Michelle Obama slates Trump in new memoir

Former US first lady Michelle Obama has attacked President Donald Trump in her new book, revealing her shock reaction on the night she learned he would replace her husband in the White House.

In her memoir, Becoming, Barack Obama’s wife also denounces Mr Trump’s “birther” campaign, which questioned her husband’s citizenship, calling it bigoted, dangerous and “deliberately meant to stir up the wingnuts and kooks”.

Mrs Obama writes openly about everything from growing up in Chicago to confronting racism in public life to her amazement at becoming America’s first black first lady.

In the book, due to be published on Tuesday, she also reflects on early struggles in her marriage to Barack Obama as he began his political career and was often away.

She writes that they met with a counsellor “a handful of times”, and she came to realise she was more “in charge” of her happiness than she had realised. “This was my pivot point,” Mrs Obama explains. “My moment of self-arrest”.

The former first lady expresses disbelief over how so many American women would choose a “misogynist” over Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, “an exceptionally qualified female candidate”.

Mrs Obama launches her promotional tour on Tuesday not at a book shop but at Chicago’s United Centre, where tens of thousands of people have purchased tickets – priced from just under $30 (£23) to thousands of dollars, with 10% of ticket sales at each event being donated to local charities, schools and community groups – to attend the event moderated by Oprah Winfrey.

Other stops on a tour scaled to rockstar dimensions are planned at large arenas from New York City’s Barclays Centre to the Los Angeles Forum.

Picture: AP. Tour: Michelle Obama.