Donald Trump has been President of the United States for 349 days, and ever since his inauguration his administration has been plagued by leaks from anonymous sources. For obvious reasons, barely anyone has gone on the record about their claims on the workings of the inner sanctum of the White House.
Some of the leaks have been minor, like how many diet Cokes Trump drinks a day, however the more major ones paint the Office of the President as horrifically dysfunctional.
So far, however, there hasn't been anything like the type of explosive allegations levelled in the book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, which is due to be released today - and Trump's lawyers have tried everything possible to have it banned.
A letter was sent to author Michael Wolff, a journalist, and the publisher, Henry Holt & Co, to 'immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination', according to the Guardian.
Wolff claims he managed to score unfiltered access to the White House, something most journalists in Washington would kill for. According to USA Today, he nabbed his special 'blue appointment badge' from the Secret Service, purely because he was writing a book on the President.
If you've seen House of Cards, it's very similar to the position to Thomas Yates had.
Wolff has spoken to more than 200 people over the last 18 months and quietly observed the comings and goings of the White House. What he's written scarcely seems believable.
In an extracted version of the book for the Hollywood Reporter, Wolff divulges everything from Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, Trump himself and his kids.
He wrote: "[Trump] seemed as confused as anyone to find himself in the White House, even attempting to barricade himself into his bedroom with his own lock over the protests of the Secret Service.
"He was, in words used by almost every member of the senior staff on repeated occasions, 'like a child'.
"A chronic naysayer, Trump himself stoked constant discord with his daily after-dinner phone calls to his billionaire friends about the disloyalty and incompetence around him.
"His billionaire friends then shared this with their billionaire friends, creating the endless leaks which the president so furiously railed against."
According to the book, Rupert Murdoch claimed Trump was a 'fucking moron', as did Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, top economic advisor Gary Cohn believed he was 'dumb as shit', while Steve Bannon said he had 'lost his mind'.
Interestingly, in one of Trump's many attempts at discrediting the allegations in the book, he flipped Bannon's accusation back at the Breitbart chairman. A press release was handed out, which said: "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.
"Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn't as easy as I make it look."
Bannon, according to Wolff, was the one who orchestrated the anti-Muslim immigration ban and thought Donald Trump Jr meeting with a group of Russians was 'treasonous'. That latter point is a fairly large accusation to make and isn't being treated lightly in Washington.
There were a bunch of smaller revelations in Wolff's book: Trump's love of McDonald's because of his severe germaphobia, his rinsing of a White House maid for picking up shirts he had laid on the floor and the notion that he and Melania have separate bedrooms (very House of Cardsy).
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There's also a claim that Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner had agreed if they ever made an attempt at President, it would be Ivanka because she wanted to become the first female leader of the US.
Melania Trump was in tears on election night, Wolff claims, because she was promised by her husband that he wouldn't win. A spokesperson for the First Lady has refuted that claim, saying the 47-year-old was happy when Donald won the election.
The President has obviously tried to discredit the writer, tweeting a few hours before the book went on sale that he never authorised Michael's access.
He said: "I authorised Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist. Look at this guy's past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!"
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the book was 'trashy tabloid fiction' and was 'filled with false and misleading accounts'.
While Trump and his lawyers have tried to ban the book from being released, the BBC has highlighted an interesting thing called the 'Streisand Effect', referencing singer and actor Barbara Streisand's attempts to remove photos of her home from the internet in 2003. She found that the harder she fought, the more attention the images gained.
BBC reporter Anthony Zurcher wrote: "The highly critical allegations are leading every news programme and newspaper front page.
"You can't buy this kind of publicity."
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Sources: Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC
Topics: World News, News, President Trump, US News, Donald Trump, Politics
