Michael D'Antonio is the author of the book "Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success" (St. Martin's Press). The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) In "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," author Michael Wolff offers a caricature of the President as "an idiot surrounded by clowns," as one unnamed source puts it. It's an incomplete and unsatisfying sketch. But consider that his subject, Donald Trump, has described himself as a character in a comic book and Wolff's work can be regarded as truer than the President would have us believe.

Wolff is at his more accurate, and incisive, when he observes that "many of the accounts" of events offered by the President's team, "in Trumpian fashion, are baldly untrue." He then argues for our indulgence as he tries to describe reality.

The President's own lies and distortions, which are key features of his leadership style, make it impossible for anyone to rely on him and his aides in a normal way.

As a private citizen, Trump developed this squid-ink method so that he could sell himself like a human product. In falsely claiming that various starlets pursued him for dates, or the British royals were eying Trump real estate, he played a game with reality.

In a super-salesman, this habit was amusing. In a president, it is both frightening and dangerous. But while the distortion obscures Trump, it doesn't make him invisible and Wolff has spotted the outlines of his target. Among the broad strokes that seem accurate to me , based on my experience as a biographer of Trump and other sources:

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