The White House issued a searing response Tuesday to claims made in a new bombshell book by journalist Bob Woodward on the Trump administration.
Following previews of the book’s explosive content, presented by CNN and The Washington Post Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called it “nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad.”
Woodward’s 448-page book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” offers a devastating portrait of a dysfunctional Trump White House, detailing how senior aides — both current and former Trump administration officials — grew exasperated with the President and increasingly worried about his erratic behavior, ignorance and penchant for lying. It describes how Trump’s closest aides have taken extraordinary measures in the White House to try to stop what they saw as his most dangerous impulses, going so far as to swipe and hide papers from his desk so he wouldn’t sign them.
The White House struck back against some of the book’s specific claims, including Woodward’s reporting that chief of staff John Kelly allegedly described Trump as an “idiot” and “unhinged”.
“The idea I ever called the President an idiot is not true,” Kelly said in a statement hours after the report was released. Kelly added that he and the President “have an incredibly candid and strong relationship” and that “he and I both know this story is total BS.”
“This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes,” Kelly said.
Trump’s former personal lawyer John Dowd also pushed back against allegations against him, including that he described the President as “a fucking liar” and that he told Trump he would end up in an “orange jump suit” if he testified to special counsel Robert Mueller.
Dowd said he would not address every “inaccurate statement” attributed to him but did deny that he had called Trump a liar or that he would end up in an orange jumpsuit.
