#POLITICS JANUARY 5, 2018 / 9:50 AM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO

Author of Trump book contradicts president, says aides see him as a 'child'

Makini Brice
5 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The author of a deeply critical book about Donald Trump’s first year in office said on Friday he had spoken with the president while working on it, contradicting Trump’s assertion that he had never talked to the writer for the book and had not authorized any access to the White House.

Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” was an instant bestseller on Friday, its release pulled forward after published excerpts this week set off a political firestorm, threats by Trump lawyers of legal action and an effort to halt publication.

The book, dismissed by Trump as full of lies, depicts a chaotic White House, a president who was ill-prepared to win the office in 2016, and Trump aides who scorned his abilities. Standing by his reporting, Wolff told NBC on Friday that Trump aides had all told him they viewed him as child-like.

“I absolutely spoke to the president. Whether he realized it was an interview or not, I don’t know, but it was certainly not off the record,” he said on NBC’s “Today” program. Wolff added that he had spoken to people who spoke to Trump on a daily, “sometimes minute by minute” basis.

Asked to clarify what he meant when he wrote that Trump’s entire circle questioned his fitness for office, Wolff said, “100 percent of the people around him ... They all say he is like a child.”

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