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The Memo: Trump can turn page on book storm | TheHill

posted onJanuary 7, 2018
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Article snippet: For all the fire and the fury ignited in Washington this week by Michael Wolff’s book of the same name, the political landscape has been little changed. The charges in the book, including the explosive detail that former chief strategist Stephen Bannon considered a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower “treasonous,” dominated political discussion.  But the Trump White House has spent much of its lifetime enmeshed in controversies just as dramatic, and in some ways more substantive, than this.  While opponents of MORE will find plenty to sustain their opinions in Wolff’s book — and in the White House’s incandescent reaction to it — Trump’s base will likely prove impervious to its revelations. “I don’t know anyone who is going to read this and be shocked by anything that is in there,” said Dan Judy, a Republican strategist whose firm worked with Sen. MORE (R-Fla.) during the 2016 primaries. “Hardcore supporters of the president aren’t going to believe it. And people who think it’s true aren’t going to be surprised by it.” When excerpts from the book first emerged, and Trump followed up with a statement excoriating Bannon for having “lost his mind,” there seemed a real chance that the strategist would turn his fire on the president via Breitbart, the news website he runs. A split in Trump’s populist base looked like a real possibility. But it soon became apparent that Bannon’s influence has been seriously diminished, with less obvious downside to the president. A key Ba... Link to the full article to read more

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