Michael Wolff tells a terrified Stephen Colbert that everything he wrote about Trump is true

Stephen Colbert interviews Michael Wolff

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

published 9 January 2018

Michael Wolff started his interview with Stephen Colbert on Monday's Late Show by suggesting that President Trump might be watching, because "one of the remaining contacts I have said he asked for my media schedule today. Wolff said he didn't expect his book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, to cause such a splash, and when Colbert pointed out that it paints Trump as a mentally unfit illiterate "gibbering to his cheeseburger," Wolff explained, "I thought we knew this."

Colbert asked Wolff about his author's note on believing the events he recorded to be true, and Wolff explained that in the Trump White House, "everybody is telling you different stories," or rather "lying in their own particular way," so he had to use his "judgment" to discern "what versions of stories to include." Colbert said he was conflicted reading the book. "As a comedian, sure, I'd love all this to be true so I can make jokes about it," he said. "But as a citizen, I don't want any of it to be true. And you don't have sourcing, at least not listed, for everything you've got in here, so how much of it should I believe?" "You should believe all of it," Wolff said. "That's the alarming thing, that this is all true."

Colbert asked if there was anything Wolff found hopeful in the book, and Wolff said no. Everybody in the White House would come and tell him how awful things were, he said, and "I think the truth is, they were talking to everybody, and that I'm the only person who was willing to say this — because I'm the only person who doesn't have to go back again."

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Wolff made a similar point to CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday. 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.