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S'està carregant… Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White Housede Michael Wolff
![]() No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. Not anything to get too worked up about -- if you were paying attention during the campaign and first few months of his presidency, you know Trump & co. already and got exposed to most of the stuff collected here. The value is in having it collected and organized and, in some cases at least, sourced and/or verified. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could, but it's not a 4 in my book, as the saying goes. No surprises, at least if you've been paying even the slightest amount of attention over the past 18 months or more. The appeal is clearly that "fly on the wall" effect of witnessing all the things I already assumed, except even worse. Worth the read, even if you skim chunks. It feels weird to rate this, as it's basically a glorified gossip rag. That being said, if even half of this shit is true, I am even more terrified about this presidency than I was. I knew that DJT is venal, amoral, narcissistic, reactionary, petulant, and shit-dumb, but I had credited him with a canny sort of cleverness. I may have been too generous in my assessment. If you asked me if I would be reading a book on President Trump a week ago, I would have stated “absolutely not!” Then a tweet happened, a lawsuit, and a threat to shut down publishing of a simple book by the President of the United States, and like many readers, I found myself reading a book on President Trump. Now it is difficult to separate all the hubbub around the book from the book itself, in fact I am still amazed the President has had two press conferences, several tweets, a lawsuit, and used his staff to try to fight this book (a book that would probably have gotten published and read by only a few readers if not for the President), but I will try to focus on the book only. If one goes into this book looking for some new revelations, especially if one is already critical of the President, you probably will not find many. The book paints the White House as a place where individuals vie for power to bend the President’s ear. It shows a White House where individuals are more against one another rather than working toward a common goal. The book really centers on Trump’s staff rather than the man himself. While Trump is a constant presence within the book, he is painted as a blank slate who when he sets his mind on something, it is set regardless of facts presented. His staff’s role, in the book, is to try to sway him their way. Wolff paints Trump as a man who did not want the Presidency, but wound up being elected much to the surprise of others. Due to his inexperience, he desired to surround himself with family and people within his inner circle trusting only them. The true reason individuals want to read the book is for the dirt. While there are some passages that go to those places, it is more a book outlining the first year of the Presidency. I found I often forgot certain things happened, until reminded by the book, as it seems this year has been filled with so many things. Whole speeches are presented, along with the dirt behind those speeches. My biggest takeaway was around the leaks coming from the White House. Wolff suggestion was not only did those leaks come from Bannon and Jared, but possibly from the President himself. According to Wolff, the President would often speak to his friends unfiltered in the evening, dishing dirt, and sharing items. Those individuals would then turn to the press and leak them out. Wolff makes this point several times and even backs it up a bit with the incident at Mar a Lago where the President openly talked about North Korea in front of other diners. As stated, I am trying to distance myself from the hoopla, so I will say as a heavy reader of books about politics and a reader of non-fiction, reading the book was a small chore at times. The book was often filled with whole speeches or lots of passages explaining items Wolff previous explained or went over. There were also a few typos and some mistakes, such as a Mike vs Mark at one portion. This though is to be expected in books of this nature. I will address one big criticism of the book and that is the disclaimer in the beginning of the book. My guess is many who are lifting up this disclaimer as proof that this book isn’t truthful. It is a pretty standard disclaimer though to protect from lawsuit. My guess is it is also there because of the number of options Wolff heard. If two people say the President did such and such, but one said he did this and that, as a writer, he would have to figure out the place of truth and take a guess based on the three accounts. That is how I viewed the disclaimer. As for the book itself, I found it a good book. I gave it 3.5 stars.
Wolff is strongest when he’s writing on what he knows best: the insecurities and ambitions of Trump and other media fixtures. Yet while much of this presidency does revolve around news coverage, it is still a presidency. And Wolff is far weaker when it comes to politics. What ultimately salvages the book are those moments when he all but makes Bannon his co-author, letting Bannon describe West Wing showdowns with his moderate nemesis, Jarvanka, in ways that render this the de facto first insider account of the Trump White House. Of course, the recollections are just those of a single aide, and may include what Trump himself once called examples of “truthful hyperbole.” In the newspaper business, such stories would be deemed “too good to check.” But given the popularity of “Fire and Fury,” Wolff might call them something else: liberal catnip. Wolff’s access to Trump and his inner circle is evident. At the outset, Wolff writes of how he sat down with Trump in his Beverly Hills home, while Kushner and Trump aides Hope Hicks and Corey Lewandowski milled about. Likewise, the quotes obviously bespeak knowledge and close proximity. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Trump represented a movement, and that fact deserved greater elucidation by Wolff. Said differently, among Fire and Fury’s shortcomings are its failure to adequately explain how Trump arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and its insufficient appreciation for the bond forged by Trump and his base. In that sense, the book lacks the connective tissue present in Devil’s Bargain, Joshua Green’s take on the Trump campaign and the first few months of the presidency. Clearly, Fire and Fury has set off a storm that has left its share of casualties. ... Make no mistake, Wolff’s latest is a must-read. It pulls away whatever curtain still cloaks the Trump White House, leaving those who know Trump best to do the talking. Is it accurate? Many details are simply wrong. Whether the larger narrative is true is a different question....A bigger problem with Fire and Fury, however, is that by any standard of sound journalism it has big problems with transparency and sourcing. The people who take time to read the book for themselves will find a devastating portrait of Donald Trump. Trump is portrayed as totally out to lunch, with such a short attention span that he’s incapable of reading policy briefs much less of analyzing a problem or making a well-informed decision. Trump is shown constantly watching cable TV, frustrated and confused by the fact that he doesn’t receive widespread approval. His staff is well aware of his shortcomings and wonders just how long they can continue the illusion that Trump is capable of governing. Wolff inevitably likens the Russian cover-up to the skulduggery of Watergate, and briefly updates us on Pissgate and Pussygate – respectively the spurious tale of the golden shower in Moscow, and Trump’s better-authenticated braggadocio about his success as a groper (although, evidently believing that executive privilege protects his mendacity, he now claims that it “really wasn’t me” on that tape). Fire and Fury also gives the lowdown on the lacquered trompe-l’oeil that is Trump’s hairdo, with those tinted tendrils combed over a cranium that is totally bald and resonantly empty. But beyond such acts of exposure, what makes the book significant is its sly, hilarious portrait of a hollow man, into the black hole of whose needy, greedy ego the whole world has virtually vanished. Wolff deplores Trump, explains the conditions that made him possible, and accuses us all of colluding in this madness. Pertany a aquestes sèries
SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER With extraordinary access to the Trump White House, Michael Wolff tells the inside story of the most controversial presidency of our time. The first nine months of Donald Trump's term were stormy, outrageous - and absolutely mesmerising. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, bestselling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself. In this explosive book, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office. Among the revelations: - What President Trump's staff really thinks of him - What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama - Why FBI director James Comey was really fired - Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn't be in the same room - Who is really directing the Trump administration's strategy in the wake of Bannon's firing - What the secret to communicating with Trump is - What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers Never before has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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![]() GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)973.933 — History and Geography North America United States 1901- Bush Administration And Beyond Donald TrumpLCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:![]()
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The author took liberties for sure, alleging people were thinking things at any given time. Based on public behavior, even wild anecdotes seem plausible. That’s part of its draw - if the events in this book happened, I wouldn’t be surprised. If they facts were stretched, I’d expect they were only stretched a little. (