US president Donald Trump has come out swinging following the release of new book that questions his intelligence and mental stability.
In a series of angry tweets, the president declared himself “a very stable genius” and said critics were trying to use the “Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence” against him.
“Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames,” he wrote.
“I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius … and a very stable genius at that.”
….Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018
….to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2018
The New York Times reports Trump later reiterated his claims at Camp David on Saturday, ticking off what he called a “high-achieving academic and career record”.
He reportedly said he raised the matter “only because I went to the best colleges, or college”.
Trump’s outburst follows the release of journalist Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, in which Wolff questions whether Trump is fit for office.
Wolff was granted unprecedented access to the White House by Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon and published a series of explosive claims in the book, including that Trump knew about his son Don Jr’s meetings with Russians during the election, that first lady Melania Trump cried tears of sorrow after they won, and that the president wanted to appoint his son-in-law Chief-of-staff, but was immediately shot down by advisors for fears of nepotism accusations.
Trump has called the book a “disgrace” and the White House has denied many of book’s claims, with White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders saying it carries “mistake after mistake after mistake”.
The book quotes many high-profile people who encountered Trump in the days following his election win, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who Wolff claims called Trump “a f***ing idiot” after a brief phone call with him not long after the win.
Wolff also writes that Trump isn’t the only one in the family with political ambition. The president’s daughter Ivanka is said to be dreaming of taking a seat in the Oval Office as the first female president.
An excerpt of the book published online by New York Magazine explains that the first daughter and her husband, who both work for the administration, have agreed that “if sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she’d be the one to run for president”.
“The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump,” Wolff wrote.