Attempts to outlaw book backfire as it tops chart
DONALD Trump’s attempt to ban what he calls a ‘phoney’ book on his tumultuous presidency backfired last night – as intense demand saw it soar to the top of the bestseller lists.
The publishers of Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House, reacted to the US President’s threat of legal action by bringing forward its publication date to yesterday.
The book, which has unleashed a storm in Washington, rapidly topped the online charts on Amazon, while long queues for the title were seen in bookshops as its American publisher, Henry Holt & Co, reported ‘unprecedented demand’.
It came as the author, journalist Michael Wolff, claimed that nearly everyone around the President quesfirmed. tions his ‘intelligence and fitness for office’ – including Mr Trump’s own family. He compared the President to a child in that he ‘has a need for instant gratification’, adding: ‘They say he’s a moron, an idiot. Let’s remember, this man does not read, does not listen, so he’s like a pinball just shooting off the sides.’
Asked about his claim that 71-yearold Mr Trump is suffering from impaired mental faculties, Mr Wolff said: ‘He’s lost it.’
Some US observers remain sceptical about the reliability of Mr Wolff’s shocking revelations, although he says he interviewed 200 people and added yesterday: ‘I have recordings. I have notes.’
Demand for the tell-all book is growing at ‘exponential rates’, one leading Irish book chain said.
Irish readers could download Fire And Fury on Kindle from yesterday morning, but will have to wait until next week to buy a paper copy, Maria Dickenson of Dubray Books con- She said the book industry here was caught off guard by the sudden change in release dates and physical copies won’t even arrive at Irish ports until late Tuesday.
‘I think it’s fair to say that supply won’t catch up with the full demand until late next week,’ she added.
Both Dubray Books and Eason are allowing readers to pro-order copies.
It was due for global paper and electronic release next Tuesday. However, publishers rushed forward its UK and US release date to yesterday after a number of leaks to the media.
The author spent 18 months embedded with the Trump team to create his book. Mr Wolff portrays Mr Trump as lonely, fragile and prone to emotional outbursts, and insists that the tycoon never wanted or expected to be President. According to Mr Wolff, he saw the election as a way of strengthening the Trump brand.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter to the book’s US publishers, citing libel and ‘actual malice’.
Discussing the President’s furious response to the book on the US breakfast TV show Today, Mr Wolff – who claims the President personally invited him to write a fly-on-the-wall account of his presidency – mockingly said: ‘Where do I send the box of chocolates? Not only is he helping me sell books, but he’s helping me prove the point of the book.’
Mr Trump hit back on Twitter, saying: ‘I authorised zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist.’
But Mr Wolff says he spent around three hours with Mr Trump during the election campaign and in the White House after his inauguration, but also interviewed ‘people who spoke to the president on a daily, sometime minute-by-minute basis’.
Melania Trump has also rubbished the book. Her spokesman dismissed it as ‘bargain fiction’.
‘They say he’s a moron, an idiot’