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Is Trump living the smarmy plot of ‘The Producers’?

Jan 5, 2018, 12:20 PM

the producers...

A stack of "Fire and Fury" books by writer Michael Wolff. The book on President Donald Trump is drawn from what he said was regular access to the West Wing and more than 200 interviews. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

(AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a big fan of Broadway musicals. The thought of getting all dressed up to go watch a regional production of “Oklahoma” sends shivers down my spine. But there’s an exception to every rule, and for me that exception is “The Producers.”

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You know the plot, two smarmy producers get together and figure out a way to win by losing. If they can just mount the biggest flop in history, they’ll be rich. Cue the signature number “Springtime For Hitler.”

Which brings us to the new book “Fire & Fury: Inside The Trump White House” by Michael Wolff. Among other fascinating story lines, Wolff claims that our current sitting president was actually running “The Producers” scheme on the entire United States.

Essentially, he planned to run for president, knowing the entire time that he would lose. But in the loss was buried a huge win. This man, obsessed with his own brand — and even more obsessed with the size of various things — thought that by losing to Hillary Clinton, everything “Trump” would win.

His Q-Rating would shoot through the roof. The membership of his clubs would go up. And his branding empire would skyrocket in value. He already had convenient scapegoats all set: The dark state and the fake news media.

Only one problem: Trump won. According to reported first-hand accounts in Wolff’s book, Donald was shell shocked and Meliana openly wept. Evidently her McDonald’s-loving hubby promised her that all this politics business would be over soon and she could go back to her luxurious semi-private life of 5th Avenue shopping sprees and Lower Manhattan lunches with the ladies.

I actually suspected this all along during the primaries, but there was no way to know for sure as he kept steamrolling the rest of the
folks on the red team.

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Are all the stories in this new book the gospel truth? Probably not. But if we’ve learned one thing this past year, when someone lands a punch too close to this man’s fragile ego, his knee-jerk reaction is typically threats of lawsuits. That’s exactly what has happened in this case. This tactic is the first page from Trump’s Jr. High playbook life philosophy.

I read a very long summary by the author in New York Magazine, and while there are quite a few jaw droppers in there, everything seems entirely plausible.

There will be good people on all sides, many good people, grabbing a few Big Macs and Filet ‘O Fish sandwiches to retire to bed at 6:30 p.m. to enjoy this book. Where’s my Twitter machine?

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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Is Trump living the smarmy plot of ‘The Producers’?