{"id":541,"date":"2025-03-02T14:29:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T14:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/03\/02\/all-or-nothing-review-michael-wolff-details-trumps-bilious-re-election-campaign-the-guardian-us\/"},"modified":"2025-03-02T14:29:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T14:29:54","slug":"all-or-nothing-review-michael-wolff-details-trumps-bilious-re-election-campaign-the-guardian-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/03\/02\/all-or-nothing-review-michael-wolff-details-trumps-bilious-re-election-campaign-the-guardian-us\/","title":{"rendered":"All or Nothing review: Michael Wolff details Trump\u2019s bilious re-election campaign – The Guardian US"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Wolff<\/a> has earned the ire of Donald Trump<\/a> \u2013 again. The new Trump book by the author of three other bestsellers \u201cis a total FAKE JOB, just like the other JUNK he wrote\u201d, the 47th president posted<\/a> after the first revelations from Wolff\u2019s work broke. \u201cI assume \u2026 he was able to speak to a small number of people, but not meaningfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again, Wolff has poured a samovar of scalding tea on Trump\u2019s lap.<\/p>\n

Fire and Fury<\/a> was released in January 2018 and sold millions, despite Trump\u2019s attempt to block its publication. Siege<\/a> and Landslide<\/a> followed. Wolff\u2019s interview with Trump in 2021, for Landslide, remains memorable for its descriptions of place and people as much as for Trump\u2019s usual invective. From Mar-a-Lago, Wolff wrote of \u201cblond mothers and blond daughters, infinitely buxom\u201d, traipsing through the lobby of a palace built to cater to its creator\u2019s sensibilities.<\/p>\n

Four years later, All or Nothing is the first major work about Trump\u2019s re-election to drop since the inauguration. Wolff rains on Trump\u2019s parade, offering a breezy but disturbing read about how Trump willed his way back to power and captured a plurality of the electorate.<\/p>\n

Like many of us, Wolff stands simultaneously mesmerized and disdainful.<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/picture><\/div>
<\/svg><\/span>Michael Wolff\u2019s All or Nothing.<\/span> Photograph: Penguin Random House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trump\u2019s rage toward Wolff is at least understandable. In the run-up to the last election, Wolff released tapes in which the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appeared to detail close social ties with Trump, a relationship the president has long denied. Now, on the page, Wolff paints a dismal picture of Trump\u2019s third marriage. \u201cShe fucking hates him,\u201d a \u201cMar-a-Lago patio confidant\u201d tells Wolff of Melania Trump. \u201cShe had not enjoyed a single day in the White House. To the extent that they had had a marriage (even on a negotiated footing), it was further disrupted by her husband\u2019s mood swings and constant sense of offense and injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald\u2019s 34 criminal convictions for paying the porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her claimed affair can\u2019t have helped.<\/p>\n

Between Trump and his daughter Ivanka, and Jared Kushner, her husband, Wolff depicts a dance of ambitions and expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cKushner\u2019s own clear and immediate post-White House plan was to put distance between himself and his father-in-law,\u201d Wolff writes, of Jared and Ivanka\u2019s flight from Trump\u2019s side after 6 January 2021 and the attack on Congress. The couple decamped to Miami, not Palm Beach, rather than be part of Trump\u2019s daily orbit. \u201cAsked about his father-in-law\u2019s future by a friend, Kushner replied early on, \u2018What was Nixon\u2019s future?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard Nixon never enjoyed a second act. It seemed Trump would not either.<\/p>\n

According to Wolff, in the aftermath of 7 October 2023, and Hamas\u2019s attack on Israel, Kushner was asked to help swat down a Washington Post investigation on Trump and allegations of antisemitism. \u201cNo, Ivanka and I aren\u2019t going to do that,\u201d Jared reportedly said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to go and put our names on something and get in the middle of things. That\u2019s just not what we\u2019re going to do this time.\u201d A spokesperson for Kushner and the White House characterized Wolff\u2019s reporting as false.<\/p>\n

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In his first term, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, Jared\u2019s father. This year, Trump nominated<\/a> Kushner Sr to be ambassador to France and Monaco. Gratitude means many things.<\/p>\n

All or Nothing also scrutinizes Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s personal lawyer and pick for deputy attorney general. \u201cIn private, Trump liked Blanche\u2019s certainty and forcefulness,\u201d Wolff writes. \u201cBut now, in open court [in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case], with sudden humility, unaccountably weak and deferential, Blanche seems to stumble and suck his words and fill his hesitations with \u2018ums.\u2019 (\u2018POTUS really hates ums,\u2019 says a reproving aide.)\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanche whiffed, Trump was convicted. For now, Blanche remains at Trump\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

The White House has pushed back against Wolff \u2013 forcefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Wolff is a lying sack of shit and has been proven to be a fraud,\u201d said Steven Cheung, the White House communications director. Irony abounds. Trump entered office as a twice-adjudicated fraudster as well as<\/em> the first convicted felon to hold the presidency.<\/p>\n

Wolff reports misogyny and racism too. He captures Trump musing that Michelle Obama would replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket in 2024. \u201cPeople call her \u2018Mike,\u2019 you know. You know that, don\u2019t you?\u201d he purportedly said, in a series of telephone monologues. \u201cThey think she looks pretty manly. Those very big shoulders. What\u2019s that about? That\u2019s what people will call her if she runs, \u2018Mike.\u2019 That\u2019s the name she\u2019ll have: \u2018Mike.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle Obama refused to attend Trump\u2019s second inauguration.<\/p>\n

Nor, according to Wolff, could Trump countenance the possibility that Kamala Harris would replace Biden. He saw her as an intellectual lightweight, beneath his contempt. \u201cIt won\u2019t be Harris. It\u2019ll never be Harris,\u201d Trump reportedly told the denizens of the Mar-a-Lago patio. In debate prep, Wolff writes, he branded her a \u201cfucking bitch\u201d more than 100 times. Harris won the debate but lost the election. Unlike Hillary Clinton, she also lost the popular vote.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Wolff says, Trump feared Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan. The two had clashed over Covid-19. If it was her, Trump reportedly thought, he was \u201cfucked\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now, back in the White House, Trump sits at the center of all news cycles, describing himself as a \u201cking\u201d, watching titans of industry prostrate themselves before him. \u201cBut,\u201d Wolff adds, \u201cthere is, too, the inescapable fact of his age, term limits, second-term malaise, and his lame-duck status \u2013 power ebbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, as hard as it might seem to imagine, events will have a life of their own without Donald Trump<\/a> at the center of them. And then the story will end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be so sure. Trump openly speaks of a third term.<\/p>\n