President Donald Trump continued trying to further discredit a new book, “Fire and Fury,” that paints an unflattering picture of his presidency, calling its author a “fraud” and the book a “work of fiction.”
Trump spoke during an informal press conference at Camp David on Saturday.
“I think it’s a disgrace that somebody’s able to have something, do something like that,” Trump said of the book released Friday. “The libel laws are very weak in this country. If they were strong, it would be very helpful.”
The president also pushed back on the notion that writer Michael Wolff had extraordinary access to the West Wing, saying he had never sat with Wolff for an interview related to the book and that the author was never in the Oval Office.
Trump conceded that he participated in what he called a “quick interview” with the author “a long time ago” for an article.
Wolff has said that he spent about three hours interviewing the president directly over the course of the presidential campaign and following Trump’s election.
The president blamed any access that Wolff did have to the White House on Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon.
“I guess sloppy Steve brought him into the White House quite a bit, and it was one of those things. That’s why sloppy Steve is now looking for a job,” Trump said.
The president also pointed to highlights of his life history in reference to tweets this morning in which he defended his mental fitness and called himself “a very stable genius.”
“I went to the best colleges or college,” Trump said to the press Saturday. “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. Ran for president one time and won.”
