Stay with me here…I’ve been reading with great glee all of the excerpts of Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury, Inside the Trump White House, and have so far read nothing that didn’t ring true to me.  I mean, come on – Trump is a heavily made-up, feeble minded, thin skinned, narcissistic caricature of what we all understand to be “presidential”.  Trump has none of the characteristics of a successful politician (or successful businessman for that matter); he’s volatile; he’s taken to repeating his repetitions; he lies when it’s easier to tell the truth.  He’s fake to the core.

I’ve found the firestorm around this book to be highly entertaining and some of the editorial content of the talking heads is just as much fun.  One of those is this morning’s piece in the New York Times by Michelle Goldberg titled…wait for it…Everyone in Trumpland Knows He’s an Idiot.  She writes of several anecdotes in the book about how Trump went around his handlers and unilaterally fired James Comey over the Russia investigation.  She quotes Wolff about that decision, “In presidential annals, the firing of F.B.I. director James Comey may be the most consequential move ever made by a modern president acting entirely on his own.”

But more importantly, she makes the point that Trump is wholly and totally incapable of executing the job of the presidency, and EVERYONE knows it.  His failing mind, his obsession with striking back at every perceived slight, no matter how small, and his erratic decision making are all clear evidence of his incompetence.  Dozens of staffers have enabled him, assuring themselves and each other that they can manage him, when, in fact, no one can manage him, including himself.

Best line of the piece, though, came in the summation – Goldberg says,

“Trump, Wolff’s reporting shows, has no executive function, no ability to process information or weigh consequences. Expecting him to act in the country’s interest is like demanding that your cat do the dishes.”

Now, THAT is a great bit of wordsmithing, I must say.  Oh, and I’m trying to put my hands on a copy of the book today.  It should make for great fireside reading this weekend.