On Monday, President Trump's former deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka published a column in The Hill defending the president against several explosive claims in Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's new book about the Trump White House. Gorka's op-ed would likely please the president, as he gleefully bashes the "#FakeNews" and uses a paragraph-long parenthetical to scoff at the "outrageous assertion" that the Trump campaign and Russia worked together during the 2016 election.

There's just one problem: Gorka writes that he met Wolff in the White House on an unnamed person's orders and declined an interview with the author. While that may be exonerating for Gorka himself, given the furor the book has stirred, it directly refutes Trump's claim that he personally rejected Wolff's requests to visit the White House:

So, when I met Michael Wolff in Reince Priebus' office, where he was waiting to talk to Steve Bannon, and after I had been told to also speak to him for his book, my attitude was polite but firm: "Thanks but no thanks." Our brief encounter reinforced my gut feeling that this oleaginous scribe had no interest in being fair and unbiased. [Sebastian Gorka, via The Hill]

Gorka isn't the only Trump ally who remembers Wolff at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.; White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters last Wednesday that the author had "just over a dozen interactions" at the White House.

Still, Gorka deploys one of the president's favorite linguistic constructions in his efforts to discredit Wolff, calling the author a "partisan self-promoter with credibility issues the likes of which we haven't seen in a very long time." Read the op-ed in its entirety at The Hill. Kelly O'Meara Morales

It turns out that President Trump was actually very serious about buying Greenland from Denmark, and he was so offended when Denmark's prime minister called the idea "absurd," he called off a forthcoming visit, angering Denmark, which saw it as a slight to their queen, and that reaction made Trump even madder, so he called the prime minister "nasty," Conan O'Brien recapped on Wednesday night's Conan. "So now the whole thing is a big f---ing mess."

"Everyone's mad at everybody over this initial idea," O'Brien said, but "President Trump knows real estate, if he knows anything," and "all this angry back-and-forth is just classic haggling over a real estate purchase — this is what people do. Every side plays hard to get, right?" To help ease the deal through, O'Brien reiterated, he is traveling to Greenland to "kick the tires on this deal, and I'm gonna get this deal done."

Still, "buying a property the size of Greenland is a huge, huge undertaking, there's a lot of money involved, and I wanted to make sure I'm getting the U.S. a good deal," O'Brien said. "That's why tonight I'm going to get advice on buying Greenland from a top real estate team," HGTV "Property Brothers" Drew and Jonathan Scott. And they had some... ideas. Watch below. Peter Weber

Three Democrats have dropped out of the 2020 presidential race but none of them seems ready to retire from politics. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is running for another term in Congress, and according to multiple people familiar with their thinking, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is going to run for Senate in 2020 and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will seek a third term as governor.

Inslee, who ended his presidential run on Wednesday night, plans to announce his plans to seek re-election in an email to supporters on Thursday, two people close to the governor tell The Associated Press. Washington doesn't have gubernatorial term limits, though the last governor to serve more than two terms was Dan Evans (R), who led Washington from 1965 to 1977. Several Washington state Democrats have announced they might run for governor, but only if Inslee doesn't. He already has some Republican challengers, but no Republican has won the governorship in more than 30 years, AP reports.

People familiar with Hickenlooper's plans told The Denver Post and The Colorado Independent on Wednesday that the former governor will challenge vulnerable incumbent Sen. Cory Garner (R-Colo.), despite earlier saying he wasn't interested in becoming a U.S. senator. "Hick has been making calls to various elected officials telling them he's running, and asking for their support," one Democratic insider told the Independent.

The Democrats already running for Colorado's Senate seat have indicated they won't exit the race if Hickenlooper enters it. But prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), urged Hickenlooper to jump into the race, seeing him as their best shot at toppling the first-term incumbent. An Aug. 16-19 poll from Emerson University bolsters that assumption, showing Hickenlooper beating Garner 53 percent to 40 percent, well outside of the poll's ±3 percentage point margin of error. Peter Weber

President Trump may not have given himself the Medal of Honor, but he has awarded himself several fictitious prizes, like "Michigan Man of the Year."

"Donald Trump is lots of things, but Michigan Man of the Year is not one of them," Chris Hayes noted Wednesday night on MSNBC. "It's not even an award that exists in real life, just in Trump's brain. And in Trump's brain, he's won lots of awards."

Citing an essay by Deadspin's David Roth, Hayes provided video evidence of "the strange reality in which Donald Trump seems to live, an alternate universe in which he's the star and big winner in a never-ending, televised award show." It's all fake, he said, "but the real question is does Donald Trump believe it's true or does he just thing we're all stupid?" Trump provided one plausible answer back in 2011.

At Deadspin, Roth provided another explanation:

Trump is a being of pure reaction and grievance and avarice, and as such is never really very difficult to parse. When he lies about money it's because he wants people to think he has more of it than he does; when he lies about golf it's because he wants people to think he's a better golfer than he is. Those lies tell you something about how Trump wants to be seen, but they're incidental to the bigger questions of who and what he is. Stranger lies like the Michigan Man one reveal more about how he sees the world and understands his relationship to the other people in it, which is fundamentally as someone cleaning up at an endless televised awards show. [David Roth, Deadspin]

In the case of his fake awards, Roth adds, "some dumb speech, long forgotten, grows into a great honor bestowed by strangers who admired him ... something he can bring up, whenever he is feeling under-appreciated or anxious or when nothing else will come." Read the full essay at Deadspin. Peter Weber

In order to help mountain lions and other animals struggling with isolation in the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles is building the world's largest wildlife corridor, which will cross busy Highway 101.

"The ecosystem needs to be reconnected for all wildlife," Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation told The Guardian. "Segmentation impacts animals both large and small, lizards and birds up to mountain lions." Animals were able to travel unimpeded before roads were carved into their habitat, and ecologists are worried now that mountain lions especially are stuck in just one area, making it difficult to mate. "We want these animals on the landscape and the population will go extinct if we don't do something soon," Pratt said.

The 165-foot long bridge will be surrounded by trees and bushes, so the animals won't even know they are on it. "The science tells us this is the better design," Pratt told The Guardian. "Some animals will use tunnels, some will not. We looked at the best solution for all wildlife so all creatures can use this." The $87 million bridge is now in its final design phase, and is expected to open in 2023. Pratt said if Los Angeles can undertake such a project, "it can work anywhere." Catherine Garcia

Yes, yes, George Conway may be nervous that his wife, White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, is working with a clinically narcissistic sociopath whose mental condition is deteriorating, but people who like President Trump are apparently growing concerned, too.

"Some former Trump administration officials in recent days said they were increasingly worried about the president's behavior, suggesting it stems from increasing pressure on Mr. Trump as the economy seems more worrisome and next year's election approaches," The New York Times reports. MSNBC anchor Stephane Ruhle is apparently hearing similar concerns.

"Trump has seemed particularly erratic" this week, the Times recaps. "In recent days, he proudly quoted a radio host declaring that Israeli Jews love him as if he were the 'King of Israel' and 'the second coming of God,' while Mr. Trump himself accused Jews who vote for Democrats of 'great disloyalty.' Speaking with reporters on the South Lawn on Wednesday, he suggested that God had tapped him to lead a trade war with China. 'I am the chosen one,' he said, glancing heavenward."

Trump also abruptly canceled a trip to Denmark on the dubious grounds that its prime minister was "nasty" about not selling him Greenland, flip-flopped on tax cuts and gun policies, and undercut the no-recession message his economic advisers have been spreading, Dan Balz adds at The Washington Post. Combined, Trump's behavior "portrays an administration and White House in chaos" and "a president who changes his mind whenever it suits him, whose statements shift with the moment, and who uses words carelessly and sometimes destructively," thus "leaving observers — no doubt including his own advisers — to wonder what and how he thinks about the issues before him."

"After the past two days, there is only one thing to say," Balz concludes: "Be braced for Thursday." Peter Weber

While congratulating a World War II veteran for receiving a Medal of Honor, President Trump revealed that he wanted to give himself the award, but was talked out of it by aides.

The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force, bestowed upon distinguished members of the military. Trump met several recipients at the American Veterans' annual convention Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky, and singled out one of them, Woody Williams, during his speech.

"That was a big day," Trump said. "Medal of Honor. Nothing like the Medal of Honor. I wanted one, but they told me I don't qualify, Woody. I said, 'Can I give it to myself anyway?' They said, 'I don't think that's a good idea.'" A few people in the audience laughed, Politico reports.

Trump did not explain what he did to think he deserved a Medal of Honor. His aides were right to tell him he wasn't eligible, as you have to serve in the military and show bravery while facing danger in order to qualify. Catherine Garcia