Of course, this guy has taken us past more tipping points than an Olympic hurdler.

Ferguson: Let me ask you another thing about the new book. Your second book, your first novel, The White House Mess, was in the form of a White House memoir, and Make Russia Great Again is also a White House memoir. You seem to have an affinity for that very particular literary form.

Buckley: Yes, my first novel was a fauxor as we say now, a fakeWashington memoir by a White House chief of staff named Herb. This is my 19th book, a fake memoir by a White House chief of staff named Herb. So Im ready for the reviewers to say, well, Buckley has traveled the gamut from A to B, or from A to A.

Ferguson: Probably best to say youve come full circle.

Buckley: Well, its a kind of bookend. I probably wont be writing another White House memoir. But its a fascinating, very rich subliterary genre. Everyone who works at the White House for more than five minutes writes a memoir. The White House dog keeper wrote a memoir. I think it was like 500 pages. They all tend to have two themes: One, it wasnt my fault; and two, it would have been much worse if I hadnt been there.

Herb, the main narrator in the new one, hes sort of a likable schlub. Hes basically an innocent. He used to be the food and beverage manager at Trumps other resort, Farrago-sur-Mer. Trump calls him, and hes fired his six chiefs of staff at this point, and he begs Herb to come on board. Id say hes a good guy in a bad place. His observations are naive and innocent, and therefore, I think, the comedy is amplified.

Ferguson: Theres a peculiar psychology to White House staffersmaybe its true in all of politics. They all have an element of hero worshiptheyre there to serve this superior person in rank and statureand yet at the same time they, of all people, are more exposed to the weaknesses that all aspiring great men and women are heir to.

Of course, with Trump theres an additional complication in the psychology. You have a great line in which Herb finally becomes self-aware.

Buckley: He says, It had gotten to the point where I felt virtuous merely by not saying something that was false.

Yeah, in a normal White House, which this seems not to be, the relationship between principal and staffer could probably be called a healthy codependence. Theyre both there for their own reasons. A good leader like Bush 41you loved the guy because he was lovable, and he was good, and it wasnt about him. He may well be the most selfless man ever to occupy the White House.

With this guy, its different. Its frankly hard at this point to imagine why anyone would want to work for him. I think the Im doing this for the good of the country explanation rings a little bit hollow.

Ferguson: Have you read John Boltons book? Its only 600 pages.

See the original post:

Christopher Buckley on Satire in the Age of Trump - The Atlantic