Great story but...

as much as I can’t stand anyone from this administration, the fly on the wall accounts sometimes seemed a bit far fetched in its close attention to detail. I feel overall that it is well done though, but requires more discernment of the information than other political accounts I’ve read.

6 people found this helpful

Not as credible as one would like.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Probably not. When I began fact checking, I immediately found that the book exaggerated situations. While I am not a Trump fan, I don't want to be misled either. One example of misinformation is when the author discusses Trump's speech to the CIA. When I compared what the book reported to the entire speech on CNN, it was obvious that the book was editing out, and misrepresenting what was said.

Would you recommend Fire and Fury to your friends? Why or why not?

No, primarily because of the misrepresenting information. I prefer my journalism to be factual and allow me to make my own opinion.

Did Fire and Fury inspire you to do anything?

Be more diligent in fact checking.

Any additional comments?

Please leave the spin out of journalism, it's hard enough to get to the truth when people are being factual.

337 people found this helpful

Difficult to differentiate real from fake info

the author basically starts off the books saying although he's done so much research and interviewed a lot of people He is uncertain what parts of the book are real and fake and sometimes he will let the audience know and other times he leaves it up to the audience to determine. This is a mistake and significantly reduces The credibility of the book. It would have been better if the author had used his research to make an educated guess on what was going on rather than adding conjecture. Increased ambiguity on such an important issue is disappointing. having said that the narrator is top-notch.

234 people found this helpful

Absolutely Dead on Right! No, I did not write this lol

Michael. We could be twins, except for our writing style. Everything you wrote was dead on true,I have been saying and writing the same for over two years.
I am not a Trump person, that is being kind. I am a R. Your book was fantastic and so true.
What is also known about Trump is his Narcissistic personality, a DSM-I4 by the APA. THis is a must read book, unfortunately, our country deserves better

2 people found this helpful

Entertaining Yet Lacks Credibility

This book would have been so much better if the author was able to eliminate his own bias. I am by no means a Trump supporter, but many points in this book are discredited or provably false with simple observation or common sense. According to this book, Trump is a stumbling, bumbling idiot, who accidentally became president. That is painfully untrue. Whether he is delusional or not, Trump believes he will be/is a great President and it has been his goal to become so for years. To claim otherwise takes so much credibility away from this book, which is sad. It is sad because there are, what I am sure are many moments of truth in this book, but it is deluded by its dishonesty.

144 people found this helpful

A disappointment.

Most non-fiction comes in with hard facts & supports the initial premise as the book progresses. Sadly, a lot of hype prompted me to purchase this book. I kept yearning for something more substantive & less salacious.
<yawn>
This book was more commentary than investigative journalism. If you regularly keep informed about politics and policy, there is ZERO need to read/listen this book.

Anyone interested in good journalism should read “Dark Money!”

214 people found this helpful

Steve Bannon tattling outside of Class

How much of this book is factual is something that future historians will have to piece together. But there's no denying the entertainment value of a book like this. Since it's obvious that Wolff let Steve Bannon vent his spleen to get most of the material for this book, we do get a morbidly fascinating look at the White House as a Civil War Battleground between "Globalist" and "Bannonite" factions.
Someone should have clued Bannon in with that line from The Godfather: "Don't ever take sides against the Family."
It might have spared him a lot of grief. Or maybe not. After all, this is the book that got Bannon exiled from Trumpistan (for now).
Frankly, I think that we'll have to wait for several years to pass, and the dust to settle, after Trump exits the White House (whenever and however that happens) to get a thoroughly researched, comprehensive and trustworthy account of his campaign and Administration. That'll be the basis for "Trump's White House - the Movie."
As it is, we don't have enough material for a complete film, just a series of Polaroids.
We're up to our ears in gossipy, Mean Girls-esque, "liars lying about other liars" accounts, each with their own highly personal, and biased, snapshot into the White House.
The main point of Recommendation for "Fire and Fury" is that it's the snapshot taken from Bannon's point of view. Because he was (however briefly) the "Architect of Trumpism" and possibly the single most forceful and influential of the President's flunkies, his account holds more interest for me than the self-pitying, butt-covering screeds of Lewandowski, Manigault-Newman, Christie, or Spicer. The biggest feat this book achieves is getting me to feel even the slightest bit sorry for Steve Bannon, arguably the loudest and proudest proponent of American fascism since Woodrow Wilson.
When Jeff Sessions and James Mattis decide to tell their stories, that will be something I find far more interesting - insights from professionals who went to work for Trump with a sincere effort to uphold the Constitution and do their duty, only to be reviled, spat upon, and flogged out of town by the Trumpites.
I don't pretend for a second that this book is "Essential" or "Indispensable" reporting, if you can even call what Wolff did "reporting." Frankly, it doesn't reveal anything we didn't already know about Trump's narcissism, venality, and malignant stupidity. It just crystallizes it into finer detail, with some gasp-inducing quotes.
I enjoy this book for what it is: a disgraced Washington power-monger talking smack about all the other power-mongers, sycophants, village idiots, egotistical blowhards, and back-stabbing weasels who flock to Trump like fleas to a dog.

1 person found this helpful

The power of marketing

If your news sources includes the WSJ, NYT and Washington Post, then you pretty much already have read much of what is written in this book. No doubt there is some exaggeration, but all in all, this book is a yawner. Had there not been so much political noise about this book, many people (myself included) would never have bought it. All in all, it was not very good.

47 people found this helpful

A must read!!!

If you’ve ever wondered about what was going on in the trump White House this book will give you great insight to the Mayham and madness that’s going on in the current in administration. It also confirms most peoples ideas of why he ran in the first place he never intended to be president he has no clue what he’s doing and if he actually last eight years our country would be in dire trouble

1 person found this helpful

Colorful but stretches the actual quotes a bit far

The good: this is well-paced, and traces the events and personalities well. Some historical context and analysis is offered, such as practices of earlier presidents, compared to Trump's. These passages are well-crafted. Some of the rightist figures I found surprisingly interesting, such as Bannon and Ailes. The depictions here go beyond the two-dimensional cutouts offered in much popular press. The narration is superb. The book overall is a nice recap and update to the conversation. Keeping a fair distance from every last assertion this author makes, I do feel I am better educated on the history and players, having listened through this. Some of the fly-on-the-wall feel of being there came through well, though not all.
The bad: there is too much of a disembodied, unattributed, omniscient straw-person voice floating around explaining everything in the standard blue way, if a colorful and cleverly-phrased version of it. There are stretches where actual quotes would be more welcome (as small a sample as each might be anyway, to use the statisticians' term). The author's opening disclaimer too casually tries to dispel this deficiency. A bit more caution and care in the journalism would suit me.
Finally, I applaud this release as flushing out Trump, brandishing his lawyers' threats and his nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements. It it is high time his straddling the public-private line and getting a free ride attempting to privatize the truth was tested in the courts. Not that I think he will follow through. His track record in such fights has been severely patchy as it is. Yet, he plunges forward, unable to resist rising to the bait. Ha!

137 people found this helpful