Ryan Lizza appears to have been rehabilitated to the point that the Washington Post will publish his book reviews. I’ve never fully understood what he was being accused of or how credible the accusations were, so I don’t have any kind of informed opinion on whether or not he should treated as a member of polite society. I have always valued him as a reporter and a writer, and I trust him when he tells me that Michael Wolff’s sequel to Fire and Fury is a poorly sourced and unreliable piece of crap that was mostly constructed by talking to the Trump castoffs who frequent Steve Bannon’s townhouse kitchen table.

I wasn’t planning on reading Siege anyway, but it seems like a shame that I can’t go to the bank with stuff like this:

The cutting comments Wolff attributes to Trump certainly sound like the president: “the stupidest man in Congress” and a “religious nut” (Mike Pence); “gives me the creeps” (Karen Pence); “feeble” (John Kelly); “a girl” (Kushner); “looks like a mental patient” (Giuliani); “a pretty stupid boy” who “has too many f—ing kids” (Donald Trump Jr.); “men’s shop salesmen” (Republican House candidates); “ignoramuses” (Trump’s communications team); “the only stupid Jew” (Michael Cohen); “a dirty rat” (former White House counsel Donald McGahn); a “virgin crybaby” who was “probably molested by a priest” (Brett Kavanaugh); “the poor man’s Ann Coulter” (Kellyanne Conway); “sweaty” (Stephen Miller). But the lack of sourcing transparency and footnotes does not inspire confidence.

I mean those are astute put-downs and some of them would be real keepers.  I also liked these:

Trump, Wolff writes, likes [Corey] Lewandowski more than his own sons, even though he derides him as an “ass kisser.” Trump says [David] Bossie, who unsuccessfully maneuvers to become chief of staff, is “shifty.” [Sam] Nunberg is mocked by the president for living with his parents, and Wolff quotes Trump remarking of [Jason] Miller, “I get the people who no one else wants.”

I could choose to believe that the president said all of these things because it seems consistent with his observable behavior. Unfortunately, I can’t quite get there and have to console myself with the thought that it’s likely that he said at least some of them. I am particularly attached to the Kavanaugh quote, but not because this anti-Church rhetoric is becoming of a president or appropriate in any way. I just think it would highlight how uncommitted Trump is the conservative Catholic cause and demonstrate that his packing of the courts with religious conservatives is a transactional ploy rather than anything approaching actual support or respect for this segment of his base.

I think Trump’s true opinion of his admirers is summed up pretty well here:

The author is mostly interested in Trump’s psychology. He is adept at documenting the president’s lunacy, and Bannon is frequently an able fellow shrink. For example, he credibly theorizes that Trump’s inevitable disgust with anyone who works for him is a natural outgrowth of his alleged self-hatred. “Hating himself, he of course comes to hate anyone who seems to love him,” Bannon tells Wolff. “If you seem to respect him, he thinks he’s put something over on you — therefore you’re a fool.”

Or, as Trump put it after winning the Nevada caucuses, “We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”

He even created a university for them.