President Donald Trump’s
lawyer demands the author of a book about his presidency stop publication. In response, the publisher moves up the release date for “Fire and Fury.”
WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary step for a sitting president, Donald Trump had his lawyer demand Thursday that Henry Holt and Co. and author Michael Wolff stop publication of a soon-to-be-released book about the chaotic first year of Trump’s presidency.
Instead, the publisher expedited the book’s release to Friday, four days before it was slated to hit bookstores, in response to “unprecedented demand.” Published excerpts on Wednesday and Thursday whetted that appetite and roiled Washington.
In the letter on Trump’s behalf, lawyer Charles J. Harder demanded that the author and publishing house “cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination” of the book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”
The publisher said in a news release, “We see ‘Fire and Fury’ as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book.”
The book includes stunning criticisms of Trump and his circle from a number of aides, including most prominently former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Bannon’s comments, including that it was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort to have met in 2016 with Russians said to have “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, prompted Trump on Wednesday to rebuke his former adviser, saying Bannon had “lost his mind.”
Trump’s lawyers also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon saying he had made “disparaging” and “outright defamatory” statements about Trump and Trump’s family to Wolff, violating a non-disclosure agreement Bannon had signed when he worked for Trump’s campaign.
Any such agreement would not likely extend to Bannon’s subsequent White House employment.
The break between Trump and Bannon apparently caused further problems for Bannon. Prominent conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, who was a financial backer of Bannon’s Breitbart News site, indicated in a statement that she had withdrawn support but that she remained committed to the president.
Bannon pledged his continued support of Trump. “Nothing will ever come between us and President Trump and his agenda,” Bannon told a caller on Breitbart radio Thursday morning, adding “we’re tight on this agenda as we’ve ever been.”
Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that Bannon’s more complimentary comments Wednesday evening and Thursday show his former aide “obviously changed his tune very quick.” He added that he is no longer in regular touch with Bannon, saying “I don’t talk to him. That’s just a misnomer.”
The initial dust-up involving Bannon followed publication of book excerpts on Wednesday in the Guardian newspaper and New York magazine. On Thursday, in a column published by the Hollywood Reporter titled, “’You Can’t Make This S--- Up’: My Year Inside Trump’s Insane White House,” Wolff described how he got virtually unbridled access to Trump’s senior aides, frequently sitting on a couch in the West Wing.