Donald Trump allowed journalist Michael Wolff access to his administration for research due to his favorable opinion of an article Wolff had written about him in June 2016, but he might be regretting that decision now. Titled 'Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House', Wolff's new book is based on over 200 interviews with Trump and his associates over an 18-month period. The author said he had taken up "something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing" for a close-up look at the administration over his first year of presidency. Over the last few days, some excerpts of the book were made public preceding the book's full release, with some publications gaining a full copy. And some of the revelations are explosive, to say the least.

1. Ivanka has hopes to be president

Trump's daughter and her husband Jared Kushner apparently struck a deal where she would run for president in the future. Wolff wrote:

"Balancing risk against reward, both Jared and Ivanka decided to accept roles in the West Wing over the advice of almost everyone they knew. It was a joint decision by the couple, and, in some sense, a joint job. Between themselves, the two had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she'd be the one to run for president"

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2. Trump hated his own inauguration

Given the arguments about the size of the crowd following the event, it's not surprising that Trump had some bad feeling on the day. Wolff wrote:

"Trump did not enjoy his own inauguration. He was angry that A-level stars had snubbed the event, disgruntled with the accommodations at Blair House, and visibly fighting with his wife, who seemed on the verge of tears. Throughout the day, he wore what some around him had taken to calling his golf face: angry and pissed off, shoulders hunched, arms swinging, brow furled, lips pursed."

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3. Steve Bannon thought Donald Jr's Russia meeting was 'treasonous'

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon commented on the June 2016 meeting, in which the Russians had offered Donald Trump Jr damaging information on Hillary Clinton. He told Wolff:

"The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor - with no lawyers. They didn't have any lawyers. Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately"

On top of all of this, he doesn't have high hopes for how Trump Jr will come out of all of this, saying that "They're going to crack Don Junior like an egg on national TV".

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4. And thinks that Trump was present in the meeting

According to Wolff, Steve Bannon said that "The chance that Don Jr did not walk these jumos up to his father’s office on the twenty-sixth floor is zero".

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5. Trump admires Rupert Murdoch

Trump supposedly holds Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, in high regard. He told his guests that he was "one of the greats, the last of the greats" and was desperate for his approval.

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6. Yet Murdoch thinks he's an 'idiot'

However, Wolff, who has previously written a biography of Murdoch, described a call between Trump and the media mogul. After a meeting with Silicon Valley executives, Trump told Murdoch that he wanted to help them, to which Murdoch told him "they don't need your help".

When the conversation turned to Trump's immigration policy, Murdoch told him that his promises to build a wall and close the borders would be difficult to enact. Trump simply said, "We'll figure it out". After the call, reportedly, Murdoch said: "What a f***ing idiot".

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7. Ivanka mocked her dad's comb-over

In what will likely be the most aggravating for the president to read, Wolff described how Ivanka spoke of her father within the White House, before detailing exactly how Trump creates that hairdo:

"She treated her father with a degree of detachment, even irony, going so far as to make fun of his comb-over to others. She often described the mechanics behind it to friends: an absolutely clean pate - a contained island after scalp-reduction -surgery - surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides and front, from which all ends are drawn up to meet in the center and then swept back and secured by a stiffening spray.

"The color, she would point out to comical effect, was from a product called Just for Men - the longer it was left on, the darker it got. Impatience resulted in Trump's orange-blond hair color."

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8. Trump found the White House 'scary'

Trump, no doubt used to living by his own rules, found his move a little "vexing", according to Wolff:

"Trump, in fact, found the White House to be vexing and even a little scary. He retreated to his own bedroom - the first time since the Kennedy White House that a presidential couple had maintained separate rooms. In the first days, he ordered two television screens in addition to the one already there, and a lock on the door, precipitating a brief standoff with the Secret Service, who insisted they have access to the room."

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9. The administration was uncertain of priorities

The White House deputy chief of staff, Katie Walsh, asked the president's senior advisor what the administration wanted to achieve, but reportedly he still wasn't sure after six weeks in office:

"'Just give me the three things the president wants to focus on,' she [Katie Walsh] demanded. 'What are the three priorities of this White House?' It was the most basic question imaginable - one that any qualified presidential candidate would have answered long before he took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Six weeks into Trump's presidency, Kushner was wholly without an answer. 'Yes,' he said to Walsh. 'We should probably have that conversation.'"

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10. Flynn knew that ties to Russia were 'a problem'

Former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who has now been indicted in the Justice Department special counsel's inquiry, said that he knew his acceptance of money from Moscow for a speech would have consequences. Wolff posits that Flynn "had been told by friends that it had not been a good idea to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. 'Well it would only be a problem if we won,' he assured them."

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11. Trump was 'befuddled' by his victory

Wolff described that when they realized that Trump was on his way to victory, Don Jr explained that his father "looked as if he had seen a ghost":

"Melania was in tears - and not of joy. There was, in the space of little more than an hour, in Steve Bannon's not unamused observation, a befuddled Trump morphing into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump. But still to come was the final transformation: Suddenly, Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be, and was wholly capable of being, the president of the United States."

[[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/BbQVY87DZzX/?hl=en&taken-by=donaldjtrumpjr]] White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the book was filled with "false and misleading accounts", though Trump himself has not commented on them at this time. While some of its contents are already making the rounds, the book is set to be released on January 9, and is already a bestseller based on the pre-orders.

The Trump administration might look like an insane dumpster fire, but it's actually a well-oiled machine, full of smart, competent people. Just kidding. It's even more of an insane dumpster fire than you could have possibly imagined. Trump gave writer Michael Wolff access to his inner circle, which now Wolff is sharing all the juicy details in his new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. The book contains several astonishing and hilarious revelations. Here's some highlights: Donald hated his inauguration because no A-listers showed up. Steve Bannon thought Donald Jr's meeting with Russians was treasonous, and that his dad was there. Ivanka makes fun of her dad's combover. Donald doesn't read, or even skim; his staff considers him "semi-literate." Donald didn't even want be President. Melania didn't want to him to win, either; on Election Night, she cried in despair. The President and the First Lady sleep in separate bedrooms. And every night, Donald goes to sleep at 6:30PM, eating a cheeseburger in bed, alone, watching three televisions. Of course, President Trump and the White House have slammed the book, calling it "phony," "full of lies," "a complete fantasy," and "tabloid gossip." His lawyers are even trying to block the book's release, sending cease-and-desist letters to Wolff and the publisher, Henry Holt & Co. They claim the information breaks “confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement.” Obviously, this is a huge contradiction. If the book is "full of lies," how is Wolff breaking a confidentiality agreement? A confidentiality agreement says that you won't reveal any real information. So, this is book is both full of lies and totally true? It doesn't make sense. Luckily, we've got roughly 5,000 late night talk shows pointing out the comedy in Trumpland so our heads don't explode. And Jimmy Kimmel has really been on a roll lately. He summed up America's gun problems in a heartbreaking monologue, and has been a passionate advocate for health care, ever since his son, Billy, was forced to undergo heart surgery. Thankfully, Billy's doing great, and last month he made his late night debut. Watch out, Guillermo! He might take your spot as sidekick. [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e0bUPfHU4s]] Last night Kimmel weighed on Wolff's book, and pointed out a hilarious flaw in Trump's attacks: They've totally backfired. The furious statement and the cease-and-desist have done nothing but stir up interest in the book. "It's gone from number 48,000 on Amazon straight to Number One,” said Kimmel. “If you don’t want people to read a book about you, why would you take legal action to try to stop people from reading the book about you?” (Good point!) “I wasn’t going to buy the book, I was just gonna read the excerpts in magazines and move on," Jimmy continued. "But now that Trump’s lawyers are going all-out to try to stop this book from being published, I’m buying 20 copies! I can’t buy enough of these books!" I mean, it's pretty simple reverse psychology. When people tell you not to read something, you just want to read it more. You'd think a so-called genius marketer like Donald Trump would be aware of that strategy. Maybe someone on his staff will explain it to him as he goes to sleep alone in bed at 6:30PM, munching on a cheeseburger.

One of these days, we might actually make it through a whole 24 hours without Trump tweeting something ridiculous or controversial... but today is not that day. Just in this past week alone, the president has already tweeted about his nuclear button being bigger than Kim Jong Un's (which seems as if he might be a little insecure about something), claimed that he will "be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR", and labeled Michael Wolff - the author behind the bestselling Fire and Fury book - "total loser who made up stories". And now he's posted a three-part rant about "Fake News", "Crooked Hillary Clinton", and the fact that he is - according to him - "a very stable genius". [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948355557022420992]] The poorly-worded and ellipses-riddled tweets were fired off by the President this morning in an apparent reaction to some people worrying that he is unfit for office. Just a few days ago, Yale psychiatrist and violence expert Dr. Bandy X Lee claimed that Trump's behavior was extremely concerning. "From a medical perspective, when we see someone unraveling like this, it’s an emergency," she said. Following that, leaked excerpts from Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House claimed that Trump was originally "horrified" to learn that he had won the election to become president and that he hated living in the White House. According to Wolff, "In the first days [at the WH], he ordered two television screens in addition to the one already there, and a lock on the door, precipitating a brief standoff with the Secret Service, who insisted they have access to the room." And, on January 3rd, several Latin American leaders labeled Trump as "insane" after he asked them whether they were "sure" they didn't want a war with Venezuela. All of this seems to have had a cumulative effect on the president, who decided to respond with this rant: In the first tweet, he references the challenges to his "mental stability", and claims that they are only coming out now because his rumored collusion with Russia has "proven to be a total hoax". Already there are some problems with this. First of all, there has been no "proof" that Trump did or did not collude with Russia, and, secondly, Trump's reference to Ronald Reagan seems to imply that he has forgotten that the former president did actually have Alzheimer's. Then, he moves on to his two favorite subjects: himself, and "Crooked Hillary Clinton". He claims that his "two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," which sounds like something a 13-year-old school kid would say, and goes on to describe himself as a "VERY successful businessman" - neglecting to account for all those times he went bankrupt. The final tweet of the trio is somehow most alarming, as Trump claims that he became president "on [his] first try" - but this is completely false. Donald Trump originally ran for office way back in 2000, so either he is trying to dupe his followers into believing this was his first shot, or - and this is a terrifying prospect - he has forgotten. And, as usual, people called him out for his ridiculous statements. [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/EdKrassen/status/949619544397697025]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/rt3413/status/949627167218061312]] [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/RWRidley/status/949641022547681281]] As bizarre and as worrying as all of this is, there's a good chance we'll see some even crazier ones in the future. Maybe even later today.

A tell-all book penned by renowned Watergate journalist Bob Woodward has made explosive new claims about President Donald Trump.

'Fear: Trump in the White House' tells of a chaotic administration having a "nervous breakdown of executive power".

The book, which is reportedly based on hundreds of hours of interviews with important players in the Trump administration, claims that many of the former reality TV star's staff attempted to deliberately protect the US from its president by ignoring his orders.

It also sees Trump naming his attempts to repair the damage made by his Charlotteville "blame on both sides" comment as the "biggest f**king mistake I've made".

The president has sent out a series of tweets denying the allegations in the book calling many of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's claims "made up frauds, a con on the public".

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In excerpts of Woodward's new work, Chief of Staff John Kelly is quoted doubting Trump's mental wellness, saying in a staff meeting: "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had."

The acclaimed journalist offers an insight into the former businessman's anger over his advisor's efforts to clean up his comment that there was "blame on both sides" in the August 2017 Charlotteville white nationalist rally.

Then-White House staff secretary Rob Porter allegedly convinced the president to clarify his remarks, leading him to denounce racism, the "KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups" in a televised speech.

However, Trump was reportedly livid in the aftermath of his speech, exploding at reports that it was "almost an admission of 'Okay, I was wrong'" and telling Porter: "That was the biggest f**king mistake I've made. You never make those concessions. You never apologize. I didn't do anything wrong in the first place. Why look weak?" One day later, he reasserted his original sentiment that "both sides" were to blame for the violence at a Trump Towel event.

Woodward's account of events also tells readers how the Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told "‘close associates that the president acted like and had the understanding of ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.'"

Mattis also allegedly told staff to ignore Trump's orders after the president expressed a desire to kill Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad in the wake of a chemical weapons attack in April 2017, saying: "Let’s fucking kill him!" Woodward quoted Mattis as telling staff afterwards: "We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured."

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The book quotes Trump himself accusing his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, of being "mentally retarded", stating: "He’s this dumb southerner [who] couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama."

At another point in the tell-all book, Trump's former lawyer, John Dowd, is also quoted as telling the president to avoid interviews with Robert Mueller, because he'd surely indict himself. "Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit," he allegedly told the president.

President Trump took to Twitter after excerpts of the book were released, slamming its credibility as well as publishing statements from key administration staff denying the claims in the book.

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America's leader also claimed that Woodward was working for the Democratic party and that publication of the book was timed to damage the Republicans in the midterm elections in November.

White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, dismissed Woodward's work as "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees".

"While it is not always pretty, and rare that the press actually covers it, president Trump has broken through the bureaucratic process to deliver unprecedented successes for the American people," she wrote. "Sometimes it is unconventional, but he always gets results. Democrats and their allies in the media understand the president’s policies are working and with success like this, no one can beat him in 2020 – not even close."

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Bob Woodward has worked for the Washington Post since 1971 and remains an associate editor. He is famous for breaking the Watergate scandal along with Carl Bernstein, prompting the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.

There's never a dull moment with President Donald Trump. If he's not caught up in some scandal to do with grabbing women "by the p***y", or having affairs with former Playboy models and porn stars, or trying to start a trade war on Twitter, he's no doubt already thinking about the next stupid thing he wants to do.

Oh, who am I kidding? The guy doesn't think.

Just last night, in fact, the former Apprentice host made a very dubious statement to Republican donors at a closed-door fundraiser. Speaking of Chinese leader Xi Jinping - who recently refused to comply with China's current two-term presidency limit - Trump said: "He's now president for life. President for life. No, he's great. And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday."

Unsurprisingly, after CNN leaked the audio of this speech, people began to get just a little bit worried.

We already knew that Trump was planning to run in 2020, as he was busy hosting rallies only a matter of months after he first took office last year. Plus, he's already hinted that Brad Parscale, a former aide, could manage his campaign - so he doesn't appear to have any intention of stepping away from the role anytime soon.

However, this most recent statement (which was considered a joke by Republicans in attendance) is concerning, not just because it hints that Trump doesn't want to give up his tenure in the White House, but because it shows that he is willing to play fast and loose with the US constitution. After all, he'd already made a statement to lawmakers about acting without proper legislative powers when he said: "Take the guns first, go through due process second" - so what's to stop him making other rash decisions?

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And, though it has already been widely written off as a joke in poor taste, other people were cautious about describing it in such terms. "Calling it a joke, justifying it as a Jest, normalizing these dastard behavior as Jokes is Complicity in his Insanity," said one Twitter user.

"Republicans, the president of the United States praises a communist autocrat for becoming dictator for life and then suggests they keep him in power for life. Wake up," said Joe Scarborough.

Meanwhile, others made a good point about what would have happened if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton had said something like this.

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What's more, the White House's indications that it is not particularly concerned with Xi Jinping's actions seem very much like a step towards isolationism, as press secretary Sarah Sanders said last week that China's decision is not one that Trump should question.

The point is: even if this was a joke, it's really not something that somebody in Trump's position should be joking about. He already has a long and concerning track record of either seemingly misunderstanding or not caring about the proper due process in the USA, and implying that a dictatorship would be a good thing is absolutely something he should avoid.