Trump furious over former aide’s candid allegations in new book
● Steve Bannon ‘lost his mind’ claims US president as former trusted adviser’s comments paint unflattering picture of leader
US president Donald Trump has launched a bitter attack and threats of legal action against his former ally, Steve Bannon, the head of right-wing media organisation Breitbart News. A new book quotes Bannon alleging the actions of Trump’s son, Donald Jr, were tantamount to treason.
US president Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on former top adviser Steve Bannon, responding to a new book that portrays Mr Trump as an undisciplined man-child who didn’t actually want to win the White House and quotes Mr Bannon as calling the president’s son’s contact with a Russian lawyer “treasonous”.
“I don’t talk to him,” Mr Trump said yesterday of his former chief strategist.
Hitting back via formal White House statement rather than a more typical Twitter volley, Mr Trump insisted Mr Bannon had little to do with his victorious campaign and “has nothing to do with me or my Presidency”.
“When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Mr Trump added.
It was a blistering attack against the man who helped deliver the presidency to Mr Trump, spurred by an unflattering new book by writer Michael Wolff that paints Mr Trump as a leader who doesn’t understand the weight of the presidency and spends his evening seating cheeseburgers in bed, watching TV and talking on the phone to old friends.
Speaking to reporters before meeting with Republican senators yesterday, Mr Trump noted Mr Bannon had praised him on his radio show after Mr Trump issued the statement. “He called me a great man last night,” Mr Trump said. “He obviously changed his tune pretty quick.”
Charles Harder, a lawyer for Mr Trump, threatened legal action against Mr Bannon over “disparaging statements and in some cases outright defamatory statements”.
Mr Harder sent Mr Bannon a letter saying the former Trump aide had violated confidentiality agreements by speaking with Mr Wolff. The letter demanded Mr Bannon “cease and desist” any further disclosure of confidential information. Mr Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yesterday Mr Harder sent cease-and-desist letters to Mr Wolff and publisher Henry Holt and Co. Neither immediately responded to requests for comment.
Mr Trump has a history of threatening to sue when he doesn’t like something, but rarely acts on those threats.
White House aides were blindsided when early excerpts from Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House were published online by New York magazine and other media outlets ahead of the scheduled 9 January publication date – late last night it was revealed the book’s publication date had been brought forward to today.
The release left Mr Trump “furious” and “disgusted,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who complained that the book contained “outrageous” and “completely false claims against the president, his administration and his family”.
Asked what specifically had prompted the president’s fury with Mr Bannon, she said: “I would certainly think that going after the president’s son in an absolutely outrageous and unprecedented way is probably not the best way to curry favour with anybody.”
In the book Mr Bannon is quoted as describing a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jnr, Trump campaign aides and a Russian lawyer as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. The meeting has since become a focus of federal and congressional investigators.
Mr Bannon also told Mr Wolff the investigations into potential collusion between Russia and Trump campaign officials would probably focus on money laundering.
“They’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV,” Mr Bannon was quoted as saying in one section.
Mr Trump Jnr lashed out in a series of tweets, including one that said Andrew Breitbart – founder of the Breitbart News site that mr ban non now runs – “would be ashamed of the division and lies Steve Bannon is spreading!”
Mr Bannon, who was forced
out of his White House job last summer, was not particularly bothered by the blowback, according to a source. He has told associates he believes Mr Trump has been ill-served by some his closest allies, including eldest son Donald Jnr and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Mr Bannon has said he believes they have exposed Mr Trump to the Russia inquiry that could topple his presidency and that Mr Trump would be able to accomplish more without them
So far, there is no indication that Mr Bannon is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller. But the House intelligence committee is said to have invited him, along with former Trump campaign managercoreylewandowski, for a closed-door interview as a part of the panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
New York magazine also published a lengthy adaptation of the book, in which Mr Wolff also writes that Mr Trump believed his presidential nomination would boost his personal brand and deliver “untold opportunities” – but that he never expected to win the election.
It also says Mr Trump Jnr told a friend that his father looked as if he’d seen a ghost when it became clear he might win. The younger Trump described Melania Trump as “in tears – and not of joy”.
The First Lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, disputed the allegation, saying Mrs Trump supported her husband’s decision to run, encouraged him to do so and was happy when he won.
Mr Wolff said in an author’s note that the book was based on more than 200 interviews, including multiple conversations with the president and senior staff. But Sanders said Wolff “never actually sat down with the president” and had spoken with him just once, briefly, by phone, since Trump had taken office.