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Trump's America Is Unrecognizable & This One Tweet Perfectly Captures Why

by Chris Tognotti
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On Friday, journalist Michael Wolff's tell-all book on the inner machinations of the Trump administration, Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House, became available to the general public for purchase. And suffice it to say, it has generated some strong reactions, as well as some pretty apt tweets. For example, this one tweet about Fire and Fury really encapsulates the extent to which Donald Trump now looms over the American consciousness.

Wolff, 64, has been on the receiving end of heavy scrutiny regarding his reliability and integrity, owing to some of the book's dramatic and startling scenes and anecdotes. In kind, he publicly referred to Trump as "a man who has less credibility than, perhaps, anyone who has ever walked on Earth at this point" during an episode of NBC's Today on Friday. Furthermore, he maintains that he spoke to Trump for no less than three hours as a candidate and the 45th president of the United States combined, and says he has notes and audio recordings backing up his work.

So, it's no surprise that the book is being met with such fanfare and anticipation, and those are reactions that are being seen throughout social media, as well. For a prime example, NPR reporter Sam Sanders ― the host of the public radio show It's Been a Minute ― noted the shock that an insider-y political book about the White House, in 2018, is outpacing some big developments in the realm of music and entertainment. Namely, a new Justin Timberlake song just dropped, and yet so many people's eyes are focused instead of matters of White House infighting and presidential fitness, or perhaps lack thereof. Tweeting that he "couldn't have foreseen this like 3, 4 years ago," Sanders expressed his own surprise at the state of affairs.

For the record, Timberlake's new song "Filthy," complete with a video, is now available. But Sanders isn't wrong when he suggests that the president, Wolff, and Fire and Fury are seemingly having a bigger morning on social media than the new track.

Sanders went on to note that it's "really quite astonishing" that Trump has managed to make himself the biggest story in the world every day since announcing his presidential run, saying he's "totally overshadowed the rest of the CULTURE," and that "this is not done."

Indeed, as revealed in explosive excerpts that stirred up tremendous anticipation earlier this week, Wolff's new book alleges that becoming everyone's number one story was Trump's goal at the outset of his political career. Specifically, he hoped to make himself "the most famous man in the world," as he reportedly told Sam Nunberg, a close associate, at the start of his campaign.

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It also suggests that actually winning the 2016 election was not part of Trump's game plan, and that his expectation was to lose then launch his own TV channel. Of course, that's not what ended up happening; the book claims that Trump "looked as if he had seen a ghost" as the positive election returns rolled in, and that his wife, Melania, "was in tears, and not of joy."

The president himself has offered a combative yet nonspecific response to the content of Wolff's book, with his lawyer Charles Harder ― the same man who helped Peter Thiel take down Gawker ― sending a letter threatening a lawsuit. In the past, however, Trump has threatened lawsuits that never came to fruition, such as when The New York Times detailed multiple allegations of sexually predatory behavior against him. Trump has denied all the sexual misconduct allegations against him, calling his many accusers "horrible liars."