President Donald Trump adopted a new nickname for Steve Bannon after the former White House chief strategist disparaged the president and his family in a new book by Michael Wolff.
I authorized 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2018
Much of the controversy generated by the book revolves around the comments made by Bannon. These comments include a personal insult of Ivanka Trump’s intelligence and a suggestion that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer offering information on then candidate Hillary Clinton was “treasonous.”
Trump excoriated Bannon after the initial comments were revealed Wednesday in a statement declaring that Bannon “not only lost his job, he lost his mind.” Trump’s Thursday night tweet is his first public attack of him since the book revelations.
The president’s tweet also pushes back on claims from Wolff that the author was granted innumerable hours of access to the west wing and clarifies that he himself did not speak with the author. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday that Wolff was repeatedly denied requests to speak with the president.
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