President Trump took to Twitter to slam three authors—including his niece—who have written unflattering books about him.
On Saturday, Trump criticized Mary Trump, former National Security Advisor John Bolton, and investigative journalist Bob Woodward, all of whom have penned bestsellers that paint the president in a negative light.
“About the only way a person is able to write a book on me is if they agree that it will contain as much bad ‘stuff’ as possible, much of which is lies,” Trump fumed. “It’s like getting a job with CNN or MSDNC and saying that “President Trump is great.” You have ZERO chance. FAKE NEWS!”
About the only way a person is able to write a book on me is if they agree that it will contain as much bad “stuff” as possible, much of which is lies. It’s like getting a job with CNN or MSDNC and saying that “President Trump is great.” You have ZERO chance. FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2020
In a follow-up tweet, Trump wrote, “Even whether it’s dumb warmongers like John Bolton, social pretenders like Bob Woodward, who never has anything good to say, or an unstable niece, who was now rightfully shunned, scorned and mocked her entire life, and never even liked by her own very kind caring grandfather!”
Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened and Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough both contained extremely unflattering anecdotes about the president. Mary Trump recently provided the Washington Post with secretly recorded conversations with the president’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, in which Barry said Donald Trump “has no principles.”
Woodward’s 2018 book, Fear: Trump in the White House, also portrayed the president negatively. The reporter’s follow-up, Rage, is slated for publication on Sept. 15.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
