College line, but only just? Certainly, the polls didn’t see it and the world at large had a poor view of Trump’s rise to high office.

Time reported on November 7^th, before the election, on a poll by the goodcountry.org on how voters around the world would vote if they could in a US election. More than 100.000 people took part in this unscientific poll which specified voting on only on international issues. The results are in the graph on the right, and no ringing endorsement of Trump by any measure. But the polls were wrong and somehow Trump stole the election, along with all his other ill-gotten gains.

The world’s poor view of President Trump has only got worse as several recent polls have found. The good news is that at most 32% - 35% of Americans support him, and 35% is not a winning margin the last time I checked.

Trump, is a meal ticket for the right and its underlings, a battle to the death against mainstream media and objective reporting, and a total disregard for science and warnings of global warming. Forget about Taking the Knee or Black Lives Matter. Sack the sons of bitches is his call to his base. Of course he could have shouted, "fire the sons of bitches".

The latest farce is his desire to have military parades so he can stand on a dais, like Korean rocket man, all aglow from the saluting soldiers marching past. What a marvelous photo opportunity for someone who avoided military service during the Vietnam War. Soldiers salute out of tradition, and respect, and for Trump a salute is as good as a bow, an entitlement for the Commander in Chief. Naturally, McCain wasn’t a true war hero. Only losers get shot down, right?

What are the odds for the downfall of this shyster? Surely his reputation is in tatters and his electoral prospects greatly dimmed as the midterm elections come up in November 2018. To our horror can this macabre situation be repeated? 

Firstly he only won by a whisker and lost the popular vote by a much larger margin. Comey’s interference cost Hillary many votes and many didn’t vote either because they didn’t like Clinton, often preferring Bernie Sanders, or they thought she was going to win anyway. Remember there was a record low voter turnout but many more will turn up in future polls, and most of them won’t be Trump voters. Recent elections have shown amazing losses in even red states such as Alabama. They are red with embarrassment perhaps. This doesn’t auger well for Trump, especially if he loses his majority making him a lame duck president, and ripe for plucking by disaffected Republicans. As noted he’s made an art form out of trashing them. 

Much has been made of his base holding up but a small number will break away, will remove their blindfolds when their economic circumstances remain poor. Nothing is watertight in politics and there are inevitably leaks in his heartland. With his close margins, he can’t afford to lose a drop of support. Supporting him must be tiring and futile, even for his base.

Mueller is still investigating Russian interference which, along with a lot of fake news on social media, cost Clinton votes. Trump is alarmed enough to have sacked the FBI director, Comey, but all hell will break loose if he tries the same with Mueller. It will be a bad look for Trump sacking someone investigating him. And how many others has he sacked, or fired, and who’s next: take your pick, Tillerson, McMasters, Sessions to name a few. There are even reports of Kelly losing his patience and ready to bail out. The ship of state is taking in water and the ballast is not there under Cap’n Trump.

Seriously he can’t even visit an old ally, the UK, without setting off riots. One shakes one’s head in disbelief at how a once proud country could be held captive by such a rogue.

I look forward to the days when Fire and Fury is but a sad postscript to the Trump Administration, a time when the country truly lost its political senses. Alarm bells must be ringing across the Republic, even amongst Republican stalwarts.  Paul Reverie must be turning in his grave at the widening cracks in the Liberty Bell. Democracy is under attack from a president who doesn’t listen and cares even less, and would prefer to rule by executive orders or decrees. Make America Great Again is all about the self-serving Trump. The country can rot otherwise.

America will only be great again when Trump’s whining monotone is cast into the scrap heap of history, where it belongs. Where he belongs.

Like all the marchers, protestors, and US voters wake up, RESIST !!!