The Trump lawyers have moved to stop publication of the explosive new tabloid book, Fire and Fury. It’s hard to see how the book can be stopped. It’s already in bookstores and the publisher obviously had lawyers vet it.
The Trump lawyers want the publisher to consider that by disseminating the book, they are also spreading lies.
The President has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Steve Bannon and to the publisher. Bannon appeared to have violated his non-disclosure agreement.
Many of the people quoted in the book are already saying that the crackpot author Michael Wolff lied — they never said those things.
The book is explosive reporting vile gossip and insulting personal attacks on Trump and his family. This is from the Washington Post article:
Wolff’s book paints Trump as a buffoon who doesn’t read, can’t settle on political priorities and is unable to manage a warring cast of advisers who spend their days squabbling and undermining each other and the president.
In one scene, Katie Walsh, formerly a deputy chief of staff, is quoted as saying that dealing with Trump is “like trying to figure out what a child wants”; Walsh disputed that account Wednesday to an Axios reporter.
In another book scene, Sam Nunberg, a former campaign aide who was ultimately fired, describes trying to explain the Constitution to the president. “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment,” the book quotes Nunberg as saying, “before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.”
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But, at least in the excerpts that have emerged so far, Bannon emerges as the most scathing critic of Trump and his family. Wolff portrays him as a master puppeteer, manipulating the president for his own political purposes.
In another section, Bannon accuses Donald Trump Jr. of being “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. Ivanka, he described as “dumb as a brick.”
We have been told by Sarah Sanders that the President is “angry” and “disgusted.” That is understandable.
A Washington Post author, to his credit, pointed to the author’s lack of credibility.
WaPo wrote: Wolff has made his career lobbing critical bombs from the pages of prestigious magazines like New York and Vanity Fair.
He has also, as The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi wrote on Wednesday, been accused by critics of being “A provocateur and media polemicist, Wolff has a penchant for stirring up an argument and pushing the facts as far as they’ll go, and sometimes further than they can tolerate”
Fahri writes that Wolff has been accused of re-creating scenes out of whole cloth.
He has been accused of not just re-creating scenes in his books and columns, but of creating them wholesale.
Fahri writes: Among the things he’s been called – “blunt,” “pathetic,” “calculating” – the one thing Michael Wolff has never been described as is boring.
The worst comments in the book came from Steven Bannon who seemed to walk it back somewhat during a radio show last evening, claiming he fully supports the President and thinks he is “a great man.”
Bannon has not denied the quotes and the President’s team did wait five hours before they commented.
President Trump said Wednesday that he has not been communicating with Bannon – it was a “misnomer”. There were about five calls, mostly initiated by Bannon.
In his statement issued Wednesday the President said Bannon thought he was more important than he actually was and had little influence over him, seeking only to glorify himself.
Donald Jr. tweeted that Steve had the honor of working in the White House & serving the country. Unfortunately, he squandered that privilege & turned that opportunity into a nightmare of backstabbing, harassing, leaking, lying & undermining the President. Steve is not a strategist, he is an opportunist.
