Donald Trump associate attacks 'absolutely outrageous' campaign book

  • 08/01/2018

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House is already one of the most controversial books of the year.

Written by author Michael Wolff, it paints a scathing portrait of President Trump based on multiple first-hand accounts, depicting him as incompetent, incoherent and reviled by key members of his own administration.

However it's brought swift retaliation from the President and his allies. Steven Rogers, adviser to Donald Trump's campaign, spoke to RadioLIVE on Monday about the "absolutely outrageous" book and the unfair personal attacks Mr Trump faces.

"It's a great work of fiction," he says.

"I worked on that campaign and the enthusiasm of the people who were working and the enthusiasm of Donald Trump was unsurpassed like anything I've ever seen."

Among the claims in the book was that former strategist Steve Bannon called the President's connections to Russia "treasonous and unpatriotic", Mr Trump bragged that sleeping with his friends' wives "made life worth living" and he retreats to his bedroom with a cheeseburger at 6:30pm to watch TV.

Mr Rogers calls the claims "absolutely not true".

"Donald Trump, his entire life, has been a good father, a good husband, he's been a good bushiness-man," he says,

"I'm not saying he didn't make mistakes along the way... but at the end of the day he made it on his own and he made it as president of the United States."

Elsewhere in the book, Mr Wolff describes the President as "no more than semi-literate" in terms of his reading habits and being known among his social circle for having a "wide-ranging ignorance".

In a tweet on Friday (NZ time), Mr Trump hit out, saying the book was "full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don't exist". The White House has attempted to block the release of the book with a cease and desist letter and has threatened legal action for libel.

Mr Rogers told RadioLIVE he "loves" Mr Trump's reaction.

"Here's a president who's probably the most transparent world leader," he says.

"He tells it like it is and like it is he tells it. He doesn't hold anything back, so we're really happy that he's responding in the way that should be responded in."

The book's contents have sparked open questioning of Mr Trump's mental fitness to lead, which White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has blasted as "disgraceful".

However Mr Rogers doesn't believe the allegations in the book will hurt the Republicans' political chances.

"We've become so numb over what's going on to this country with regard to the assaults, the verbal assaults the president has to take," he says.

"This is again politics at its worst. I've been around a long time and I've never seen the hate and the venom and the anger at one man."

Newshub.