Fire and Fury: Trump says book is ‘fiction’ and author a ‘fraud’

Yamanyoon- Jan 8, 2018

Donald Trump has rejected doubts over his mental health raised in a bombshell new book, describing the book as “fiction” and the author as a “fraud”.

His remarks followed an earlier rebuttal on Twitter, in which the president claimed he was a “very stable genius” who was “like, very smart”.

Michael Wolff’s new book suggests that even the president’s closest advisors question his fitness for office.

The row has overshadowed key talks on the Republican party’s 2018 agenda.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with senior party members at Camp David on Saturday, the president disputed Mr Wolff’s account, claiming it was a “work of fiction”.

Addressing the questions about his mental capacity, he said: “I went to the best colleges, I had a situation where I was a very excellent student, came out and made billions and billions of dollars, became one of the top business people, went to television and for 10 years was a tremendous success, as you probably have heard.”

He disputed Mr Wolff’s claim of a three-hour on the record interview between the two. “It didn’t exist, it’s in his imagination,” Mr Trump said, while acknowledging that he had been interviewed by the author at some point.

The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, paints a picture of the president as impatient, unable to grasp policy, and prone to rambling and repeating himself.

The fallout from the book has loomed over the Camp David meeting – a gathering of key Republicans designed to thrash out legislative priorities for 2018.