Mirkat Always Reading

It's been about a week and a half since I finished this one, and I've procrastinated on reviewing it.  (Well, part of that is I've been away at a conference this week.)  I am once again copping out on assigning a "star" rating.  I don't thinkof this book as either good or bad.  In certain ways, it confirms what I would have expected about the inner-workings (or lack thereof) of the Trump White House, though in other ways it's my expectations augmented exponentially.  At least two of his inner circle reportedly compared him to a toddler (trying to figure out what a toddler wants; working with a recalcitrant two-year-old).  And of course that is genuinely terrifying.

According to Wolff, the White House staff were essentially divided into two camps:  the Bannonites (aligned with former campaign manager Steve Bannon) and the "Jarvanka" team (aligned with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump, both of whom had installed themselves into the White House as loosely defined advisors).  Bannon's vision of Trump as disruptor were at odds with Jarvanka's desire to appeal to more moderate contingents, while positioning their own political rise (Ivanka musing that she'd be the first female president of the U.S.)

The epilogue ends with Bannon making some terrifying pronouncements about "President Bannon" and "Bannon 2020."  

Bottom line:  check out this book if you are curious.  Check it out from your library. (Or download the audio from their website, as I did--though I also downloaded the Kindle version and, again, went back and forth between audio and text).