The crazy thing is Bannon would have had to been on this shit MONTHS ago right? This isn't a "he's mad about Alabama" situation, he was apparently openly burning this bridge for a good long while now.
I wonder if he didn't realize he words were going to show up in a book. (It might explain how Brietbart seems to be caught off guard. You'd think they'd have the "Trump is an establishment sell-out" article ready to go for awhile now.) It just feels so 0-to-60.
EDIT: Also, McConnel really needs to learn when to shut up and let somebody light themselves on fire on their own. Poking the bear now will just galvanize the anti-establishment GOPers who may have become disenchanted by a Trump/Bannon schism.
Considering his media background this would be surprising, but on the other hand Wolff was apparently thought to be on their side so to speak which might have lulled him into boasting freely thinking it'd never be included.
I think this is just the delayed reaction to his firing. He said at the time he thought the Trump Presidency as he wanted it to be was over. Trump was never going to be the populist he wanted him to be. So Bannon burned that bridge.
Whether he meant for it to blow up this big, I'm not sure. Maybe they didn't think it would, hence their tepid reaction here. Maybe Bannon said it in a fit of pique following his ousting. That might make the most sense given Bannon was apparently still talking to Trump up until this story hit.
Walsh was basically the Chief of Staff for the transition team. Follow ups have her allegedly claiming that it's misattributed to her, when it was Bannon who said it. No official word has been put out though, and even Ward (Yahoo news source relaying her claim) hedges, saying that she may be panicked over it. Could be them scapegoating all bad press onto Bannon now. Or just super weird panic now that Trump has granted it legitimacy.
That whole quote, not just the highlighted bits, is amazingly horrible and evidence of his completely lack of qualification to do anything. It's not surprising though as it's exactly what we all knew.
It remains interesting the extent to which people seem to have really not grasped exactly the kind of childish buffoon they had propped up though. Every story out of his White House is like this. Everyone is continually shocked just how stupid and horrible he is. It seems like everyone thought he was a useful idiot but no one took the time to really look at him closely and so only afterwards are they all realising exactly what they helped get elected.
Neither Bannon nor the Establishment nor the fringe Republicans that flocked to him seem to understand how to deal with him.
Yeah, pretty much. When the brand is "so tired of winning", anybody that doesn't bring results gets voted out of the island. Also, having to just take the Moore defeat (supporting the Democrat is not an option) was more than enough reason to turn on Bannon. Trump saying that Bannon was a leaker, on perspective of the Kushner and Ivanka gossip, just seals the deal.
I can't get over how the guy who runs Brietbart just flat out said "Oh hey, it was totally collusion."
Like, I can't even imagine how a group as dogmatic as the alt-right is going to take this news.
Notice how the Trump camp has been focusing on Trump's twitter feed recently as the one, true avenue to information.
Breitbart's going to get shoved very easily into the "fake news" category.
Amazing.
If Breitbart is fake news, then who is real news? Just Fox? But Fox has been mean to Trump too? Is this the transition to the point where the only voice which speaks the truth is that of the leader?
I can't get over how the guy who runs Brietbart just flat out said "Oh hey, it was totally collusion."
Like, I can't even imagine how a group as dogmatic as the alt-right is going to take this news.
Notice how the Trump camp has been focusing on Trump's twitter feed recently as the one, true avenue to information.
Breitbart's going to get shoved very easily into the "fake news" category.
Amazing.
If Breitbart is fake news, then who is real news? Just Fox? But Fox has been mean to Trump too? Is this the transition to the point where the only voice which speaks the truth is that of the leader?
There's still rush and alex jones for them I guess; anyone know any other overweight, balding white rageaholics?
Bannon took a pretty soft jab against Trump really, by going after proxy targets like Junior. That Trump responded SO QUICKLY is very telling at how under-his-skin this got. It's also amazing to compare Trump's reaction time to this to things like Nazis killing people with their car.
the speed of the response is due, almost certainly, to Trump team having an advance copy so they could prepare a statement. They weren't caught unawares.
Bannon took a pretty soft jab against Trump really, by going after proxy targets like Junior. That Trump responded SO QUICKLY is very telling at how under-his-skin this got. It's also amazing to compare Trump's reaction time to this to things like Nazis killing people with their car.
the speed of the response is due, almost certainly, to Trump team having an advance copy so they could prepare a statement. They weren't caught unawares.
The speed of response is due to perceived disrespect for his children whom trump (being a creature of pure narcissism) regards as extensions of himself and from the fact that trump assumes fealty from everyone who passes through his life no matter how he treats them.
Bannon took a pretty soft jab against Trump really, by going after proxy targets like Junior. That Trump responded SO QUICKLY is very telling at how under-his-skin this got. It's also amazing to compare Trump's reaction time to this to things like Nazis killing people with their car.
the speed of the response is due, almost certainly, to Trump team having an advance copy so they could prepare a statement. They weren't caught unawares.
The speed of response is due to perceived disrespect for his children whom trump (being a creature of pure narcissism) regards as extensions of himself and from the fact that trump assumes fealty from everyone who passes through his life no matter how he treats them.
Also the eugenics of it. He believes that he is genetically a winner and incapable of failure, which means his children are too. Therefor anyone even hinting at anything but complete success for any of his genetic material is clearly wrong and must be struck down.
Do you, in fact, have any builds in this shop at all?
NYMag has a long except and while the Bannon quote is the part getting all the headlines, the whole thing is completely insane. Michael Wolff claims he was able to research it because the Trump white house was so chaotic that there weren't any of the usual barriers to access for a journalist you would expect. He could basically just walk in and hang out.
The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.
On Friday, January 27 — only his eighth day in office — Trump signed an executive order issuing a sweeping exclusion of many Muslims from the United States. In his mania to seize the day, with almost no one in the federal government having seen it or even been aware of it, Bannon had succeeded in pushing through an executive order that overhauled U.S. immigration policy while bypassing the very agencies and personnel responsible for enforcing it.
The result was an emotional outpouring of horror and indignation from liberal media, terror in immigrant communities, tumultuous protests at major airports, confusion throughout the government, and, in the White House, an inundation of opprobrium from friends and family. What have you done? You have to undo this! You’re finished before you even start! But Bannon was satisfied. He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between Trump’s America and that of liberals. Almost the entire White House staff demanded to know: Why did we do this on a Friday, when it would hit the airports hardest and bring out the most protesters?
“Errr … that’s why,” said Bannon. “So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and riot.” That was the way to crush the liberals: Make them crazy and drag them to the left.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
You know, as little respect as I have for trump, I can at least say that he has some fire in his belly and passion (even if it is for the most horrible and idiotic things).
Ivanka is like... diet vanilla ice cream; a completely bland and uninspired choice that people pass over in favor of chocolate paradox, tiger tail or bear claw.
Truly, she is her father's daughter in that his stunning egomania shines in her like the sun.
I want so much of this to be true that I’m worried I’m just setting myself up for a massive let down if later facts come out that much was fabricated or grossly embellished.
Must... not... hope!
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I'm very skeptical of a lot of claims in the excerpt (especially so since a lot of it is stuff that I want to be true).
How would Wolff be able to get what Murdoch was saying after he'd hung up, for instance?
I totally agree, but it's also hilarious in that this is what you get when you call everything fake news and make no distinction between well sourced news and gossip and heresay. It bites you in the ass. Trump attacked the Bannon quotes as if they were really said, and so now everything is fair game in that book no matter how dubious.
I'm hoping beyond hope that this "fake news, only believe what I validate bs" is finally going to bite this whole wretched administration in its ass by fracturing the base irrevocably so that no supporter knows who the true Scotsman is
I want so much of this to be true that I’m worried I’m just setting myself up for a massive let down if later facts come out that much was fabricated or grossly embellished.
Must... not... hope!
The side effect of screeching fake news at everything, is that now that trump is acting like bannon really said these things, it means that it won't really matter what turns out to be true or not in terms of how it effects trumps supporters. They're going to attack breitbart and anything bannon related no matter what because trump validated it by lashing out. Yes, it's best for us to keep a level head, but it doesn't mean it might not still be what it takes to cause the base to eat each other
I'm very skeptical of a lot of claims in the excerpt (especially so since a lot of it is stuff that I want to be true).
How would Wolff be able to get what Murdoch was saying after he'd hung up, for instance?
I totally agree, but it's also hilarious in that this is what you get when you call everything fake news and make no distinction between well sourced news and gossip and heresay. It bites you in the ass. Trump attacked the Bannon quotes as if they were really said, and so now everything is fair game in that book no matter how dubious.
I'm hoping beyond hope that this "fake news, only believe what I validate bs" is finally going to bite this whole wretched administration in its ass by fracturing the base irrevocably so that no supporter knows who the true Scotsman is
I have noticed in the press-o-sphere that certain very pro-Trump types (eg Queen Bee of access journalism, Maggie Haberman) have been quick to attack Wolff's credibility while saying that the stories and quotes sure sound enough like things people said and did that they'll have a hard time denying them. Haberman in particular is already spinning this as "Wolff was jealous of my access, so he's making up that he had EVEN MORE access." There sure are a fuckload of direct quotes I've been seeing though, and not a whole lot of denial from the supposed sources. Breitbart/Bannon seem to be treating it as valid instead of adding "alleged" to comments, and that Walsh supposed correction from the last page about calling Trump a barely literate baby still has yet to come.
I want so much of this to be true that I’m worried I’m just setting myself up for a massive let down if later facts come out that much was fabricated or grossly embellished.
Must... not... hope!
The side effect of screeching fake news at everything, is that now that trump is acting like bannon really said these things, it means that it won't really matter what turns out to be true or not in terms of how it affects trumps supporters. They're going to attack breitbart and anything bannon related no matter what because trump validated it by lashing out. Yes, it's best for us to keep a level head, but it doesn't mean it might not still be what it takes to cause the base to eat each other
I suppose if nothing else, all the major media outlets are reporting this as well as Trump putting a huge ass spotlight on it, giving the book a Fox News-esk "People are reporting" spin to it (which does have political value). Which while hilarious and I'm sure I'm going to get days of amusement out of this once late night and the right wing spin doctors get on this, but I also want it to be true.
Amusing is good.
True is better.
Amusing and true makes me have to change my pants.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I want so much of this to be true that I’m worried I’m just setting myself up for a massive let down if later facts come out that much was fabricated or grossly embellished.
Must... not... hope!
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
I thought the early Trump days were chaotic but that excerpt is insane. They had no idea what they were doing beyond jockeying for the attention of an addled manchild. Trump’s chief attempt at actual policy was authored by Bannon and pushed through when nobody was looking. Javanka deciding which one of them was going to run for President first. Jesus Christ.
I thought the early Trump days were chaotic but that excerpt is insane. They had no idea what they were doing beyond jockeying for the attention of an addled manchild. Trump’s chief attempt at actual policy was authored by Bannon and pushed through when nobody was looking. Javanka deciding which one of them was going to run for President first. Jesus Christ.
That actually surprises you? To me, this just feels like confirmation of exactly what we expected to be happening.
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No-QuarterNothing To FearBut Fear ItselfRegistered Userregular
I think that's just more proof that none of the Trump team anticipated winning the election.
I thought the early Trump days were chaotic but that excerpt is insane. They had no idea what they were doing beyond jockeying for the attention of an addled manchild. Trump’s chief attempt at actual policy was authored by Bannon and pushed through when nobody was looking. Javanka deciding which one of them was going to run for President first. Jesus Christ.
That actually surprises you? To me, this just feels like confirmation of exactly what we expected to be happening.
Which is what concerns me about this. It all seems a bit too good to be true.
This... is my fucking government. This is really fucking depressing.
We are getting to find out what it is like to have a Nero or a Caligula or the like to run a modern superpower. Maybe historians can start disentangling how much cause and effect how much having such a disastrous leader has on the decline of an empire or if it is just a symptom of that decline, given that we are seeing it in real time.
Bannon's really coming across as a Joker figure, just wants everything to burn.
Let's not forget that Bannon has demonstrated a penchant for extreme hyperbole. I'm sure the basics of what he says are more or less accurate, which we knew already, but I don't know how credible he really is as a source.
“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Then why didn't he call the FBI immediately?
Catching up, but Bannon joined team Trump 2 months after this meeting. He's commenting on the news reports of it.
Also his implication of it being stupid to do this without lawyers present is because you can't claim attorney-client privilege later.
“The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Then why didn't he call the FBI immediately?
Catching up, but Bannon joined team Trump 2 months after this meeting. He's commenting on the news reports of it.
Also his implication of it being stupid to do this without lawyers present is because you can't claim attorney-client privilege later.
NYMag has a long except and while the Bannon quote is the part getting all the headlines, the whole thing is completely insane. Michael Wolff claims he was able to research it because the Trump white house was so chaotic that there weren't any of the usual barriers to access for a journalist you would expect. He could basically just walk in and hang out.
The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.
On Friday, January 27 — only his eighth day in office — Trump signed an executive order issuing a sweeping exclusion of many Muslims from the United States. In his mania to seize the day, with almost no one in the federal government having seen it or even been aware of it, Bannon had succeeded in pushing through an executive order that overhauled U.S. immigration policy while bypassing the very agencies and personnel responsible for enforcing it.
The result was an emotional outpouring of horror and indignation from liberal media, terror in immigrant communities, tumultuous protests at major airports, confusion throughout the government, and, in the White House, an inundation of opprobrium from friends and family. What have you done? You have to undo this! You’re finished before you even start! But Bannon was satisfied. He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between Trump’s America and that of liberals. Almost the entire White House staff demanded to know: Why did we do this on a Friday, when it would hit the airports hardest and bring out the most protesters?
“Errr … that’s why,” said Bannon. “So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and riot.” That was the way to crush the liberals: Make them crazy and drag them to the left.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
The bit from Bannon was known pretty much at the time. Bannon genuinely believed that the liberal protests would spark a counter-rising by the alt right and that his side would outnumber and overpower the lefties.
NYMag has a long except and while the Bannon quote is the part getting all the headlines, the whole thing is completely insane. Michael Wolff claims he was able to research it because the Trump white house was so chaotic that there weren't any of the usual barriers to access for a journalist you would expect. He could basically just walk in and hang out.
The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.
On Friday, January 27 — only his eighth day in office — Trump signed an executive order issuing a sweeping exclusion of many Muslims from the United States. In his mania to seize the day, with almost no one in the federal government having seen it or even been aware of it, Bannon had succeeded in pushing through an executive order that overhauled U.S. immigration policy while bypassing the very agencies and personnel responsible for enforcing it.
The result was an emotional outpouring of horror and indignation from liberal media, terror in immigrant communities, tumultuous protests at major airports, confusion throughout the government, and, in the White House, an inundation of opprobrium from friends and family. What have you done? You have to undo this! You’re finished before you even start! But Bannon was satisfied. He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between Trump’s America and that of liberals. Almost the entire White House staff demanded to know: Why did we do this on a Friday, when it would hit the airports hardest and bring out the most protesters?
“Errr … that’s why,” said Bannon. “So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and riot.” That was the way to crush the liberals: Make them crazy and drag them to the left.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
The bit from Bannon was known pretty much at the time. Bannon genuinely believed that the liberal protests would spark a counter-rising by the alt right and that his side would outnumber and overpower the lefties.
Funny how no one on his team ever showed up...
They never read polls or notice how much their side depends on voter suppression I guess.
That whole article is kind of amazing in both how horrible and ludicrous everything it describes is and how vicious it is towards Trump et all.
NYMag has a long except and while the Bannon quote is the part getting all the headlines, the whole thing is completely insane. Michael Wolff claims he was able to research it because the Trump white house was so chaotic that there weren't any of the usual barriers to access for a journalist you would expect. He could basically just walk in and hang out.
The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.
On Friday, January 27 — only his eighth day in office — Trump signed an executive order issuing a sweeping exclusion of many Muslims from the United States. In his mania to seize the day, with almost no one in the federal government having seen it or even been aware of it, Bannon had succeeded in pushing through an executive order that overhauled U.S. immigration policy while bypassing the very agencies and personnel responsible for enforcing it.
The result was an emotional outpouring of horror and indignation from liberal media, terror in immigrant communities, tumultuous protests at major airports, confusion throughout the government, and, in the White House, an inundation of opprobrium from friends and family. What have you done? You have to undo this! You’re finished before you even start! But Bannon was satisfied. He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between Trump’s America and that of liberals. Almost the entire White House staff demanded to know: Why did we do this on a Friday, when it would hit the airports hardest and bring out the most protesters?
“Errr … that’s why,” said Bannon. “So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and riot.” That was the way to crush the liberals: Make them crazy and drag them to the left.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
The bit from Bannon was known pretty much at the time. Bannon genuinely believed that the liberal protests would spark a counter-rising by the alt right and that his side would outnumber and overpower the lefties.
Funny how no one on his team ever showed up...
They never read polls or notice how much their side depends on voter suppression I guess.
NYMag has a long except and while the Bannon quote is the part getting all the headlines, the whole thing is completely insane. Michael Wolff claims he was able to research it because the Trump white house was so chaotic that there weren't any of the usual barriers to access for a journalist you would expect. He could basically just walk in and hang out.
The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.
On Friday, January 27 — only his eighth day in office — Trump signed an executive order issuing a sweeping exclusion of many Muslims from the United States. In his mania to seize the day, with almost no one in the federal government having seen it or even been aware of it, Bannon had succeeded in pushing through an executive order that overhauled U.S. immigration policy while bypassing the very agencies and personnel responsible for enforcing it.
The result was an emotional outpouring of horror and indignation from liberal media, terror in immigrant communities, tumultuous protests at major airports, confusion throughout the government, and, in the White House, an inundation of opprobrium from friends and family. What have you done? You have to undo this! You’re finished before you even start! But Bannon was satisfied. He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between Trump’s America and that of liberals. Almost the entire White House staff demanded to know: Why did we do this on a Friday, when it would hit the airports hardest and bring out the most protesters?
“Errr … that’s why,” said Bannon. “So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and riot.” That was the way to crush the liberals: Make them crazy and drag them to the left.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
The bit from Bannon was known pretty much at the time. Bannon genuinely believed that the liberal protests would spark a counter-rising by the alt right and that his side would outnumber and overpower the lefties.
Funny how no one on his team ever showed up...
They never read polls or notice how much their side depends on voter suppression I guess.
That whole article is kind of amazing in both how horrible and ludicrous everything it describes is and how vicious it is towards Trump et all.
They've been playing the "silent majority" claim for so long they actually believe it.
NYMag has a long except and while the Bannon quote is the part getting all the headlines, the whole thing is completely insane. Michael Wolff claims he was able to research it because the Trump white house was so chaotic that there weren't any of the usual barriers to access for a journalist you would expect. He could basically just walk in and hang out.
The First Children couple were having to navigate Trump’s volatile nature just like everyone else in the White House. And they were willing to do it for the same reason as everyone else — in the hope that Trump’s unexpected victory would catapult them into a heretofore unimagined big time. Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump.
On Friday, January 27 — only his eighth day in office — Trump signed an executive order issuing a sweeping exclusion of many Muslims from the United States. In his mania to seize the day, with almost no one in the federal government having seen it or even been aware of it, Bannon had succeeded in pushing through an executive order that overhauled U.S. immigration policy while bypassing the very agencies and personnel responsible for enforcing it.
The result was an emotional outpouring of horror and indignation from liberal media, terror in immigrant communities, tumultuous protests at major airports, confusion throughout the government, and, in the White House, an inundation of opprobrium from friends and family. What have you done? You have to undo this! You’re finished before you even start! But Bannon was satisfied. He could not have hoped to draw a more vivid line between Trump’s America and that of liberals. Almost the entire White House staff demanded to know: Why did we do this on a Friday, when it would hit the airports hardest and bring out the most protesters?
“Errr … that’s why,” said Bannon. “So the snowflakes would show up at the airports and riot.” That was the way to crush the liberals: Make them crazy and drag them to the left.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
The bit from Bannon was known pretty much at the time. Bannon genuinely believed that the liberal protests would spark a counter-rising by the alt right and that his side would outnumber and overpower the lefties.
Funny how no one on his team ever showed up...
They never read polls or notice how much their side depends on voter suppression I guess.
Self-delusion is a hell of a drug.
And it's so damn easy for the internet bubbles these people live in to amplify it. When nothing challenges your worldview and the whole message board is on your side, it's easy to think you've got a movement. Also awesome because the real world can't crush your horrible and/or misguided ideas on the net.
As to credibility of these quotes, it's so hard with Trump and his administration, because they're all such raging idiots, who have never figured out they're no longer on twitter anymore. I could totally see every one of them being true. But I ain't going to hold my breath; sleazy tell-alls don't sell well because of their high standards and factual accuracy.
Dark_Side on
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MeeqeLord of the pants most fancySomeplace amazingRegistered Userregular
To be fair, in the immediate wake of Charlottesville it kinda looked likw it was gonna work. Thank all the gods it didn’t continue.
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Considering his media background this would be surprising, but on the other hand Wolff was apparently thought to be on their side so to speak which might have lulled him into boasting freely thinking it'd never be included.
I think this is just the delayed reaction to his firing. He said at the time he thought the Trump Presidency as he wanted it to be was over. Trump was never going to be the populist he wanted him to be. So Bannon burned that bridge.
Whether he meant for it to blow up this big, I'm not sure. Maybe they didn't think it would, hence their tepid reaction here. Maybe Bannon said it in a fit of pique following his ousting. That might make the most sense given Bannon was apparently still talking to Trump up until this story hit.
That whole quote, not just the highlighted bits, is amazingly horrible and evidence of his completely lack of qualification to do anything. It's not surprising though as it's exactly what we all knew.
It remains interesting the extent to which people seem to have really not grasped exactly the kind of childish buffoon they had propped up though. Every story out of his White House is like this. Everyone is continually shocked just how stupid and horrible he is. It seems like everyone thought he was a useful idiot but no one took the time to really look at him closely and so only afterwards are they all realising exactly what they helped get elected.
Neither Bannon nor the Establishment nor the fringe Republicans that flocked to him seem to understand how to deal with him.
Like, I can't even imagine how a group as dogmatic as the alt-right is going to take this news.
Notice how the Trump camp has been focusing on Trump's twitter feed recently as the one, true avenue to information.
Breitbart's going to get shoved very easily into the "fake news" category.
Amazing.
If Breitbart is fake news, then who is real news? Just Fox? But Fox has been mean to Trump too? Is this the transition to the point where the only voice which speaks the truth is that of the leader?
There's still rush and alex jones for them I guess; anyone know any other overweight, balding white rageaholics?
the speed of the response is due, almost certainly, to Trump team having an advance copy so they could prepare a statement. They weren't caught unawares.
The speed of response is due to perceived disrespect for his children whom trump (being a creature of pure narcissism) regards as extensions of himself and from the fact that trump assumes fealty from everyone who passes through his life no matter how he treats them.
Also the eugenics of it. He believes that he is genetically a winner and incapable of failure, which means his children are too. Therefor anyone even hinting at anything but complete success for any of his genetic material is clearly wrong and must be struck down.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html
Ivanka Trump has (had?) presidential ambitions
Bannon is a complete piece of work.
Whether Wolff is credible is questionable, any other White House though would have used that as their angle to dismiss it, the Trump administration charged right into attacking Bannon. This is the exact time that they should have leaned into the usual reflex of calling everything fake news and they couldnt even do that.
How would Wolff be able to get what Murdoch was saying after he'd hung up, for instance?
Ivanka is like... diet vanilla ice cream; a completely bland and uninspired choice that people pass over in favor of chocolate paradox, tiger tail or bear claw.
Truly, she is her father's daughter in that his stunning egomania shines in her like the sun.
Must... not... hope!
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
I totally agree, but it's also hilarious in that this is what you get when you call everything fake news and make no distinction between well sourced news and gossip and heresay. It bites you in the ass. Trump attacked the Bannon quotes as if they were really said, and so now everything is fair game in that book no matter how dubious.
I'm hoping beyond hope that this "fake news, only believe what I validate bs" is finally going to bite this whole wretched administration in its ass by fracturing the base irrevocably so that no supporter knows who the true Scotsman is
The side effect of screeching fake news at everything, is that now that trump is acting like bannon really said these things, it means that it won't really matter what turns out to be true or not in terms of how it effects trumps supporters. They're going to attack breitbart and anything bannon related no matter what because trump validated it by lashing out. Yes, it's best for us to keep a level head, but it doesn't mean it might not still be what it takes to cause the base to eat each other
I have noticed in the press-o-sphere that certain very pro-Trump types (eg Queen Bee of access journalism, Maggie Haberman) have been quick to attack Wolff's credibility while saying that the stories and quotes sure sound enough like things people said and did that they'll have a hard time denying them. Haberman in particular is already spinning this as "Wolff was jealous of my access, so he's making up that he had EVEN MORE access." There sure are a fuckload of direct quotes I've been seeing though, and not a whole lot of denial from the supposed sources. Breitbart/Bannon seem to be treating it as valid instead of adding "alleged" to comments, and that Walsh supposed correction from the last page about calling Trump a barely literate baby still has yet to come.
I suppose if nothing else, all the major media outlets are reporting this as well as Trump putting a huge ass spotlight on it, giving the book a Fox News-esk "People are reporting" spin to it (which does have political value). Which while hilarious and I'm sure I'm going to get days of amusement out of this once late night and the right wing spin doctors get on this, but I also want it to be true.
Amusing is good.
True is better.
Amusing and true makes me have to change my pants.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
That actually surprises you? To me, this just feels like confirmation of exactly what we expected to be happening.
Which is what concerns me about this. It all seems a bit too good to be true.
Well, for a certain definition of "good".
We are getting to find out what it is like to have a Nero or a Caligula or the like to run a modern superpower. Maybe historians can start disentangling how much cause and effect how much having such a disastrous leader has on the decline of an empire or if it is just a symptom of that decline, given that we are seeing it in real time.
Bannon's really coming across as a Joker figure, just wants everything to burn.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Catching up, but Bannon joined team Trump 2 months after this meeting. He's commenting on the news reports of it.
Also his implication of it being stupid to do this without lawyers present is because you can't claim attorney-client privilege later.
Sure you can, it worked like a charm for Don Jr.
And it wasn't the comments about treason which pissed Trump off. He didn't respond to those at all.
Trump was just mad that Bannon was taking credit for HIS win.
The bit from Bannon was known pretty much at the time. Bannon genuinely believed that the liberal protests would spark a counter-rising by the alt right and that his side would outnumber and overpower the lefties.
Funny how no one on his team ever showed up...
They never read polls or notice how much their side depends on voter suppression I guess.
That whole article is kind of amazing in both how horrible and ludicrous everything it describes is and how vicious it is towards Trump et all.
Self-delusion is a hell of a drug.
They've been playing the "silent majority" claim for so long they actually believe it.
And it's so damn easy for the internet bubbles these people live in to amplify it. When nothing challenges your worldview and the whole message board is on your side, it's easy to think you've got a movement. Also awesome because the real world can't crush your horrible and/or misguided ideas on the net.
As to credibility of these quotes, it's so hard with Trump and his administration, because they're all such raging idiots, who have never figured out they're no longer on twitter anymore. I could totally see every one of them being true. But I ain't going to hold my breath; sleazy tell-alls don't sell well because of their high standards and factual accuracy.