Michael Wolff, the author of the explosive new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House , says that White House aides are concerned that Pres. Donald Trump could be suffering from early signs of dementia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), or a learning disability.
Speaking with the Mail on Sunday, Wolff called Trump a “rich wastrel” who was “bad at school” possibly because he “had learning disabilities.” He said that those at the White House have wondered whether or not Trump could read and if he is semi-literate.
The author makes similar claims that raise questions about Trump’s intelligence and mental fitness in Fire and Fury , which came out Friday.
“They discuss it at the White House: his apparent inability to read one page or one paragraph. He can’t even follow a PowerPoint. They wonder where that is from. ADHD? A learning disability?”
“Whether it’s lack of sleep, the compounded effects of age… or there’s actually some impairment — and that’s a possibility — everybody around him discusses that,” Wolff added.
According to the Fire and Fury author, Trump’s aides said that the symptoms of whatever ailment he has seem to have worsened during his first year in office. They allegedly confided that his attention span has shrunk and that his verbal patterns have become more “peculiar.” Wolff said that under Trump, the White House has become “a madhouse.”
Publisher rushes to print more copies of “Fire and Fury” to keep up with high demand https://t.co/tPqqQNeMi0 pic.twitter.com/a73UyEm5L3
— The Hill (@thehill) January 7, 2018
At 70-years-old during his inauguration, Donald Trump was the oldest first-term president in the history of the United States. In a series of tweets on Saturday, the president attacked what he called the “Fake News Mainstream Media” and defended himself against the claims about his mental health and intelligence.
According to Trump, his two greatest assets are his “mental stability” and “ being, like, really smart .” He also called himself a “ very stable genius .”
“The White House exaggerates character traits,” Michael Wolff told the Mail .
“Trump came to the job with character traits weirder than other people and counter-productive to being president.”
In his controversial book, Wolff claims that Trump has had difficulty recognizing friends and that his aides fear that he will soon be declared unfit for office. Fire and Fury is reportedly based on hundreds of interviews Wolff conducted with people working at the White House and close to Donald Trump. In an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press , Wolff said that he was able to get the interviews by “literally knock[ing] on the door,” adding that he was granted access by Trump himself.
“Fire and Fury” author Michael Wolff says the 25th Amendment — which addresses the transition of powers if a president is unable to execute his responsibilities — was brought up “all the time” in the White House https://t.co/4jGnTLv8rM pic.twitter.com/bkAZ5XUNMy
— CNN (@CNN) January 7, 2018
Meanwhile, Pres. Trump has tweeted that he never authorized Wolff’s access to the White House and that the author was, in fact, turned down “many times.”
Fire and Fury is already a bestseller in both print and e-book formats. Trump’s lawyers tried to stop the book’s publication, sending cease-and-desist letters to the author and the publisher on Jan. 4.
