Tag: Fire and Fury

Rush to defend Trump from book’s claims creates more debate

The following article by Mallory Shelbourne was posted on the Hill website January 7, 2018:

Trump administration officials on Sunday are playing defense for their boss against shocking allegations reported in a new book detailing the first year of Trump’s presidency.

Multiple individuals close to President Trump hit the Sunday show circuit, including two Cabinet officials, but White House policy adviser Stephen Miller became the talk of the morning after Jake Tapper abruptly cut off a contentious interview with the Trump aide during CNN’s “State of the Union.” Continue reading “Rush to defend Trump from book’s claims creates more debate”

Wolff: Concept of 25th Amendment ‘alive every day’ in Trump’s White House

The following article by Mallory Shelbourne was posted on the Hill website January 7, 2018:

Michael Wolff, author of the blockbuster new book about President Trump, said in a new interview that the concept of the 25th Amendment is “alive every day” in Trump’s White House.

“This is alarming in every way. And then this went on, ‘OK, this is a little 25th Amendment.’ So the 25th Amendment is a concept that is alive every day in the White House,” Wolff told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may proclaim the president is unfit to serve and therefore remove the president from office.

Continue reading “Wolff: Concept of 25th Amendment ‘alive every day’ in Trump’s White House”

Trump World frustrated, angry over new book

The following article by Jordan Fabian was posted on the Hill website January 5, 2018:

Allies of President Trump are aghast at the damage caused by a new book that paints a picture of a chaotic, dysfunctional and incompetent early months of the Trump administration.

Current and former Trump aides believe many of the juiciest stories in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” are exaggerated or wholly fictional and don’t think the book is resonating outside the Beltway among the president’s core supporters.

But they are shocked that the author, Michael Wolff, was given access to the White House for months to work on the project and stunned at the seemingly low regard some staffers have for the president as described in the book. Continue reading “Trump World frustrated, angry over new book”

For Trump, Book Raises Familiar Questions of Loyalty and Candor

The following article by Peter Baker was posted on the New York Times website January 5, 2018:

The White House has challenged the accuracy of specific episodes in Michael Wolff’s new book, but its broader portrayal largely squares with the journalistic coverage of the past year. Credit Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

WASHINGTON — In President George W. Bush’s last year in office, his former press secretary, Scott McClellan, wrote a tell-all book concluding that the Iraq war was a “serious strategic blunder” based on the “ambition, certitude and self-deceit” of a White House that was not fully honest with the American people.

The president’s remaining advisers were livid at what they considered the betrayal of an aide who had been with Mr. Bush since his Texas days. But when Dana Perino, who then held the same spokesman’s job, expressed her indignation, Mr. Bush sighed and told her to find a way to forgive Mr. McClellan or risk being consumed by anger.

Forgiveness is not exactly President Trump’s first instinct, as he made clear this week when a new book quoted his former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, offering his own harsh judgments about the White House where he once worked. Every president, it seems, goes through the spin cycle of former aides and revelatory books — some they write themselves, others they are quoted in — and every president has to find a way to grapple with the questions of loyalty and candor that invariably arise. Mr. Trump chose blunt force. Continue reading “For Trump, Book Raises Familiar Questions of Loyalty and Candor”

Trump is threatening to sue a journalist. The Authors Guild says, “That’s what tyrants do.”

The following article by Constance Grady was posted on the Vox website January 5, 2018:

The Authors Guild has released a blistering statement on Trump’s libel suit threats against Michael Wolff.

© Getty Images

On Thursday, a lawyer working for President Donald Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to journalist Michael Wolff. Wolff had just released excerpts from his new book, Fire and Fury, depicting the Trump administration as a chaotic swirl of incompetence and exploitation, and Trump’s lawyer threatened a libel suit if Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt and Co., did not stop distribution of the book immediately.

The president has alleged on Twitter that Wolff’s book is “phony” and “full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist.” But the letter from Trump’s counselseems to have been fairly counterproductive — in response, Henry Holt and Co. simply moved up Fire and Fury’s publication date from January 9 to January 5 and basked in all the press coverage. Continue reading “Trump is threatening to sue a journalist. The Authors Guild says, “That’s what tyrants do.””

As ‘Fire and Fury’ is published, Europe openly debates: ‘Is Trump still sane?’

The following article by Rick Noack was posted on the Washington Post website January 6, 2018:

French President Emmanuel Macron with President Trump in Paris on July 14. (Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)

BERLIN — European commentary on President Trump is rarely flattering, but the cascading revelations alleged in Michael Wolff’s tell-all book “Fire and Fury,” drew an especially fierce response from a horrified continent this week.

“Is Trump still sane?” asked the Friday lead headline on the site of Germany’s most respected conservative paper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The piece was published under the topic “mental health.”

Meanwhile, British readers woke up to the Times of London’s main front page headline that also wondered about the president’s stability: “Trump’s mental health questioned by top aide.” Continue reading “As ‘Fire and Fury’ is published, Europe openly debates: ‘Is Trump still sane?’”

White House: The new Trump book is ‘trash,’ except for this one part we like

The following article by Callum Borchers was posted on the Washington Post website January 4, 2018:

President Trump delivered a video message to reporters during White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s media briefing on Thursday. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday called Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” a “book full of lies.” She said during a media briefing it is riddled with “fake stories” and “information that’s not true.”

It’s merely “some trash that an author that no one had ever heard of until today, or a fired employee, wants to peddle,” Sanders said, referring to Wolff and former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who is quoted frequently in the book.

Yet as Sanders dumped on Bannon, she cited Wolff’s reporting in “Fire and Fury” as a legitimate source.

“The book also says that he had been sidelined by April [2017], which I think goes further to indicate that he had very little credibility to give much information, particularly after that point,” Sanders said. Continue reading “White House: The new Trump book is ‘trash,’ except for this one part we like”

As Trump fumes, White House staff spread blame on Wolff book

The following article by Andrew Restuccia and Matthew Nussbaum was posted on the Politico website January 4, 2018:

President Donald Trump’s lawyers are threatening a ferocious legal assault on Michael Wolff and those who cooperated with him, including Steve Bannon. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

White House staffers are poring over copies of Michael Wolff’s forthcoming book, scanning the index for their names and crossing their fingers that they aren’t mentioned.

The president, for his part, is still fuming behind the scenes, even though in remarks to reporters Thursday he appeared to be pleased that Steve Bannon, his newly forsaken former chief strategist, called him a “great man” in a recent radio interview. Continue reading “As Trump fumes, White House staff spread blame on Wolff book”

Trump’s effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent

The following article by Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey was posted on the Washington Post website January 4, 2018:

President Trump marshaled both his West Wing and his personal legal team Thursday against a new book that portrays him and his administration as incompetent and erratic — threatening possible libel charges against its author, its publisher and his former chief strategist, whose provocative comments pepper the book.

In an 11-page letter, Charles J. Harder, a Beverly Hills attorney representing the president, demanded that both Michael Wolff and Henry Holt and Co. — the author and publisher of the forthcoming book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” — “immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book,” as well as apologize to Trump. The president’s lawyers also requested a complete copy of the book as part of their inquiry. Continue reading “Trump’s effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent”

Trump lawyer seeks to block insider book on White House

The following article by Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website January 4, 2018:

President Trump used to have kind words for his former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, but things changed with his scathing statement on Jan. 3. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

A lawyer representing President Trump sought Thursday to stop the publication of a new behind-the-scenes book about the White House that has already led Trump to angrily decry his former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

The legal notice — addressed to author Michael Wolff and the president of the book’s publisher — said Trump’s lawyers were pursuing possible charges including libel in connection with the forthcoming book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

The letter by Beverly Hills-based attorney Charles J. Harder demanded the publisher, Henry Holt and Co., “immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book” or excerpts and summaries of its contents. The lawyers also seek a full copy of the book as part of their investigation.

The latest twist in the showdown came after lawyers accused Bannon of breaching a confidentiality agreement and Trump denounced his former aide as a self-aggrandizing political charlatan who has “lost his mind.”

It marked an abrupt and furious rupture with the onetime confidant that could have lasting political impact on the November midterms and beyond.

The Fix’s Callum Borchers lists three takeaways from the book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff about President Trump’s campaign and first year in office. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The White House’s sharp public break with Bannon, which came in response to unflattering comments he made about Trump and his family in a new book about his presidency, left the self-fashioned populist alienated from his chief patron and even more isolated in his attempts to remake the Republican Party by backing insurgent candidates.

Late Wednesday, lawyers for Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, arguing he violated the employment agreement he signed with the Trump Organization in numerous ways and also may have defamed the president. They ordered that he stop communicating either confidential and or disparaging information, and preserve all records in preparation for “imminent” legal action. Continue reading “Trump lawyer seeks to block insider book on White House”