Wolff's Book Validated by Trump's Open Meeting
Wall Trump
The biggest  the best  the longest White House reality episode took place on Tuesday to dismal ratings. Rather than be the sure-fire  live-cast way to change the subject from Michael Wolff's book in which his staff and others declared his dangerous incompetence and show  Trump  at his deal-making best  the meeting revealed that on the whole Wolff got it right.
 Trump  had only to hold two things in  his  mind at the same time. DACA  yes; the Wall  he  chanted about at every campaign rally  yes. And oh  don’t be wooed by Democrats. Do not flirt  as  he  did with Chuck and Nancy over Chinese food. Do not believe they like you. Do not give in to the thrill of the deal. Democrats are the enemy.
But  he  couldn’t do that and  his  failure happened in real time for everyone to witness. Did you see  social media buzzed  what  Trump  just said to Senator Dianne Feinstein about a clean bill being great and  he  would take the heat.
No one could  least of all  his  advisors who thought they were having a much-needed do-over after their major pushback on Sunday failed. Stephen Miller’s mindless  repetitive defense of  Trump  to CNN’s Jake Tapper got him cut off and then escorted out of the building. Let  Trump  be a prepared president with a task so simple even  he  can’t blow it. Instead they had to watch in horror as  he  failed to perform. When Rep. Kevin McCarthy is the smart one in the room and you have to erase incriminating parts of the transcript like a Kremlin operative  you know it’s been a spectacular failure.
 Trump’s  display cracks  his  truce with Capitol Hill after pushing through tax cuts. House conservatives in the Freedom Caucus feel as warmly about  Trump ’s Bill of Love as they did about the Summer of Love. Their limited openness to agree to a non-monolithic wall — more fencing and high-tech surveillance and less money for an actual wall — is dead in light of  Trump ’s televised squishiness. They've told the new clean-up-the-mess Gang of Four congressional leaders convening in emergency session today that it’s $18 billion in concrete or bust.
What the White House actually accomplished Tuesday is the opposite of what it set out to do—set the bar low and show a president carrying out presidential tasks competently. If this had been  Trump  at the first tee   he ’d have shanked it 50 yards into the woods. Into the bargain  the White House staff took more mulligans than Clinton ever did. Aside from giving in to  his  Democratic captors  all the king’s men couldn’t keep  him  from going off script to long nostalgically for the olden days of Jack Abramoff memorial earmarks.
Trump inadvertently demonstrated what Wolff  convinced of his own superiority  could not do in round-the-clock interviews with friendly anchors: that despite Wolff himself being above the rigor and rules of mere journalists  on the larger truth he is right. The president is impulsive  uncontrollable and unteachable  burdened with an ignorance he doesn’t have the self-awareness to realize he has or the discipline to overcome it. Rather than show he's "like  really smart" and went to "the best colleges for college "  Trump  showed that the job reduced to  its  simplest level is beyond  his  grasp leaving  his  advisers sickened like parents watching their well-coached child put a square peg in a round hole at a pre-school admissions interview.
No wonder  his  staff is leaving in record-breaking droves  the latest reported to be on their way out the door including White House counsel Don McGahn and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster  with no one clamoring to replace them. The made-for-TV after-school special made an indelible impression on them  and viewers  that  Trump  at  his  very best may never be better than most of us at our very worst.
Will  he  ever rise to the occasion or to the job or ever  pivot? The pre-schoolers will learn  but  Trump  will not.
The biggest  the best  the longest White House reality episode took place on Tuesday to dismal ratings. Rather than be the sure-fire  live-cast way to change the subject from Michael Wolff's book in which his staff and others declared his dangerous incompetence and show  Trump  at his deal-making best  the meeting revealed that on the whole Wolff got it right.
 Trump  had only to hold two things in  his  mind at the same time. DACA  yes; the Wall  he  chanted about at every campaign rally  yes. And oh  don’t be wooed by Democrats. Do not flirt  as  he  did with Chuck and Nancy over Chinese food. Do not believe they like you. Do not give in to the thrill of the deal. Democrats are the enemy.
But  he  couldn’t do that and  his  failure happened in real time for everyone to witness. Did you see  social media buzzed  what  Trump  just said to Senator Dianne Feinstein about a clean bill being great and  he  would take the heat.
No one could  least of all  his  advisors who thought they were having a much-needed do-over after their major pushback on Sunday failed. Stephen Miller’s mindless  repetitive defense of  Trump  to CNN’s Jake Tapper got him cut off and then escorted out of the building. Let  Trump  be a prepared president with a task so simple even  he  can’t blow it. Instead they had to watch in horror as  he  failed to perform. When Rep. Kevin McCarthy is the smart one in the room and you have to erase incriminating parts of the transcript like a Kremlin operative  you know it’s been a spectacular failure.
 Trump’s  display cracks  his  truce with Capitol Hill after pushing through tax cuts. House conservatives in the Freedom Caucus feel as warmly about  Trump ’s Bill of Love as they did about the Summer of Love. Their limited openness to agree to a non-monolithic wall — more fencing and high-tech surveillance and less money for an actual wall — is dead in light of  Trump ’s televised squishiness. They've told the new clean-up-the-mess Gang of Four congressional leaders convening in emergency session today that it’s $18 billion in concrete or bust.
What the White House actually accomplished Tuesday is the opposite of what it set out to do—set the bar low and show a president carrying out presidential tasks competently. If this had been  Trump  at the first tee   he ’d have shanked it 50 yards into the woods. Into the bargain  the White House staff took more mulligans than Clinton ever did. Aside from giving in to  his  Democratic captors  all the king’s men couldn’t keep  him  from going off script to long nostalgically for the olden days of Jack Abramoff memorial earmarks.
Trump inadvertently demonstrated what Wolff  convinced of his own superiority  could not do in round-the-clock interviews with friendly anchors: that despite Wolff himself being above the rigor and rules of mere journalists  on the larger truth he is right. The president is impulsive  uncontrollable and unteachable  burdened with an ignorance he doesn’t have the self-awareness to realize he has or the discipline to overcome it. Rather than show he's "like  really smart" and went to "the best colleges for college "  Trump  showed that the job reduced to  its  simplest level is beyond  his  grasp leaving  his  advisers sickened like parents watching their well-coached child put a square peg in a round hole at a pre-school admissions interview.
No wonder  his  staff is leaving in record-breaking droves  the latest reported to be on their way out the door including White House counsel Don McGahn and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster  with no one clamoring to replace them. The made-for-TV after-school special made an indelible impression on them  and viewers  that  Trump  at  his  very best may never be better than most of us at our very worst.
Will  he  ever rise to the occasion or to the job or ever  pivot? The pre-schoolers will learn  but  Trump  will not.