Author Michael Wolff thanked President Trump on Thursday after attention from the White House helped prompt Wolff’s publisher to accelerate the release of his new book about the Trump administration.
“You can buy it (and read it) tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. President,” Wolff tweeted.
Henry Holt & Company, the publisher of Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” is letting several retailers begin selling the book on Friday, CNN reported. It was previously set to go on sale next Tuesday.
Several excerpts from the book were released beginning Wednesday. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders addressed questions related to the excerpts at press briefings over two days, and blasted the book as “pathetic” and containing “numerous mistakes.”
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“We saw a huge spike in demand yesterday,” Terry Finley, chief executive of Books-a-Million, told The Wall Street Journal. “President Trump’s attack absolutely stirred interest.”
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Trump’s attorneys had sent a cease-and-desist letter to the book’s publisher demanding that it not be published, and that Wolff issue an apology to Trump.
The book contains several noteworthy allegations, including that Trump was shocked at his 2016 victory, that 21st Century Fox co-chairman Rupert Murdoch called the president a “f—ing idiot,” and more.
The excerpts also included quotes from ousted White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, who called a 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians “unpatriotic” and “treasonous.” He also suggested President Trump knew about the meeting, contradicting past White House statements.
Trump responded by tearing into Bannon on Wednesday, accusing him of having “lost his mind” when he left the White House in August and inflating his own importance within the administration.