Stewart Myrent
Just finished "Team of Vipers", by Cliff Sims. I was slightly disappointed in the book, as Cliff Sims is, first of all, a Trump loyalist, but also a Trump apologist, although he tread very lightly, when recounting some of Trump's more outrageous & embarassing episodes. But, there were several things in the book that I found interesting. From the chapter, "Killers", Sims recounts, "Killer. This was the single highest compliment that Donald Trump - not the President, but the man - could pay another human being, and it had been for decades. In Harry Hurt III's Trump biography, 'Lost Tycoon', he wrote that Trump's father, Fred, used to tell his sons, 'You are a killer...You are a king...You are a killer...You are a king.' He'd gotten it honestly. It was deeply ingrained in his psyche since childhood. So if you're trying to make sense of almost any action he took as President, this is the prism through which everything should be viewed." Later, in the chapter, "Frenemies of the People", he states, "That afternoon, the President hosted an event in the Oval Office with three of the thirteen surviving Navajo Code Talkers...right after the event, he saw me helping the audio-visual crew take the podium and other equipment out of the Oval Office, and waved me over. His thoughts were, as it turned out, not consumed by the Navajo. 'What'd you think about the fake news trophy {that he had announced earlier that day}?', he asked, barely concealing his amusement over his tweet and the reaction." I remember that specific event & was appalled for two reasons: (1) Trump attacked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, by saying, "I just want to thank you because you are very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who has been here a long time...longer than you...they call her Pocahontas!" (No one calls her that, except for Trump), and (2) above the president & the three Code Talkers, was a portrait of Andrew Jackson, who signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the 'Trail of Tears', when roughly 17,000 Cherokees were forced out of Georgia at gunpoint & moved to present-day Oklahoma. Thousands of Cherokees died on the journey. Sims didn't mention either the Pocahontas remark, or the portrait of Andy Jackson, taking it all in. My guess is that Jackson would have been so proud of Trump's remarks. Then, in the chapter titled, "Black Eyes and Broken Glass", Sims recounts, "I know people out there - many people - have no sympathy for Sarah Sanders. In their view, she willingly excused, covered up for, and lied about the actions of the Trump administration. Sometimes spokespeople in any White House knowingly give misleading statements, other times they're just left out of the loop (yeah, right - MINE) or sent out with false or incomplete information to unwittingly bend the truth on someone else's behalf. In my experience, Sarah typically endured the latter. But not always. Sometimes she knew she was being sent out to talk to the press with information that would likely prove to be inaccurate. She didn't press as hard as she should have for the rock-bottom truth." And finally, in "Epilogue: Outside the Bubble", he says, "I'd remember how it felt in Trump Tower when we were a gang of bandits with nothing to lose. And I'd sense the tension that I believe nags Trump the most, at least subconsciously: nothing about being President has ever reached the high of becoming President. This is one of the reasons he loves to relive Election Night 2016 over and over again. I think I'm going to check out "Fire and Fury", by Michael Wolff, next.
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