The explosive book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, written by Michael Wolff was released on Friday, and it’s got people talking.
And when I say “people,” I really just mean “politicos” and residents of the Beltway. Anyone who knows anything about President Trump, the White House, or his administration know truth from fiction.
However, the lines are blurred between what is real and what is not based on the stinging back-and-forth that took place this week between President Trump and former White House chief strategist and current CEO of Breitbart Steve Bannon. It all began with Bannon’s comments appearing in the Guardian in which he described Donald Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya as “treasonous.” From there, President Trump fired back saying Bannon had “lost his mind.” His lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon over his comments, and have also tried blocking the book from publication, all but guaranteeing that Wolff’s book will become a best-seller.
But the palace intrigue might only be a spectacle for those inside the Beltway. On Thursday night, consumers and journalists lined up at Kramerbooks in Dupont Circle in Washington D.C. for the midnight release of the book.
“This is a D.C. moment, and I wanted to be a part of it,” Steve Dingledine, who was first in line to purchase the book, told the Washington Post.
In some ways, Wolff’s book does lay out some truth about the Trump White House that we already knew. However, to those outside of the Beltway, particularly Trump supporters, this is just another example of the media trying to tear down the president and his agenda.
They don’t care about how dysfunctional the White House is so long as the Trump administration is delivering on their campaign promises. They care more about getting a tax cut and not paying a penalty for Obamacare’s individual mandate. They care about national security, immigration, and trade.
To them, this is all a distraction and only sows more discord with the media. That should concern the rest of us who still value trustworthiness in media and journalism.
Siraj Hashmi is a commentary video editor and writer for the Washington Examiner.
