A new book by a US journalist has triggered US president Donald Trump to issue an extraordinary statement saying former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon had "lost his mind".
Excerpts of Michael Wolff’s book entitled Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House have been published by New York magazine, The Guardian and The Washington Post.
They cover a wide range of issues from how the First Family reacted to their patriarch's shock election in 2016 to claiming Mr Trump’s beloved daughter, Ivanka, made fun of her father’s hair.
After the excerpts were published, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there were things in the book that were "completely untrue" but did not address any specifics.
Below are some of the most revealing excerpts from Wolff's book.
Trump team thought president would lose
Before election day, polls had predicted Mr Trump would lose to his Democrat counterpart and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who would have become the United States' first female president.
But soon it became clear to the Trump camp that their boss could go all the way to the White House.
Wolff writes: "Shortly after 8pm on election night, when the unexpected trend - Trump might actually win - seemed confirmed, Don Jr told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, 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."
US President Donald Trump congratulates Senior Counselor to the President Stephen Bannon during the swearing-in of senior staff in January 2017. Source: AAP
Bannon on meeting with Russians
In his book, Wolff said Mr Bannon had foreseen a meeting with the Russians would plague the administration if elected. The journalist wrote the conservative Breitbart News executive chairman had warned Trump campaign members from doing so.
"The three senior guys in the campaign (Donald Trump Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort) 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," an excerpt reads.
"They didn't have any lawyers. Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it's all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately."
Bannon 'wary' of China
The former White House chief strategist was also apparently wary of China, according to Wolff.
"The real enemy, (Bannon) said, was China. China was the first front in a new Cold War. China's everything. Nothing else matters. We don't get China right, we don't get anything right. This whole thing is very simple. China is where Nazi Germany was in 1929 to 1930. The Chinese, like the Germans, are the most rational people in the world, until they're not. And they're gonna flip like Germany in the '30s. You're going to have a hyper-nationalist state, and once that happens, you can't put the genie back in the bottle," according to a book excerpt.
Ivanka for president?
Some questions have arisen over the White House appointments of Mr Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared. Their lack of political experience has been questioned by critics. But according to the book, the businesswoman has even higher aspirations – to follow her father's footsteps and become president herself one day.
"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," Wolff writes.
"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. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump."
US First Daughter Ivanka Trump. Source: AAP
Trump feared White House, being poisoned
Wolff says the president found the White House to be "vexing and even a little scary", according to an excerpt in the BBC.
"He [Trump] 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," the book reads.
Wolff also wrote this about the president: "He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald's — nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely pre-made."
Trump on his staff
Political rumours often swirled about what goes on behind closed doors in the Trump administration and how Mr Trump viewed his high-ranking staff - including former chief-of-staff Reince Priebus and former press secretary Sean Spicer.
But Wolff claims the reported disdain Mr Trump had for his staff was “being prosecuted by the president himself".
"When he got on the phone after dinner, he'd speculate on the flaws and weaknesses of each member of his staff. Bannon was disloyal (not to mention he always looks like shit). (Chief of staff Reince) Priebus was weak (not to mention he was short — a midget),” the journalist writes.
“Kushner was a suck-up. (White House spokesman) Sean Spicer was stupid (and looks terrible too). (Senior adviser Kellyanne) Conway was a crybaby. Jared and Ivanka should never have come to Washington."
Obsession with Rupert Murdoch
Wolff claims influential Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch was not enamoured with the new president: "Rupert Murdoch, who had promised to pay a call on the president-elect, was running late. When some of the guests made a move to leave, an increasingly agitated Trump assured them that Rupert was on his way. 'He's one of the greats, the last of the greats,' Trump said. 'You have to stay to see him.' Not grasping that he was now the most powerful man in the world, Trump was still trying mightily to curry favour with a media mogul who had long disdained him as a charlatan and fool."
In another story, Wolff said Mr Murdoch called the president a "f***ing" idiot while discussing Silicon Valley executives.
"'These guys really need my help. Obama was not very favourable to them, too much regulation. This is really an opportunity for me to help them.' 'Donald,' said Murdoch, 'for eight years these guys had Obama in their pocket. They practically ran the administration. They don't need your help'," Wolff writes.
"'Take this H-1B visa issue. They really need these H-1B visas. 'Murdoch suggested that taking a liberal approach to H-1B visas, which open America's doors to select immigrants, might be hard to square with his promises to build a wall and close the borders. But Trump seemed unconcerned, assuring Murdoch, 'We'll figure it out.' 'What a f***ing idiot,' said Murdoch, shrugging, as he got off the phone."
Rupert Murdoch at WSJ Magazine 2017 Innovator Awards in New York City. Source: AAP
The comb-over explained
While it is no secret Mr Trump has a great amount of respect for his daughter, Ivanka, Wolff claims she treats "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 centre and then swept back and secured by a stiffening spray," Wolff writes.
"The colour, 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 colour."
- with additional reporting from Louise Cheer
