Book upends Trump's tax victory lap

US President Donald Trump entered 2018 with momentum: the massive tax cut he signed just after Christmas, he hoped, would give his legislative priorities a lift early in the new year.

But all of that energy vanished after publication of excerpts from a bombshell book detailing dysfunction, backstabbing and chaos in his White House and Trump's ensuing rupture with his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

"What's surprising is that it's now on paper and Steve Bannon wielded the knife - and this early in the term," said Representative Charlie Dent, a seven-term Republican who isn't seeking re-election to his competitive Pennsylvania seat. "It seems that the people around the president feel no particular loyalty to him, and the president is not particularly loyal to them."

The turnabout imperils a new phase of Trump's agenda that the White House hoped would include an overhaul of welfare programs, a massive infrastructure initiative and construction of his signature border wall.

He's also weakened just as he enters talks with Democratic leaders on government spending for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The president and his top aides were riding high at the end of 2017. In addition to the tax legislation, he enjoyed strong economic indicators and a sense that his second chief of staff, John Kelly, had finally imposed a semblance of discipline in the West Wing.

That confidence was ripped away after news organizations obtained copies of author Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury this week. The book, which Wolff tweeted will be published ahead of schedule on Friday, features vivid anecdotes depicting Trump as paranoid, inept and ignorant and his aides as self-interested, opportunistic and skeptical of their boss's ability to govern and even his fitness for office.

Charles Harder, Trump's personal lawyer, in a legal notice provided to Reuters, warned of possible claims including libel against Wolff and publisher Henry Holt & Co and threatened to try to block publication of the book. Harder also told Reuters that "legal action is imminent" against Bannon.

Wolff's publisher said in a statement that an attorney for Trump had sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding it stop distribution of the book. "We see Fire and Fury as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book," said Patricia Eisemann, a spokeswoman for the publisher.

Concern over a flippant and provocative tweet Trump issued Tuesday evening comparing nuclear button sizes with leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-Un deepened on Wednesday as official Washington read Wolff's reporting, in which the president's advisers describe him as having little grasp of policy.

Bloomberg - China Daily - Reuters

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