Book leaves Trump ‘furious,’ ‘disgusted’ with ex-strategist
President’s legal team threatens suit if it’s published.
President WASHINGTON —
Donald Trump escalated his attack on a new book portraying him as a volatile and ill-equipped chief executive Thursday as his legal team demanded that the author and publisher halt its release and apologize or face a possible lawsuit.
In an 11-page letter, the president’s lawyer said the book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by Michael Wolff, as excerpted in a magazine article, includes false statements about Trump that “give rise to claims for libel” that could result in “substantial monetary damages and punitive damages.”
“Mr. Trump hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book, the article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology to my client as to all statements made about him in the book and article that lack competent evidentiary support,” the letter said.
The book, which is scheduled to be released next week, angered Trump in part by quoting Stephen Bannon, his former White House chief strategist, making derogatory comments about the president’s children.
Bannon was quoted as saying that Donald Trump Jr. had been “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign and that Ivanka Trump was “dumb as a brick.”
Trump fired back, saying that Bannon had “lost his mind” and had “nothing to do with me or my presidency.”
Bannon, who had stayed in touch with Trump sporadically after being pushed out of the White House last summer, sought to smooth over the rift during his Breitbart News radio show Wednesday night.
When a caller said that Trump had “made a huge mistake, Steve, bashing you like he did,” Bannon brushed it aside. “The president of the United States is a great man,” Bannon said. “You know I support him day in and day out, whether going through the country giving the ‘Trump Miracle’ speech or on the show or on the website.”
He assured another caller that Trump was still fighting for their shared cause. “Maybe things get off track, or stuff gets said, and all this heated stuff, but however, this is a guy, you voted for him, you supported him,” he said. “Is there any doubt in your mind he’s been fighting for and working for you, the deplorables, the forgotten man and woman, the silent majority, every day he’s been there?”
The president cited those comments Thursday when asked by reporters if Bannon had betrayed him. “I don’t know,” Trump said. “He called me a great man last night so, you know, he obviously changed his tune pretty quick.”
Asked why he had kept talking to Bannon, Trump said: “I don’t talk to him, I don’t talk to him, that’s just a misnomer.”
The letter to the publisher was sent by Charles J. Harder, a prominent libel lawyer based in Beverly Hills, California, to Wolff and Steve Rubin, president and publisher of Henry Holt & Co. It follows a similar cease-anddesist letter sent by Harder on Wednesday night to Bannon.
While other presidents have avoided direct confrontations with publishers over unflattering books in part out of fear of giving them more publicity and promoting sales, Trump is furious about Wolff ’s account and unwilling to let it go, according to advisers. Through a long career in real estate and entertainment, Trump has repeatedly threatened lawsuits against authors, journalists and others who angered him, but often has not followed through, and it was unclear whether he would in this case.
Wolff did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but Wednesday night he said by email that he was “wholly comfortable with my numerous sources.” His editor, John Sterling, said by email Thursday, “We haven’t yet responded to the letter.”
The book, which quickly shot up to No. 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list following articles about it Wednesday, presents Trump as an unengaged candidate and president who grew bored when an aide tried to explain the Constitution to him and refuses to read even onepage briefing papers.
Various advisers to the president are reported to have called him an “idiot,” a “dope” or “dumb” as dirt. And Melania Trump, the president’s wife, is described as being so unhappy about the prospect of life in the White House that she was in tears on election night.
In separate statements, the White House on Wednesday called the book “trashy tabloid fiction” that is “filled with false and misleading accounts,” and Melania Trump disputed the characterizations of her views.
In his letter to Wolff and his publisher, Harder said the book itself admits “that it contains untrue statements.” In an author’s note, Wolff writes that many of the accounts that he collected “are in conflict with one another; many, in Trumpian fashion, are baldly untrue.” He said he sometimes “let the players offer their versions, in turn allowing the reader to judge them,” and in other instances “settled on a version of events I believe to be true.”