Trump defends mental state, says book 'work of fiction'

U.S. President Donald Trump explains his 'mental state' tweet, says author Michael Wolff is a 'fraud' and says he considers the 'Fire and Fury' book 'a work of fiction.'
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday rejected an author's accusations that he is mentally unfit for office and said his track record showed he is a "stable genius." Michael Wolff, who was granted unusually wide access to the White House during much of Trump's first year, has said in promoting his book, "Fire and Fury - Inside the Trump White House," that Trump is unfit for the presidency. "I went to the best colleges... came out, made billions and billions of dollars, became one of the top business people..." Trump said at Camp David, in response to a reporter's question about his morning tweets. The president also said author Michael Wolff is a 'fraud' and that he considers his book 'a work of fiction.' Trump, in a series of extraordinary morning posts on Twitter, said his Democratic critics and the U.S. news media were bringing up the "old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence" since they have not been able to bring him down in other ways. Reagan, a Republican who was the U.S. president from 1981-1989, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994 and died in 2004. "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart," said Trump, a former reality TV star. "I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star ... to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius ... and a very stable genius at that!" Trump, 71, issued the tweets from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, where he was meeting Republican congressional leaders and many Cabinet secretaries about their legislative agenda for the year. The tweets were another sign of Trump's frustration at what he views as unfair treatment by the news media of his presidency amid a federal investigation into whether he or his campaign aides colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, in which he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.