Controversial stories about US President Donald Trump’s election and White House residency have hit with the release of journalist Michael Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
The USA Today journalist purportedly lifts the lid on stories very much outside of the Oval Office’s official statements.
With The New Republic reporting that Wolff has a reputation as “possibly the bitchiest media bigfoot writing today”, one might expect nothing less.
Ivanka Trump accepted positions in the West Wing “over the advice of almost everyone they knew” because of the prospect …
ALEX BRANDON/AP
Ivanka Trump accepted positions in the West Wing “over the advice of almost everyone they knew” because of the prospect she could one day become US president, according to a new book.
Here are the top revelations from the book.
Not even US President Donald Trump expected he would win the 2016 election, according to a new book.
IVANKA IN THE OVAL OFFICE
According to Wolff, Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner accepted positions in the West Wing “over the advice of almost everyone they knew” because of the future possibility of Ivanka, not Hillary Clinton, being the first woman US president.
The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher commented that “thanks to familial ties [Jared and Ivanka] had the president’s ear and apparently harboured dynastic hopes”.
First lady Melania Trump cried in horror when Donald Trump was elected US president, an explosive new book claims.
TRUMP’S TEAM WORRIED ABOUT HIS ABILITY TO ‘PROCESS INFORMATION’
Describing the president as “no more than semi-literate”, the Trump team was concerned about his ability to take in information.
As reported by NBC, Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn, who leads Trump’s National Economic Council wrote in an email that Trump was, “An idiot surrounded by clowns [he] won’t read anything –– not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing.”
UNSURPRISINGLY, TEAM TRUMP NEVER EXPECTED TO WIN IN 2016
Team Trump entered the race with a “plan to lose”, Wolff says. They “believed they could get all the benefits of almost becoming president without having to change their behaviour or their worldview one whit.”
The election would reportedly boost the already robust fame of the Trumps, and leave out the strenuous business of running the US.
“Losing would work out for everybody,” Wolff says. “Losing was winning.”
MELANIA’S TEARS ON ELECTION NIGHT
The famously reclusive First Lady was apparently in tears on election night when it became more apparent that Trump was going to win. Having been “assured by her husband that he wouldn’t become president” the worst had happened.
This would seem to back up claims – such as this one in Vanity Fair – that Melania told aides “she didn’t want Donald to run, because she was terrified he might win”.
– Sydney Morning Herald
