Interview with Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury
Posted by Michelle Samson March 05, 2018
An overflow crowd heard Michael Wolff, journalist and author of the best-selling book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, speak in Milan on February 16. Democrats Abroad members had priority seating for the event, which was fully booked within two days of its announcement. Wolff began by responding to questions posed by Corriere della Sera journalist Massimo Gaggi. He explained that he started with an open mind, hoping that Trump might be a new model for politicans, a stealth candidate. He had gotten access to the White House “because he asked”, and because he had known Trump in New York in the 1980s. He emphasized that his position was different from that of the White House press corps, whose role is to ask questions. “All I had to do was listen,” he said.
He echoed many of the themes in the book: Trump is childlike, existing on the moment. Trump has no idea of how to make policy, nor do his advisors. Trump is genuinely stupid and doesn’t know or want to know anything about anything that does not concern him personally. Trump is probably not capable of having colluded with the Russians because he isn’t strategic in his thinking. But “the cover up in this case could be worse than the crime”, Wolff suggests, so an obstruction of justice case could be made.
A “glaring danger" for Europe, said Wolff, is that Trump could become an example to European nationalist politicians, and that too is of enhanced concern here. One of Wolff’s asides, that Bannon “believes there is an international populist and nationalist movement much larger than Trump” has become prophetic: Bannon was in Italy to support Salvini for the March 4 elections here, and we know how that turned out. Elections here and there reflect “a disillusion with politicans and politics as usual”.
Democrats should be very concerned, because what is evident in the book is clearly not evident to a very large swath of the US population.
- Story written by Claudia Flisi for Democrats Abroad Italy (March 3, 2018)
Democrats Abroad, Milan Chapter Co-Chairs, Nancy Fina and Theresa Morelli-Fornari with Michael Wolff
