Was Michael Wolff the set up to smoke out leakers?

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Despite what the radical left wing press asserts, Donald Trump is not mentally impaired, nor is he naive or stupid. He would not allow an author with a highly dubious record



But Wolff has also been taken to task for blurring the lines between hot take and hatchet job. “Wolff exploits the human tendency to confuse frankness and cruelty with truth-telling,” media critic Jack Shafer wrote in Slate in 1998. “And by repeatedly reminding the reader of what a dishonest, scheming little s- he is, he seeks to inflate his credibility.”

As The Post’s Paul Farhi wrote this week, credibility has been a repeated issue. Wolff’s first best-seller, “Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet,” came under fire after Brill’s Content found a dozen individuals who disputed their quotes in the book. While later penning a regular column for New York magazine, book editor Judith Regan called foul on a column Wolff wrote about her, as did Andrew Sullivan. Both disputed Wolff’s portrayals of them.

into the White House without a plan.

And there’s plenty more. The book is riddled with errors. So why would Donald Trump allow such a chucklehead access to the White House?

The answer may lie in the relentless leaking that was occurring in the Trump campaign right from the start. Trump values loyalty and he may have decided upon a way to determine where that loyalty was and where it lacked. Michael Wolff was allowed access to the Trump campaign around the middle of 2016. Chris Wallace reported that the White House Communications Team urged all senior advisers to talk with Wolff. Trump and his truly trusted staff could easily have fed stories to different people and then use those stories as tracers. Trump may have wanted to test the loyalty of all, so he went fishing.

The biggest fish caught in the betrayal net was Steve Bannon. He had a number of unsavory things to say about Trump, his family and staff. Trump wasted no time returning the fire. Bannon stayed silent for a few days, but then, realizing that he pretty much destroyed his career, offered up a mea culpa:

  • “Donald Trump, Jr. is both a patriot and a good man. He has been relentless in his advocacy for his father and the agenda that has helped turn our country around.”

  • “My support is also unwavering for the president and his agenda — as I have shown daily in my national radio broadcasts, on the pages of Breitbart News and in speeches and appearances from Tokyo and Hong Kong to Arizona and Alabama.”

  • “President Trump was the only candidate that could have taken on and defeated the Clinton apparatus. I am the only person to date to conduct a global effort to preach the message of Trump and Trumpism; and remain ready to stand in the breech for this president’s efforts to make America great again.”

  • “My comments about the meeting with Russian nationals came from my life experiences as a Naval officer stationed aboard a destroyer whose main mission was to hunt Soviet submarines to my time at the Pentagon during the Reagan years when our focus was the defeat of ‘the evil empire’ and to making films about Reagan’s war against the Soviets and Hillary Clinton’s involvement in selling uranium to them.”

  • “My comments were aimed at Paul Manafort, a seasoned campaign professional with experience and knowledge of how the Russians operate. He should have known they are duplicitous, cunning and not our friends. To reiterate, those comments were not aimed at Don Jr.”

  • “Everything I have to say about the ridiculous nature of the Russian ‘collusion’ investigation I said on my 60 Minutes interview. There was no collusion and the investigation is a witch hunt.”

  • “I regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding Don Jr has diverted attention from the president’s historical accomplishments in the first year of his presidency.”

It’s too late for Bannon. He’s done. As for Wolff, his explained his motivation:

You know, I think one of the interesting effects of the book so far is a very clear emperor-has-no-clothes effect. That, the story that I have told seems to present this presidency in such a way that it says he can’t do his job. The emperor has no clothes. Suddenly everywhere people are going: ‘Oh my God, it’s true, he has no clothes.’ That’s the background to the perception and the understanding that will finally end this – that will end this presidency.

In retrospect, one might argue that this was coming. Bannon was shooting his mouth off in August and October and backed a losing candidate in Roy Moore, costing the GOP a valuable Senate seat.

I do not believe that allowing Wolff into the campaign and White House was simply a blunder. Michael Wolff, instead of bringing down a President, may find himself begging for a publisher in the future. Even he admits much of the book may not be accurate. Steve Bannon is finished and may be ejected by Breitbart. Trump likely has all the information he sought about those around him. Back in June I wrote that democrats had opened Pandora’s box. I believe they are soon going to reap the harvest of the devious seeds they’ve sown.

2018 is going to one heck of a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Was Michael Wolff the president’s “useful idiot?”
Did Trump need a Wolff in order to find out which staffers were leaking?
Wasn’t Bannon fired well before Wolff’s book came out?
Hadn’t all the leaking-like-a-sieve been stopped, again, well before the Wolff book came out?
I’m thinking, if Trump is using Wolff at all, it is more of as a scapegoat than a useful idiot.
It’s easy to blame him, after-the-fact, for leakers outing themselves.
But, unless Trump had a spy, spying on who Wolff talked with and about what, Wolff’s book came too late.

@DrJohn: Bannon singing

But its too late Baby now its too late…

That, the story that I have told seems to present this presidency in such a way that it says he can’t do his job.

Gee, that’s funny. SOMEONE’S been doing the job and doing it quite well. QUITE well. Illegal immigration is WAY down, the economy came roaring back, we got substantial tax reform, other NATO members realize we are not their mamma and are paying their required shares, Russia and China has been convinced to join in the sanctions and pressure on N. Korea and the world respects the US again.

If that’s incompetence, give us more.

@Bill… Deplorable Me: My sentiments exactly. If we’ve had “competence” over the past 24 years, I’ll take incompetence any time!

@Bill… Deplorable Me: #4
Exactly! Professional politicians got us into a mess that only a professional businessman could get us out of.
The fact that we elected a bare-knuckles street brawling chess master is icing on the cake.

Trump at Camp David this weekend with high ranking members of the GOP, Sloppy Steve and Cried Wolff non gratis, all watching the gorilla channel drinking cases of Diet Coke, oh the locker room talk that must be going on.
Sure is nice women feel safe to come out against their abusers, they would still be forced to be silent victims if Hillary had been voted in. We can add that to the top of accomplishments the media wont report 😉

@kitt: #7
There are already claims that accusers who aren’t “A-List” actors will never work in Hollywood again.
Looks like they still need to be afraid of retaliation.
The self-righteous “A-Listers” will do nothing, of course.

Wolff is as bad as Kitty Kelly and her book about Nancy Reagan. and what ever happened to Ross Parrot(Ross Pairro)we no longer hear from him