By Tony Sokol

No one on earth knew more about the new president than Wayne Barrett, America’s top investigative Trump biographer. Barrett’s book, TRUMP, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: The Deals, the Downfall, the Reinvention, is widely considered the “Gold Standard of Trump Exposés.” Well, Barrett died the night before Inauguration Day at the age of 71, it was announced by Regan Arts. This isn’t conspiracy-worthy, like the Vince Foster and the rest of the purported victims of the Clinton Mafia, but it is a clear warning to journalists countrywide.

“There may be no journalist who knows more about Trump than Barrett,” The New Yorker’s Jennifer Gonnerman said in a statement.

Barrett was the “supremely incorruptible investigative conscience of New York City journalism” for over five decades, according to his obituary. Muckraking reporters are “detectives for the people,” Barrett once declared. Barrett, was born in 1945, was a Village Voice reporter who covered New York City politics for 37 years. Besides the Trump book, he wrote biographies on Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch.

“Wayne Barrett was astonishing in his ability to uncover the truth,” Regan Arts publisher Judith Regan said in a statement. “He was unrelenting, utterly incorruptible and never, for one moment, lost track of his goal, which was always to seek and speak the truth and to hold those who abuse their power accountable. We are proud to have published his most important work. Wayne Barrett was a principled journalist, a good man and his work is an important historical record. He will be missed.”

In Trump: The Greatest Show On Earth, Barrett unravels “the myth and reveals the truth behind Trump’s manipulation and deceit and how he worked with questionable characters from the mafia and city politics,” according to the obit.

“Most compellingly Barrett paints an intimate portrait of Trump, a man he describes as driven by bravado, obsessive self-regard, and an anxious ruthlessness to subdue his rivals and seduce anyone with the power to aid his empire. We see him head to head with powerful political opponents, deal making with Wall Street masters and explore his complicated emotional and business relationship with his first wife, Ivana, and the use he planned to make of his mistress—and later, second wife—Marla Maples, as a ‘southern strategy’ in his then contemplated presidential campaign. Ultimately, the book is a cautionary tale.”

Don’t let White House press secretary Sean Spicer label this as false news. This really happened. He’s really dead, the coincidence is newsworthy. Kellyanne Conway, who I think is the real president, may have the country hypnotized with brightly colored bullshit that even Bill Maher couldn’t look away from, but the evidence is clear. As Beltway correspondents worry about where they’ll be setting up shop over the next four to eight to whatever years, they should be aware that this administration is not versed in irony.

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