Michael Wolff thanks Trump for making Fire and Fury a bestseller and 'proving the point of my book'

Michael Wolff thanks Trump for making his book a bestseller

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Key aides tried to talk President Trump out of threatening legal action against Michael Wolff's new book, Fire and Fury, and "lawyers laughed: Does Trump really want to give discovery to Michael Wolff?" Axios reports, but nevertheless, he persisted, insisting on "a tactic he frequently used in business — rattling cages with lawyers' letters that resulted in no actual legal action." Now that Wolff's publisher, Henry Holt, responded to Trump's demand that it cease publication by moving up the publication date to Friday morning, Trump is "so furious" that "some aides are just trying to avoid him," Axios says. On Friday's Today show, Wolff wasn't upset at Trump's legal threat, asking, "Where do I send the box of chocolates?"

"Not only is he helping me sell books, but he’s proving the point of the book," Wolff told NBC's Savannah Guthrie. "This is extraordinary that a president of the United States would try to stop the publication of a book." No other president has ever tried this, he said, and it "would not even happen from the CEO of a midsize company." Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.