The new year has already proven unpleasant for President Trump, who has been shaken by a forthcoming tell-all about his White House. Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the White House, which was previously slated to be released by Henry Holt next week, has shot up the charts on Amazon and driven the president to take to Twitter with angry pronouncements about former members of his inner circle. As a result, the book's on-sale date has been changed to January 5.
"Due to unprecedented demand, we are moving the on-sale date for all formats of Fire and Fury, by Michael Wolff, to Friday, January 5, at 9:00 a.m. ET, from the current on-sale date of Tuesday, January 9," a representative from Holt told PW on Thursday afternoon.
After a number of outlets scored early copies of the book and released some of the title's biggest bombshells—The Guardian reported that, in the book, Steve Bannon called a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians, during the 2016 campaign, "unpatriotic" and "treasonous"—the White House released an incendiary statement about the President's former chief adviser. (The statement said, among other things, that Bannon has "nothing to do with" Trump's presidency and that after he was fired "he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.")
Fire and Fury is currently ranked #1 on Amazon, and media outlets are scrambling to handle the attention. CNN reported that New York Magazine, which acquired first serial rights for the book, pushed up its publication of the book's excerpt, releasing it online on Wednesday. The excerpt, referring to another revelation from Wolff's book, was posted under the headline "Donald Trump Didn't Want to Be President." The Hollywood Reporter, CNN added, is also pushing up its excerpt from the book.
While Bannon has yet to respond to Fire and Fury and the comments he made to Wolff, the president has already taken action against Holt. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonning posted on Twitter Thursday morning that the president's lawyers have sent a cease-and-desist letter to both Holt and Wolff "demanding they stop publication and issue an apology to @realDonaldTrump for defamatory statements made thus far."
This story has been updated with further information.
