After President Donald Trump’s lawyer on Thursday said he would try to stop columnist Michael Wolff’s new book on the Trump administration from being published, publisher Henry Holt & Co advanced the book’s release to Friday midnight, The Guardian reported.
The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, was scheduled for release on January 9, but its description of how Trump runs the government and allegations that the president was unprepared for his job stirred controversy and increased interest in the book.
One store in Washington DC said it sold all its copies in 20 minutes, the Business Insider reported.
The book quotes Trump’s former top aide Steve Bannon, who called a meeting between a group of Russians and Trump’s son “treasonous”. This meeting is being investigated as part of an inquiry into whether the US president’s campaign officials had worked with Russia to ensure Trump’s victory in the 2016 elections.
Among several other claims, the book says Trump was surprised when he won the presidency, and that his wife Melania was in tears, the BBC reported.
While announcing the release of his book on Twitter, Wolff thanked Trump for moving up its release date.
Trump claimed that Fire and Fury was “full of lies”, and that he had not given Wolff any access to the White House. “I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book!” the US president said on Twitter.
He added: “I never spoke to him for book. 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!”
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