Author defends tell-all book, says Trump associates described president as an ‘idiot’
Those close to President Donald Trump believe the commander in chief is “like a child” and an “idiot,” the author of a new tell-all White House book said Friday.
Michael Wolff brushed off criticism by Donald Trump as he defended “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” on the “Today” show.
“Where do I send the box of chocolates?” he said.
Wolff said he spoke with Trump for several hours while working on the book, and that he spoke to people who met with Trump on a “daily and sometimes minute-by-minute basis.” People called Trump a “moron” and an “idiot,” according to Wolff.
“The one description that everyone gave: They all say he is like a child,” Wolf told the “Today” show. “The need for immediate gratification. It’s all about him.
“This man does not read, does not listen. He’s like a pinball just shooting off the sides.”
Wolff said he was stunned when Trump hit him and publisher Henry Holt and Co. with a cease-and-desist letter on Thursday.
“This is extraordinary that a president of the United States would try to stop the publication of a book,” the journalist said.
He laughed off a Trump tweet from Thursday night that said “Fire and Fury” was “full of lies.” He said he has recordings and notes of his interviews.
“My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility of any man who has walked on Earth to this point,” Wolff said.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders continued to criticize the book on Friday.
“What I think is really mentally unstable is people that don’t see the positive impact that this president is having on the country,” she told “Fox & Friends.”
Former press secretary Sean Spicer told “Good Morning America” on Friday that some of the quotes in the book are true, “but the context in which they are given aren’t.”
“Fire and Fury” chronicles the first nine months of the Trump White House, painting a dysfunctional atmosphere. It was available in bookstores on Friday, and has already hit No. 1 on Amazon.
Stephen Bannon, former White House strategist, is quoted extensively in the book and is highly critical of Donald Trump Jr.
“The book is not about Steve Bannon, this book is about Donald Trump,” Wolff said Friday.