Outraged Trump says he is a ‘stable genius’

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Saturday praised himself as “a very stable genius” following the release of a bombshell book that raises doubts over his mental health.

But Trump’s response to the book’s allegations, in tweets and in remarks made during a hastily convened news conference at his Camp David presidential retreat, had Washington focusing anew on the question of his stability and mental state.

In a series of extraordinary early morning tweets, Trump said that “throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart”.

“I went from VERY successful businessman, to top TV. Star to President of the United States [on my first try]. I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius … and a very stable genius at that!”

The new supposed tell-all book – Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House – was rushed into stores on Friday after the Trump administration failed to suppress it.

The book quickly sold out in Washington and rocketed to the top of Amazon’s bestsellers list.

At Camp David, where Trump was meeting top Republican lawmakers and cabinet members to set an agenda for the coming year, he seemed eager to focus attention on legislative priorities including immigration reform, a budget plan and infrastructure spending.

But he also forcefully pushed back against Wolff’s claim to having spent hours interviewing Trump.

“I did a quick interview with this guy a long time ago, having to do with an article, but I don’t know this man,” Trump said.

The idea of a long White House interview was “in his imagination”, he said.

Trump said the book was a disgrace and suggested the US needed stronger libel laws.

The president earlier decried the work as “full of lies,” while the White House issued a scorched-earth dismissal of both author and his sources.

Wolff, no stranger to controversy, quotes several key Trump aides expressing doubt about Trump’s ability to lead the US.

Wolff, who refers to Trump as “semil also says he detected signs that could point to incipient dementia, or at least mental deterioration — his repetition of the same stories and anecdotes. — AFP