Upcoming book - Hannity thinks that Trump is 'batsh!t crazy,' Fox staffers frustrated with being presidential echo chamber

According to an upcoming book, Fox News personality and Trump cheerleader Sean Hannity has a totally different private view of Trump.

I think I may buy this particular book about Trump. It sound deliciously evil. And very accurate. The central theme is that Trump biggest cheerleaders, Sean Hannity, actually thinks he is "batsh!t crazy."

From Alternet:

Sean Hannity is among President Donald Trump’s most strident sycophants at Fox News, angrily lambasting anyone who questions anything that Trump says or does. But according to CNN reporter Brian Stelter’s forthcoming book, “Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth,” Hannity has privately told colleagues that he believes Trump is “batshit crazy.” 

Vanity Fair has published an except from Stelter’s book, which contains interviews with Hannity associates who spoke on condition of anonymity. In that except, Stelter quotes a Hannity associate as saying that the Fox News host “would tell you, off-off-off the record, that Trump is a batshit crazy person.” And a friend of Hannity, similarly, told Stelter, “Hannity has said to me more than once, ‘He’s crazy.’”

I've read the excerpt and it is juicy:

(Hannity's) friends told me he was burnt out for long stretches of the Trump presidency. Being the president’s “shadow chief of staff,” as he was known around the White House, could be a thrill, but it was also a serious burden. Hannity counseled Trump at all hours of the day; one of his confidants said the president treated Hannity like Melania, a wife in a sexless marriage. Arguably, he treated Hannity better than Melania. Hannity’s producers marveled at his influence and access. “It’s a powerful thing to be someone’s consigliere,” one producer said. “I hear Trump talk at rallies, and I hear Sean,” a family friend commented. 

Hannity chose this life, so no one felt sorry for him, but the stress took its toll. “Hannity would tell you, off-off-off the record, that Trump is a batshit crazy person,” one of his associates said. Another friend concurred: “Hannity has said to me more than once, ‘he’s crazy.’” 

But Hannity’s commitment to GOP priorities and to his own business model meant he could never say any of this publicly. If one of his friends went on the record quoting Hannity questioning Trump’s mental fitness, that would be the end of the friendship.

Guess what, Sean. That secret is out. And it gets even better.
According to Stelter, Trump is wearing down not only Hannity, but the entire Fox News network. And the coronavirus pandemic is playing a huge part in it. While Fox News personalities such as Greg Gutfeld and Marc Siegel echo Trump's lies about the pandemic, network executives have taken it seriously. This is highly hypocritical.  In addition, staffers are becoming overwhelmed with how the network is becoming Trump's personal echo chamber:

In all I spoke with more than 140 staffers at Fox, plus 180 former staffers and others with direct ties to the network. Their frustration was palpable. Staffers described a TV network that had gone off the rails. Some even said the place that they worked, that they cashed paychecks from, had become dangerous to democracy. They felt like the news division had been squeezed out in favor of pro-Trump blowhards. Most of the insiders acknowledged that Fox News was always, on one level, a political project, but many said they were shocked by how thoroughly Fox and the GOP had been merged by Trump, Hannity, and a handful of other power players. “We surrendered,” one anchor said with remorse in his voice. “We just surrendered.”

So what's going to happen when this book comes out? Will Trump and Hannity's friendship survive? How much more scrutiny will be given to Fox News and the Trump-loving personalities employs.

Who knows? At any rate, I'm getting out the expensive popcorn.