This is easy and not easy. My article is lined up and ready to go. But the conclusion is going to be hard for trump.At the very point that he is being deluged by an avalanche of things described as a mix of gossip and fact, an angel has landed. The first little bird was the Michael Wolff book that's coming out in a few hours. The second little bird is Axios. The angel. Axios has just told me and will tell you what is right and incontrovertible about the Wolff book.
The book is "Fire and Fury". Your best deal is Kindle for $14.
Do not be confused by the text of the embed below.
The actual Axios article to which it refers is filled with things that Mike Allen says Wolff got right. It will be my pleasure to pass on some of these things in shortened form.
The embed begins with a Trump battle cry tweet -- signaling yet another war of the keyboards. Trump says he granted no access. One finds that hard to believe. How else was Wolff granted nearly complete access?
1 big thing: What Wolff got most right https://t.co/HakzcKGoNe #axiosam
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) January 5, 2018
If you want the long version of the Axios takes, click their link above. The following is my rendition of some the things Axios validates as true facts regarding Trump. It is the result of putting together what is in Wolff that corresponds to what Axios has gathered.
Axios numbers among its sponsors the most venal of corporate enterprises. It treads with care.
The corroboration
Wolff correctly notes the contempt for Trump that exists even among those who have praised him in public. Wolff passes on gossip but the effect is to clue us in on the sort of things we would never otherwise know about.
That crosses a line but it does not mean what he passes on is not factual.
The meat of this article is in the following things Wolff writes that Axios find "unambiguously true". \
Trump is not able to take in third-party information. The president appears to be phobic about any "formal demands". He is skittish if attention is sought.
His reading is mostly confined to headlines and articles about himself. He skims right-wing gossip. Wplff says he is "post-literate - total television".
Most alarming
Take almost no attention span and add full confidence in his own capacity to deal with anything, and you have a president who is at best a loose cannon and at worst a nuclear threat. The Axios corroboration is confined to the first half of this sentence. The conclusion is mine based on almost a year of focus on the man.
Another result is the shelving of expertise. Since almost everything boils down to the impulse of the moment coming from a man who seeks no help, the wealth of knowledge that could inform any decision is effectively banished.
There is one exception, Trump's inclination toward generals. But even so, he does not like to be given orders.
Michael Wolff, From Local Media Scourge to National Newsmaker https://t.co/zqJUTW2Pnr
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) January 5, 2018
There is more in the Axios exposition. In general, it paints Trump as one who warrants the low esteem in which his own circle holds him.
