Fire and Fury
File:Fire and Fury Michael Wolff.jpg First edition cover | |
Author | Michael Wolff |
---|---|
Illustrator | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Presidency of Donald Trump |
Genre | Non-fiction, U.S. politics |
Published | January 5, 2018 |
Publisher | Henry Holt and Company |
Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
Pages | 336 |
ISBN | 978-1250158062 Search this book on . |
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is a 2018 book by Michael Wolff which details the behavior of U.S. President Donald Trump and staff of his 2016 presidential campaign and White House. The book highlights unflattering descriptions of Trump's behavior, chaotic interactions among senior White House staff and derogatory comments about the Trump family by former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. Trump is depicted as being held in low regard by his White House staff, leading Wolff to state that "100% of the people around him" believe Trump is unfit for office.[1]
The title refers to a quote by Trump about the conflict with North Korea. The book became the number one bestseller in print, e-book and audiobook on Amazon.com and the Apple iBooks Store after excerpts were released on January 3. On January 4, a lawyer for Trump sent cease-and-desist letters to the author and publisher in an attempt to stop the book's publication. Instead, Henry Holt and Company defied the threat by Trump, moved the publication date up to January 5 citing unprecedented demand, and by January 8 had sold or received orders for more than one million books.[2]
Background[edit]
According to Michael Wolff, when he approached Donald Trump about writing a book on his presidency, Trump agreed to give him access to the White House because he liked an article Wolff wrote about him in June 2016 for The Hollywood Reporter.[3] However, Trump later claimed that he had never authorized access for Wolff and never spoke to him for the book.[4]
Starting in mid-2016, Wolff interviewed campaign and transition staff. After Trump's inauguration and continuing through most of the first year of his presidency, Wolff was allowed access to the West Wing of the White House, conducting research for his book through interviews and as a "fly on the wall" observer. He says he conducted over 200 interviews with Trump and his associates including the senior staff[5] and was allowed to witness events at the White House without his presence being managed. This allowed Wolff to be present the day of the dismissal of James Comey.[6] Wolff reportedly audiotaped some of the conversations mentioned in the book.[7]
Content[edit]
Wolff chose the title after hearing Trump refer to "fire and fury" when discussing the conflict with North Korea.[9] According to the book, nobody in the presidential campaign team expected to win the 2016 presidential election,[10] including Donald Trump (who reportedly did not want to win) and his wife. Donald Trump Jr. said his father "looked as if he had seen a ghost" when he realized he had won and Melania Trump was "in tears – and not of joy".[11]
Many of the most controversial quotes in the book came from Steve Bannon, the chief executive of the Trump campaign in its final months and White House Chief Strategist from January to August 2017. Bannon referred to the meeting during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner with Russian officials as "treasonous" and "unpatriotic", described Ivanka Trump as "dumb as a brick"[12] and referencing the Special Counsel investigation being led by Robert Mueller he said "they’re going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV".[13] Bannon also said that Mueller's investigation would likely uncover money laundering involving Kushner from loans received by his family business from Deutsche Bank.[14] Wolff says Trump himself was characterized by "wide-ranging ignorance".[15] For example, Sam Nunberg, a campaign advisor, reportedly tried to explain the United States Constitution to Trump, but could not get past the Fourth Amendment.[16] Wolff also claims that Kushner and Ivanka Trump discussed having Ivanka run in a future presidential campaign.[11]
Release[edit]
The book was originally scheduled to go on sale on January 9, 2018, but the publisher, Henry Holt and Company, moved up the release date to January 5 due to "unprecedented demand".[17][18][19] An excerpt of the book was released by New York magazine on January 3, 2018.[20] The same day, other media outlets reported on further content of the book. The Guardian reported "explosive" highlights, stating them to have been based on sight of the full book.[10] That day, preorders of the book made it the number 1 bestseller on Amazon.com.[21]
Reception[edit]
White House reaction and fallout[edit]
At her daily press briefing on January 3, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House Press Secretary, called the book "trashy tabloid fiction" and "filled with false and misleading accounts".[25] The White House released a statement saying that Bannon had "lost his mind" and Charles Harder, a lawyer for Trump, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Bannon, alleging he had violated a non-disclosure agreement.[26][27] On January 4, Harder sought to stop the release of the book, sending a cease-and-desist letter to the author and publisher with the threat of a lawsuit for libel.[28] His lawyers also said that the book "appears to cite no sources for many of its most damaging statements about Mr. Trump".[29] Henry Holt's attorney, Elizabeth McNamara, later responded to Harder's allegations with an assurance that no apology or retraction will be forthcoming. McNamara also noted that Harder's complaint cited no specific errors in Wolff's text.[30] On the day of the book's publication on January 5, Trump wrote on Twitter:[4]
I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! 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 [Bannon]!
In response, Wolff stated in an interview later that day: "One of the things we have to count on is that Donald Trump will attack ... My credibility is being questioned by a man who has less credibility than perhaps anyone who has ever walked on Earth at this point".[31] According to Wolff, Trump himself encouraged Wolff to write a "fly-on-the-wall account of Trump's first hundred days".[32] Wolff has also stated that he has "dozens of hours" of taped interviews which back up the claims made in the book.[33]
On January 6, Trump continued to attack the book, calling it "a complete work of fiction" and "a disgrace" and labeling Wolff a "fraud". Also that day, in a move interpreted as a response to the book raising questions about Trump's competence for office, Trump tweeted that his "two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart". From his successes in business, television and politics, Trump concluded that he was in fact "a very stable genius".[34][35][36]
On January 7, Bannon issued a statement calling Trump Jr. a "patriot and a good man", saying that his comments were directed at Paul Manafort, not Trump Jr.[37] The next day on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Wolff denied that Bannon had been talking about Manafort.[38]
Also on January 7, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union", said: "The book is best understood as a work of very poorly written fiction, and I also will say that the author is a garbage author of a garbage book".[39] In a January 8 interview with Dana Loesch, Vice President Mike Pence described Fire and Fury as a "book of fiction". He stated that he had not read it, and would not read it, but that reports concerning its contents did not accord with his experience of working with President Trump.[40]
Over the weekend of January 6–7, Rebekah Mercer, a conservative donor who worked with Bannon on Trump's 2016 campaign and as a part-owner of Breitbart News, distanced herself from Bannon, saying she would no longer provide him with financial backing.[41] On January 9, Bannon announced that he would leave Breitbart News.[42]
Reviews[edit]
Reviewing the book for CNN, Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio, attested that Wolff's overall portrait of Trump accorded with his own understanding and that of others, specifically drawing attention to details concerning Trump's short attention span, issues of misogyny and white supremacism as well as Trump's opinion that "'expertise' is 'overrated'".[43] He added that Wolff's descriptions of the people around Trump present "a credible picture".[43] D'Antonio criticized Wolff's "tabloidy prose", and reminded the reader to treat the book with a degree of skepticism, but concluded that it was "essential reading" that will provide a framework on which future writers may build.[43] D'Antonio also stated: "Some of what Wolff presents is so speculative that his critics, and the President's most ardent defenders, will be able to pick his work apart. These excesses will diminish the book's impact and, ultimately, do a disservice to the historical record".[43]
Speaking on the PBS NewsHour, David Brooks said that because in the past Wolff has been known to not check facts he is "very dubious about accepting everything" in the book. "Nonetheless, the general picture confirms what we already knew. And I think there is a general sense the president is unfit. They treat — they do treat him like a child". Mark Shields agreed and expressed deep concerns that other than Katie Walsh, who briefly worked as deputy chief of staff to Reince Priebus, there did not appear to be any "counteroffensive" in the White House which Shields described as "the political equivalent of the dog not barking in the night", i.e. conspicuously absent.[44]
Reviewing for The Guardian, Matthew d'Ancona, a former commissioner and editor of Wolff's work, stated that the fact that Wolff was admitted to the White House at all indicated significant incompetence within the Trump administration. D'Ancona described Wolff's version of President Trump and his daughter Ivanka as "the world's stupidest King Lear" and a "clueless Cordelia". Warning the reader against distraction by those searching for "minor errors", d'Ancona described Wolff as a "brilliant journalist", who has a "terrier-like pursuit of the truth". He concluded that Wolff had "nailed it", and had "scotched once and for all the nonsensical claim that we should take Trump seriously but not literally".[45]
In a Wall Street Journal review, Barton Swaim sees the book as an unverifiable "gossipy" collection of "every unseemly tidbit he could extract from murmuring White House staffers" written as though he "were the omniscient narrator of a novel". Swaim asserts that the reaction to the book, rather than the book itself, will give reason for it to be historically notable.[46] Axios reporters Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen wrote that there were parts of the book that were "wrong, sloppy, or betray[ed] off-the-record confidence. But there are two things he gets absolutely right". They wrote that Wolff's depiction "of Trump as an emotionally erratic president" was accurate as well as his writing of some White House officials having a "low opinion" of Trump.[47] Andrew Prokop wrote in Vox that "we should interpret the book as a compendium of gossip Wolff heard. A fair amount of it does clearly seem to be accurate".[48] Aaron Blake of The Washington Post wrote that "Wolff seems to have arrived at a stunning amount of incredible conclusions that hundreds of dogged reporters from major newspapers haven't ... it's worth evaluating each claim individually and not just taking every scandalous thing said about the White House as gospel".[49]
A review by Mick Brown in The Telegraph described the book as "overheated, sensationalist – and completely true to its subject".[50] David Sexton of the London Evening Standard said the book is a political exposé worth reading and is "destined to become the primary account of the first nine months of the Trump presidency".[51] Writing in the Irish Independent, Darragh McManus noted that Fire and Fury "seems to be the tell-all book that other tell-all books call Supreme Commander".[52]
Constitutional concern[edit]
Following the January 4 cease and desist letter sent by Trump's lawyer to the book publisher and Wolff, legal experts assessed the impact this action may have as precedence for a president to threaten freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights. According to legal experts and historians, Trump's threats of imminent legal action against the author and publisher were unprecedented for a sitting president attempting to silence criticism.[53][54] On January 8, the lawyer representing Wolff and his publisher issued a legal letter defying the cease and desist order and defamation claim, stating "my clients do not intend to cease publication, no such retraction will occur, and no apology is warranted".[2] John Sargent, CEO of the publishing company, informed his employees that "as citizens, we must demand that President Trump understand and abide by the First Amendment of our Constitution".[2]
References[edit]
- ↑ Weiss, Brennan (January 5, 2018). "The author of the explosive new Trump book says 100% of people around the president question his intelligence and fitness for office". Business Insider. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Alter, Alexandra (January 8, 2018). "Publisher Defied Trump to 'Defend the Principles of the First Amendment'". The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- ↑ Wolff, Michael. "The Donald Trump Conversation: Politics' "Dark Heart" Is Having the Best Time Anyone's Ever Had". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on October 29, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Trump tweets explosive White House tell-all 'full of lies'". Fox News. January 5, 2018. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Wagner, John; Borchers, Callum (January 3, 2018). "New Trump book: Bannon's 'treasonous' claim, Ivanka's presidential ambitions and Melania's first-lady concerns". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Walters, Joanna; Helmore, Edward (November 14, 2017). "New book to give insider view of 'nasty daily clashes' at Trump's volatile White House". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Allen, Mike (January 4, 2018). "Scoop: Wolff taped interviews with Bannon, top officials". Axios. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ↑ Wagner, John; Borchers, Callum (January 3, 2018). "New Trump book: Bannon's 'treasonous' claim, Ivanka's presidential ambitions and Melania's first-lady concerns". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Allen, Mike (November 14, 2017). "Scoop: Hot book by constant West Wing visitor Michael Wolff". Axios. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pengelly, Martin (January 3, 2018). "Ivanka seeks the presidency – and other big claims from explosive new book". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Nia, Gissou (January 3, 2018). "7 wild details from the new book on Trump's White House". Politico. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Mindock, Clark (January 4, 2017). "Ivanka Trump is 'as dumb as a brick' according to Steve Bannon, new book claims". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Smith, David (January 3, 2018). "Trump Tower meeting with Russians 'treasonous', Bannon says in explosive book". The Guardian. London. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Nia, Gissou (January 3, 2018). "Bannon calls Trump team Russia meeting 'treasonous,' according to book". Politico. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ "Book details explosive claims about White House dysfunction, Trump's "ignorance"". CBS News. January 3, 2018. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Wilkie, Christina (January 3, 2018). "The wildest claims about Trump from Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury'". CNBC.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Stelter, Brian; Borger, Gloria (January 4, 2017). "The publisher of Michael Wolff's new book about President Trump is rushing it onto bookshelves". CNN Money. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ↑ "Fire and Fury live reading: Follow our journey through Trump's White House courtesy of Michael Wolff's expose". The Independent. January 5, 2018. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018.
- ↑ "The Michael Wolff book on the White House: "Fire and Fury"". Axios.com. November 14, 2017. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Wolff, Michael (January 3, 2018). "Donald Trump Didn't Want to Be President; One year ago: the plan to lose, and the administration's shocked first days". New York. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Stelter, Brian (January 3, 2018). "Michael Wolff's Trump book hits #1 on Amazon, publisher speeds up rollout plan". CNN Money. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Colvin, Jill. "Trump says he's 'like, really smart,' 'a very stable genius'". Associated Press. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Holland, Steve. "Trump rejects author's accusations, calls self 'stable genius'". Reuters. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ "Fire and Fury: Trump says book is 'fiction' and author a 'fraud'". BBC News. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Nia, Gissou (January 3, 2018). "Trump breaks with Bannon over explosive comments in forthcoming book". Politico. Archived from the original on January 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
- ↑ Santucci, John (January 3, 2018). "Trump attorney sends Bannon cease and desist letter over 'disparaging' comments". ABC News. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ↑ Pearl, Lauren (January 4, 2018). "Trump probably can't gag Bannon and 'Fire and Fury' author, say legal experts". ABCNews.go.com. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
Just hours after excerpts from author Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” were published by various news outlets on Wednesday, President Donald Trump’s lawyer Charles Harder sent cease and desist letters to Wolff, Wolff’s publisher and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon threatening legal action over alleged falsehoods.
- ↑ Baker, Peter (January 4, 2018). "Trump Demands That Publisher Halt Release of Critical Book". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ↑ "Trump Bannon row: Lawyers seek to halt book's release". BBC News. January 4, 2018. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ↑ "No retraction for Fire and Fury, says Trump book publisher's lawyer". The Guardian. January 8, 2018.
- ↑ Nelson, Louis. "Wolff defends his book against White House attacks". Politico. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Cassidy, John. "Michael Wolff's Withering Portrait of President Donald Trump". New Yorker. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Sit, Ryan. "Michael Wolff recorded interviews for 'Fire and Fury', including taping Steve Bannon". Newsweek. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Colvin, Jill. "Trump says he's 'like, really smart,' 'a very stable genius'". Associated Press. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Holland, Steve. "Trump rejects author's accusations, calls self 'stable genius'". Reuters. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ "Fire and Fury: Trump says book is 'fiction' and author a 'fraud'". BBC News. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Peters, Jeremy W.; Tackett, Michael (January 7, 2018). "Bannon Tries Backing Away From Explosive Comments". The New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
- ↑ "Michael Wolff, author of "Fire and Fury", contradicts Bannon's explanation". The Plain Dealer. Associated Press. January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
- ↑ Daniella, Silva. "Stephen Miller slams 'Fire and Fury' as 'grotesque work of fiction' in tense interview". NBC News. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- ↑ "Mike Pence dismisses 'Fire and Fury' as 'book of fiction'". Washington Examiner. 8 January 2017.
- ↑ Ngo, Emily (January 7, 2018). "Bannon faces the loss of key backers: Trump and Rebekah Mercer". Newsday. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- ↑ "Steve Bannon leaves Breitbart News amid Trump row". BBC News. January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 D'Antonio, Michael (January 6, 2018). "A Trump biographer reviews 'Fire and Fury'". CNN.
- ↑ PBS News Hour. "Shields and Brooks on Russia revelations, Trump-Bannon rift". PBS. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ "Fire and Fury? Maybe Donald Trump is only just getting started". The Guardian. January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Swaim, Barton. "Review: 'Fire and Fury' in the Trump White House". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 9, 2018. (Subscription required (help)).
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is thus in a class with Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses – by itself a forgettable book, certainly not Mr. Rushdie's best, but remembered forever as having provoked a death sentence from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. ... If Mr. Wolff had considered it his job to tell us what happened, and not merely to offer up his own clever interpretation of what happened, he might not have felt emboldened to repeat every unseemly tidbit he could extract from murmuring White House staffers.
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(help) - ↑ VandeHei, Jim; Allen, Mike (January 5, 2018). "The Wolff lines on Trump that ring unambiguously true". Axios. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Prokop, Andrew. "The controversy around Michael Wolff's gossipy new Trump book, explained". Vox. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Blake, Aaron (January 3, 2018). "Michael Wolff's unbelievable – sometimes literally – tell-all about the Trump administration". Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Brown, Mick (January 5, 2018). "Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury, review: 'overheated, sensationalist — and completely true to its subject'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ Sexton, David (January 5, 2018). "Fire and Fury review – a world first: Michael Wolff's explosive Donald Trump book portrays an 'inept, hopeless and confused' presidency". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
- ↑ McManus, Darragh (January 5, 2018). "Review: First look at book 'Fire and Fury' that claims Trump 'seduces friends' wives' and Bannon called Ivanka a 'f***ing liar'". Irish Independent. Dublin. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ↑ Boutrous, Ted; Kidder, Teddy (January 4, 2018). "There's No Way Trump Can Stop Wolff From Publishing His Book". Politico. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ↑ Parker, Ashley; Dawsey, Josh (January 4, 2018). "Trump's effort to stop publication of scathing book is a break in precedent". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
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- 2018 non-fiction books
- 2018 controversies
- American non-fiction books
- Biographies about politicians
- Books about American politicians
- Books about Donald Trump
- Books about the United States presidential election, 2016
- Books by Michael Wolff
- Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
- English-language books
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- Trump administration controversies