Cliff Sims criticises staffers including Sarah Sanders, who ‘didn’t press as hard as she could for the rock-bottom truth’

Cliff Sims, a former aide in Donald Trump’s White House, reportedly received a seven-figure advance for dishing dirt on his ex-boss. If Sims actually banked a million dollars, his agent deserves a round of props. As for Sims’ publishers, they may have overpaid.

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A copy of Team of Vipers, Sims’ touted tell-all, was obtained by the Guardian. It ladles out scoop but is short on insight. The author is critical of Trump world’s visceral brutality but does not adequately trace the mien and tenor of the West Wing to its occupant-in-chief. In his closing pages, Sims takes Trump to task for treating loyalty as a one-way street. The reader is left wondering what took so long for the scales to fall from Sims’ eyes.

To be sure, the book is Sims’ consolation prize after departing what has become an island of misfit toys. He left the administration after being passed over for a promotion and blocked from moving to the state department, and not obtaining a security clearance. All in 500 days. Chaotic is an understatement.

Kellyanne stood in a class of own in terms of her machinations – I had to admire her sheer gall Cliff Sims

Apparently, Sims got into hot water after having allegedly surreptitiously recorded a meeting with the president, which he then reportedly replayed to others. To compound Sims’ woes, the story made it into the New York Times. For the record, Sims characterizes the Times report as an “outlandish misrepresentation of what actually happened”.

Despite being a lower-level staffer he made more than his fair share of enemies, particularly John Kelly, the former chief of staff and retired four-star marine general. Suffice to say, there is no love lost.

Sims damns Kelly for an array of shortcomings including his lack of a total embrace of the president and his agenda, an interpersonal skills deficit, and his support for Rob Porter, the disgraced ex-White House staff secretary and alleged serial abuser. He also tags Kelly for a lack of self-awareness.

From the looks of things, Sims’ animus toward Kelly was a byproduct of Kelly’s undiluted disdain for Sims. “Cliff,” he quotes Kelly as saying, “in the past 40 years, I don’t think I’ve ever had a subordinate whose reputation is worse than yours. In every single context that your name comes up, it’s always negative – always.”

No matter. Sims vividly captures his peers’ and superiors’ shortcomings, with only Javanka and Hope Hicks, former communications director and Porter love interest, emerging unscathed. For the rest, Sims is unsparing, with deceit and backstabbing emerging as the intertwined coins of the realm.

Sarah Sanders, Trump’s press secretary, possessed a casual attitude toward truth-telling when it came to the press, according to the book. In Sims’ words, Sanders “didn’t press as hard as she could have for the rock-bottom truth”, adding that her “gymnastics with the truth would tax even the nimblest of prevaricators, and Sanders was not that”. At least Sims believes that Sanders was not a “natural liar”.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a subordinate whose reputation is worse than yours John Kelly, on Cliff Sims

Likewise, Kellyanne Conway, the high priestess of “alternative facts”, comes in for her share of incoming. Sims spills the beans on Conway repeatedly trashing Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon and Sean Spicer to the mainstream media, while recounting to the press ostensibly private conversations with the president.

While none of this is exactly news, it places Conway in the realm of performance artists. Think Roger Stone, without the special counsel breathing down her neck, a Nixon tattoo on her back or an organic attachment to the president. Who can forget Conway’s visual perorations on the word “collusion”? As Sims put it, “Kellyanne stood in a class of own in terms of her machinations – I had to admire her sheer gall.”

For good measure, he takes a dig at George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband whose adherence to what were once deemed “conservative principles” is more consistent than his wife’s or Sims’ – and whose spidey sense led him to reject an appointment at the justice department. As for Simms own judgment, he admits to having supported Anthony Scaramucci joining the president’s team in a bid to impose order.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cliff Sims supported the appointment of Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted 11 days as Trump’s communications director. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

Team of Vipers leaves more than just the impression that cultural resentment fuels the administration and the modern Republican party. As Charlottesville unspooled, Sims called Bannon, whom he found “maniacally insisting that this was a ‘moment’ that had to be seized upon”. To quote Sims quoting Bannon: “They have no idea what they’ve just done … This is a winning issue for us.”

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Winning? Not exactly.

For the record, the Colin Kaepernick ad campaign boosted Nike’s sales, Nancy Pelosi wields the speaker’s gavel and Trump’s approval rating is in the low 40s, even as unemployment has dropped below 4%. When the Republicans lose suburbia, white college graduates and the wealthy – as they did in 2018 – they have a problem. The GOP’s transformation into a white workers’ party has come with a price.

Yet there is every reason to believe Trump’s re-election effort will offer up more of the same. The president shows little indication of pivoting toward the center. For better or worse, his plutocrat-populist playbook will likely remain the operative force.

In that vein, Sims shares his conversation with Trump concerning the NFL players’ protests and a possible second term, with Trump announcing that “the Democrats – you watch – they’re going to nominate a kneeler … 2020 will be fun, that I can tell you – a lot of fun … the kneelers! Just watch”. In other words, Pocahontas, Sacagawea and caravans will continue to take center stage.

What is most memorable about Team of Vipers is the joylessness of working for this president and the acrid aftertaste it leaves. While factionalism is to be expected, a stint at the White House usually brings with it a passel of friends and memories. Just look at the recent funeral of George HW Bush.

Not here. Rather, discord and a book are Trump’s emerging legacy and Sims’ parting gifts.

