The latest book to cause consternation in the White House, Fear: Trump in the White House, has been tagged as a "con on the public" by the subject himself.
US President Donald Trump condemned the book written by renowned Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.
The book is scheduled for release on September 11 and reveals a chaotic administration on the brink of a "nervous breakdown of executive power".
The book is being considered the ultimate report on what happens inside the White House. It is based on accounts given by Trump's closest aides, who are often quoted as calling the president an "idiot" and a "liar". The book raises questions on Trump's adequacy as a president as most his own staff deem him to be lacking in many factors.
According to BBC, which quotes an early excerpt of Woodword's book, staff have hidden documents and removed papers from his desk to keep him from signing them. Woodward describes these acts as "no less than an administrative coup d'etat".
John Dowd, who was the president's personal attorney, staged a mock interview session with Trump to demonstrate what would happen if Trump were to meet with special council Robert Mueller's investigation team looking in to the 2016 election meddling case. As expected, the demonstration did not go well and Trump at one point angrily called the investigation "a goddamn hoax". Dowd told Mueller that Trump won't be meeting him as he did not want to let the president "look like an idiot" and embarrass the nation on the world stage. Dowd resigned when the president changed his mind and decided to testify.
Another quote that catches the eye is one on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in which he says, "Let's [expletive] kill him. Let's go in."
After the US believed the Syrian government had launched another chemical attack in April 2017, Mr Trump told Defence Secretary James Mattis to assassinate President Bashar Assad.
"Let's kill the [expletive] lot of them," the president reportedly said.
Mr Mattis acknowledged Mr Trump's request then, after the conversation, told an aide he wouldn't do "any of that".
Even chief of staff John Kelly seems to have had enough when he says, "We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had." Chief of Staff Kelly repeatedly calls Mr Trump an "idiot" and said that "it's pointless to try to convince him of anything".
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis told an aide that the president has the foreign policy understanding of a "fifth- or sixth-grader" (an 11 or 12-year-old).
Woodward is a widely respected and veteran journalist who helped expose President Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. This itself grants the writer and the book the credibility and authenticity that is required for such an explosive book.
Meanwhile, Trump has send out a series of tweets in an effort to discredit Woodward's book silently calling it a move by the Democrats to damage the chances of Republicans during the November midterm elections.
