Review: 'Fire and Fury' rips open the Trump Presidency for all to see

Perhaps no political account was as highly anticipated as Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury'; snapped up be eager readers after lawsuit threats from Donald Trump's lawyers, it was worthy of the anticipation, proving to hold page after page of juicy political gossip and fiery quotes from senior figures. The chaos of events made it seem like an Armando Iannucci satire rather than the day-to-day workings of the administration, but this added to the sheer indulgence of Trump incompetence that this book proved to be. 

The prologue put the reader straight into the action, describing a dinner where Steven Bannon met Roger Ailes, the Fox News founder. This meeting of wealthy right-wing heavyweights showed the true extent Bannon was attempting to use Trump to further his own agenda. Wolff's fly-on-the-wall perspective of the White House meant that we could clearly see, for the first time, the different competing factions in the administration: Bannon, attempting to push forward 'America First' policy with the backing of billionaire Robert Mercer; Reince Priebus, the lone voice of establishment Republicans; and Jared Kushner, a Democrat.

Then there were the candid interviews and quotes, including the a memo allegedly written by Gary Cohn, Trump's former economic advisor, which provided a shocking insight into what its really like to work for Mr Trump; "It's worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won't read anything- not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing." This passage included my favourite quote describing the President so far: "Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits." 

The constant supply of events that, in another world, would be seen as a satire on government, would become boring under a lesser writer, but Wolff keeps it interesting by adding enough political interest and analysis, so you feel like you are learning something rather than reading the political equivalent of the 'Daily Star'.

After reading Wolff's inside account of events in the first 6 months, including the firing of James Comey, the struggles with the media, and the Anthony Scaramucci debacle, the climax of the narrative is a revealing rant from Steven Bannon, quoted almost verbatim over four pages. It shows his immense frustration at the stupidity of the President and his senior advisors at the Mueller investigation's closing net, and the book ends on a subtly unsettling note on Bannon's post-administration ambitions. 

While the criticisms of the book come thick and fast, most notably Wolff's supposed exaggerations and possible untruths, these critics fail to see that successive staffers to leave the White House have verified that it is, indeed, in chaos. "Take everything you've heard and multiply it by 50", said Reince Priebus shortly after resigning as Trump's first chief of staff.

Michael Wolff is certainly not the first person to criticise the Trump presidency, but I doubt that any other will ever again rip it open at the seams, as he has done, and leave it gaping wide for all to see the guts and entrails running America in 2018.