On second thought, we may not want to know the answer to that question. Because every new "worst week yet" for Donald Trump's White House brings the new assertion that Trump is "more isolated" and "more paranoid" than ever before, seething in his White House bunker as he consumes a steady caffeine-and-cable cocktail during his treasured "executive time." This week has proven no exception as excerpts dropped Tuesday from Bob Woodward's new book Fear about Trump's West Wing. The Washington Post writes:
By early Tuesday evening, Trump was furious and asking people who spoke to Woodward, an outside adviser said. This person added that the president has recently been in a particularly paranoid mood — the result, in part, of a tell-all book by former senior adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman and his perceived betrayal by several key aides and confidants in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s ongoing Russia probe.
Trump's inner circle is simply a thing of beauty. Witness his former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen providing sworn testimony (in exchange for... who knows what? ) that Trump ordered him to commit a crime (maybe Cohen just wanted to get it off his chest?); White House counsel Don McGahn rolling out 30 hours of testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller's team in order to insulate himself from being scapegoated; and Manigault Newman goosing sales of her new book with secret recordings she made in the (not-so) highly-secured Situation Room, on Trump's plane during the campaign, and in one-on-one convos she had with Trump.
Really, what's not to trust with this cadre of grade-A individuals whom Trump has surrounded himself with? How could it all have gone so wrong? And who can he talk to anymore when his chosen people are alternately cheating on him with dreaded truth seekers like journalists and law enforcement officials? If only he could speak with the special counsel himself. If only he could be the sole interviewee—he and he alone could fix it!
Trump believes he could have explained himself to Woodward and helped shape the book, one of the advisers said, and feels he is isolated and isn’t getting the best information from his staff.
He’s quick, that one. It’s just occurring to him now—after stacking his White House with sycophants and two-faced reality TV stars—that he's not getting the best information. But his isolation already has a long and storied history, partly chronicled in this magnificent thread.
That excerpt hails from way back last month, a day after Cohen gave Trump the bus treatment and Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort got convicted on eight criminal counts.
And it's so very far from over, folks. The paranoia, the isolation—those are Trump-manufactured specialties, the purest external manifestations of his id. Think of those mental states and all the turncoats around him that foster them as Trump's beautiful masterpiece—the deepest expression of his inner being mirrored back to him. The funhouse has only just begun. The challenge is knowing when to laugh and when to run for cover.