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TRUMPadelphia: The hot gossip at the heart of the presidency

The funny thing about media gadfly Michael Wolff's new book is that so much of it seems like old news.

FILE – In this April 12, 2017, file photo, Michael Wolff of The Hollywood Reporter speaks at the Newseum in Washington. Wolff used to worry about the spotlight moving on. No longer. The author of an explosive book on President Donald Trump’s administration is the target of a cease and desist letter from Trump’s lawyers. And he’s the focus of a campaign by the president’s allies to cast doubt on the book’s claim that Trump is a reluctant and troubled president. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE – In this April 12, 2017, file photo, Michael Wolff of The Hollywood Reporter speaks at the Newseum in Washington. Wolff used to worry about the spotlight moving on. No longer. The author of an explosive book on President Donald Trump’s administration is the target of a cease and desist letter from Trump’s lawyers. And he’s the focus of a campaign by the president’s allies to cast doubt on the book’s claim that Trump is a reluctant and troubled president. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)Read moreCarolyn Kaster

Hi, pals. Your correspondent picked up her copy of Fire and Fury yesterday and spent her lunch hour at the Reading Terminal fending off everyone in the Philadelphia region who hasn't gotten their hands on it yet.

This newsletter covers President Trump and how his policies affect greater Philadelphia. You can sign up here to get it in your inbox, for free, every week. You can send suggestions/complaints/questions my way by email or on Twitter, and if you like this newsletter, please forward it to a friend!

– Aubrey Whelan

What’s at stake

For me (and  other, smarter writers) the funny thing about media gadfly Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is that so much of it seems like old news. We know the White House is chaotic. We know it's full of competing personalities leaking unflattering stories to the press. We know the president's own personality and media diet and worldview are … unique.

So if, like me, this year has completely inured you to these kinds of explosive, insider-y, occasionally dubiously sourced pieces, you might not find a lot of revelatory insight in Fire and Fury. What you will find is a lot of hot goss! Which is probably why this has landed so heavily with the Trump administration.

In truth, the reaction to Wolff's book is maybe more valuable than the book itself. This is a piece of writing that prompted the president of the United States to send a cease-and-desist letter to the author of an unflattering book about him – and then to spend the weekend trying to head the bad press off at the pass by tweeting about how mentally stable he is. Heady times, pals.

The local angle

The cast of characters in Fire and Fury does include some denizens of greater Philadelphia (we're operating on an extremely loose definition of "greater Philadelphia" here). The book opens with Hammonton's Kellyanne Conway on election day,  considering her options after what looked at the time like a certain loss. We learn that President Trump had once fancied himself a potential running mate for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, forcing the reader to consider an alternate universe even weirder than our own.

Valley Forge Military Academy graduate H.R. McMaster is portrayed as so frustrated by the president that he stumps around the West Wing with a "constant grimace" and "perpetual steam rising from his bald head." Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, son of Lower Moreland, pulls off the most astute political maneuvering: "used and abused" by the president over FBI Director James Comey's firing, he takes "deft, swift, overwhelming" revenge and appoints a special prosecutor.

What’s ahead

The fallout from Fire and Fury has dominated the news cycle over the last week in a way few narratives about this presidency have – it's managed to stick in a political climate where nothing much sticks at all. That said, Congress is only just back from its break and there's a government-shutdown deadline next week and a huge slate of legislative priorities on the table. So we'll see how long this stays in the headlines.

(At least one thing on Congress' agenda is Fire and Fury-related: Philly House Democrat Brendan Boyle is introducing the "Stable Genius Act" today. It would require presidential candidates to undergo a standardized medical examination before running – though the likelihood of the measure going anywhere in the GOP-led Congress is less than slim.)

Also, Michael Wolff's coming to Philly next week. 

What they're saying:

"Bannon's unique ability … was to egg the president on by convincing him that Bannon's own views were entirely derived from the president's views. … He was the equivalent of Trump's personal talk radio." – Michael Wolff on fired chief strategist Steve Bannon, a major source for Fire and Fury.

"Before voting for the highest office in the land, Americans have a right to know whether an individual has the physical and mental fitness to serve as President." – Rep. Brendan Boyle on his "Stable Genius" bill.

"I've had to put up with the Fake News from the first day I announced that I would be running for President. Now I have to put up with a Fake Book, written by a totally discredited author. Ronald Reagan had the same problem and handled it well. So will I!" – President Trump on Twitter this weekend.

In other news…

  1. A growing number of states are legalizing marijuana – but Attorney General Jeff Sessions has scrapped an Obama-era rule that kept the federal government from prosecuting marijuana cases in those states. Now, Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) is leading the charge to restore the rule and perhaps expand it.

  2. My colleague Claudia Vargas reported this weekend that Philadelphia has the longest delays in the country for disability benefits hearings – some people die while they're still on the waiting list. Today, Philly-area congressmen are asking the feds to fix the wait times.

  3. Philly has held firm on its sanctuary-city policies, despite Sessions' attempts to de-fund the city all last year. But just outside city borders in Bensalem, local police are, controversially, planning to help ICE agents enforce immigration laws.

  4. Queen Village's own Jake Tapper got into a verbal scrap with Trump aide Stephen Miller on CNN this weekend that ended with security escorting Miller from the set.

What I’m reading

  1. Vox has a good explainer on Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's background, and what parts to take with a grain of salt.

  2. Philly's Michael Smerconish argues that speculating on President Trump's mental health is "unseemly." Meanwhile, Trump aides are struggling to contain the story.

  3. With the deadline for a DACA fix closing in, my colleague Jeff Gammage profiled young immigrants in the Philly region who are fearful of what's next: "Everything that you work to achieve in your life could be taken away," says a DACA recipient who works at an ad agency in Center City.

A non-political palate cleanser

Les Miserables, the iconic musical about love in horrible political climates, is back in Philly this week, and my colleague John Timpane had a fun conversation with its composer (thus ensuring that your correspondent will spend the rest of the day trying to sing every part of "One Day More" under her breath).