[View here as a Twitter thread]
Priebus “came around on Bannon’s Breitbart operation. After getting killed for about two years by Breitbart as part of the Republican elite, he’d developed a new strategy: It was a lot easier to work with Brietbart, and get less killed.”
1/ IOW, Reince Priebus—a “traditional conservative” came around to working with Bannon, an unabashed white supremacist—because it was easier to give in. There you have it: How the authoritarians took over GOP Took only 2 years for Priebus to cave.
2/ P. 32. Bannon believed Melania had more influence with Trump than anyone: She could discern who was sucking up who was telling the truth. “Behind the scenes she’s a hammer.” Wait. Doesn’t that seem like palace intrigue? The way people might treat King George?
3/ For that matter, the portrait of Trump given in Fear is what we’d expect of a tyrant: He rules out of his own gut and instincts, people around him can’t control him, so they resort to manipulation and subterfuge and flattery. Who is surprised by this?
4/ A few incidents did surprise me. While prepping for an interview with Mueller, Dowd (his lawyer) reportedly said that if Trump didn’t know an answer, “He just made something up. That’s his nature.” His LAWYER said this. OK, it’s no secret that he makes stuff up.
5/ This morning Trump said this: The problem isn’t the lies. The problem is the people around him who enable him. What we are seeing is what follows naturally from Gingrich’s 1994 statement that the GOP mustn’t compromise. Win at any cost.
6/ I wrote a thread about how our current constitutional crisis is because of Congress not acting as a check on the power of the presidency. I’d like to add: The crisis is also the result of the entire WH staff and cabinet selling out the country
7/ Giving interviews to Woodward and writing anonymous Op Ed pieces about how they are heroically manipulating Trump to enact “conservative” politics doesn’t count: It’s self-serving and just as morally depraved as standing by silently while the President of United States lies.
8/ Just as interesting to me are the tidbits that show Trump acts deliberately: he lies for a purpose. In one scene, he ordered his most popular tweets printed out. He studied them and concluded his most effective tweets were the most shocking.
9/ While talking to Gold Star families, he made things up like “There are reports here that say how much he was loved. He was a great leader.” He lied because “he knew what the families wanted to hear.” This makes me wonder if, in fact, Trump is controlling the narrative.
