Michael Wolff's Trump tell-all 'Fire and Fury' hits No. 1 on Amazon, publisher expedites release
A controversial book about President Donald Trump’s White House has soared to number one on Amazon, attracting so much public interest that the publisher accelerated the release date by four days.
While initially scheduled for release on Tuesday, media columnist Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” will now be available on Friday.
"Fire and Fury" offers an insider’s perspective into the Trump administration based on interviews with a number of sources, including former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Wolff conducted conversations with senior staffers and the president himself over the course of 18 months, he said in the book’s author’s note.
As of midday on Thursday, the book was sitting at the top of Amazon’s bestsellers list, with a hardcover copy priced at nearly $21.
An explosive excerpt from the book, released by New York magazine on Wednesday, alleged that the president never aimed to win the 2016 election and that key members of his administration, including Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Kellyanne Conway, may have had ulterior motives for being involved in Trump’s presidential run. Bannon also told Wolff that the chance President Trump wasn’t involved in Don Jr.’s meetings with Russians during the campaign was “zero.” He went on to indicate that he thought the meeting was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic.”
Undoubtedly there will be many more bombshell claims to come. Wolff is expected to do an extensive round of interviews beginning on Friday and continuing into the weekend.
It hasn’t taken the Trump administration long to come out in opposition to the claims made in “Fire and Fury.” On Wednesday, the White House put out a statement on behalf of the president which read: “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.”
On Thursday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the book was "complete fantasy, and just full of tabloid gossip." She also called it "sad" and "pathetic."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin fired off a tweet earlier on Thursday insinuating the book was full of falsehoods.
We have become used to #FakeNews, now we have #FakeBooks! #MAGA
— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) January 4, 2018
President Trump’s private attorney has even sent a cease and desist letter to Wolff and publisher Henry Holt & Co., saying the book makes “false/baseless statements about Mr. Trump,” which amount to “defamation by libel, defamation by libel per se, false light invasion of privacy, tortious interference and contractual relations, and inducement of breach of contract,” according to Variety.
