Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff has made the sensational claim that his explosive biography of the Trump White House will bring down the president – prompting The Donald to lash out at his critics and declare himself a ‘genius’.
Speaking to the BBC in London on Saturday, Wolff declared that his instant New York Times bestseller would prove the catalyst for the end of the Trump administration, which has not yet completed one year in office.
The controversial journalist told the Today program, ‘I think one of the interesting effects of the book so far is a very clear emperor-has-no-clothes effect.’
This comes as the president fired-off one of his now-traditional Saturday morning barrage of tweets – claiming that he is fit to be president and not just smart, but a ‘genius… and a very stable genius at that!’
Hours before this, Wolff told the BBC’s Today program: ‘The story that I have told seems to present this presidency in a way that it says he can’t do his job.
‘Suddenly everywhere people are going, ‘Oh my God, it’s true, he has no clothes.’
He said the book was making people realise what the president was like.
When asked about what impact he expected the book would have, he said: ‘We will end this presidency now.’
The journalist’s book – ‘Fire and Fury’ has already shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller’s list and portrays Trump as an imbecile who never believed he would win the 2016 election.
The book also severely questions the president’s ability to carry out his job and casts aspersions on his mental acuity amid suggestions from White House sources he might be losing his mind.
The fallout sparked Trump onto Twitter to defend his mental fitness and boast about his intelligence.
It’s his latest pushback against a book that portrays him as a leader who doesn’t understand the weight of the presidency.
In the book, former aide Steve Bannon questions Trump’s competence.
Trump’s was having none of it.
He wrote that critics are ‘taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.’
Trump modestly added, ‘my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.’
Furthermore Trump opined that he was a successful businessman to reality TV star to president on his first try ‘would qualify as not smart, but genius …. and a very stable genius at that!’
During the course of his 15-minute interview with the BBC, Wollf repeated many of his previous claims about Trump, his White House and defended his book from claims of inaccuracy.
‘Everyone went into election night expecting not to win. It would have been a victory to have kept their loss (to Hillary) to under six points,’ said Wolff to the BBC. ‘
It was only around 8.15pm (on election night in 2016) that the trends started to really go the other way and come to terms with the fact that they were going to win.
And by all reports the person most shocked by this was Trump’s wife Melania, who certainly didn’t want to be First Lady. Second to her it was Trump himself who appeared to be white as a ghost.’
Denying Trump’s claim that he was given zero access and that the book was completely false, Wolff claimed he spent months in the West Wing, literally sitting on a sofa and definitely got tacit permission from the president.
‘I went the time honored fashion and I spoke to everyone who is as close to the action as possible who will talk to you. And you often grant them the veil of anonymity,’ said Wolff.
‘I got the president to say ‘If not welcome, here, come in’, then he certainly seemed to shrug his shoulders and say ‘yea, if that’s what you want to do then fine.’
Revealing that Trump’s tantrums and volcanic temper as much bemusing as intimidating, Wolff said that the White House resembled a side-show at times.
‘One of the things about Donald Trump is that everything he does is Trumpian and that is one of the amusing things and one of the disconcerting things,’ said Wolff to the BBC.
‘It is theatric – he screams, he is yelling. What starts out of schtick turns into vein popping rage.
‘Every person in the White House describes him as child-like. That the president is in some way like a child. Sometimes it’s an 11-year-old, sometimes its a six-year-old and sometimes it’s a two-year-old. It’s his need for immediate gratification.’
Worryingly, Wolff claims that despite entering the White House on a swell of euphoria – at least from his base – Trump does not have the faith of his cabinet anymore.
‘All the senior staff that he witnessed and spoke to gradually come to the conclusion over eight months that something was unbelievably amiss here – this was more peculiar than they every imagined it could be and that in the end they had to look at Donald Trump and say, ‘No, this man can’t function in this job.’ said Wolff.
‘He may have been elected president but that does not turn him into president.’
Discussing the most shocking claim in Wolff’s book – that of the president’s mental health, Wolff said that it is not for him to say, but West Wing insiders are worried.
‘Is he experiencing fundamental physical and mental issues?’ said Wolff.
‘All I can say is that it’s a subject discussed in the White House and it is a subject of concern because his repetitions have been so frequent that people around him are saying, ‘Oh my God, what are we going to do?’
The Saturday-morning tweet-barrage defending his own mental competency launched by Trump followed two other posts, one praising news the country’s African-American unemployment rate had fallen to its lowest rate on record.
He then attacked ABC reporter Brian Ross, who has returned to the network after a month-long suspension for reporting in error that Trump had ordered his former national security adviser Michael Flynn to collude with the Russians.
Trump said that Ross should have lost his job over his error.
These tweets followed last night’s further attack on Steven Bannon in which he accused his former Chief Strategist of crying when he lost his job.
Hitting out at ‘sloppy Steve Bannon,’ tweeting that he ‘cried when he got fired and begged for his job.’
‘Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone,’ Trump tweeted.
‘Too bad!’
The president’s tweet was a response to a tweet put out by the official Republican Party Twitter account.
The GOP’s Twitter handle posted an image of Wolff, saying ‘the reviews are in.’
It then lists a number of quotes made about Wolff by journalists who have questioned his credibility.
Wolff has been accused in years past of fabricating details in books and misrepresenting events.
Bannon joined an exclusive club Thursday night, earning the derogatory nickname ‘Sloppy Steve’ from Trump.
Shortly after initial claims from the book were published, the president on Tuesday tweeted that the political gossip tome is ‘full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist.’
‘Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!’
Bannon is known for dressing ‘like an unmade bed and doesn’t care,’ a close associate told DailyMail.com on Friday, layering two polos on top of each other.
He eschewed suits and other business attire outside the White House when he worked for the president.
Wolff describes Bannon’s typical attire as a ‘disheveled blazer’ and ‘signature pairing of two shirts and military fatigues.’
Sources claim Trump’s closest allies questioned his suitability for office and view him as a ‘child’.
Trump’s lawyers made threats of legal action and tried to stop Henry Holt & Co from publishing the critical book which the president has dismissed as full of lies.