Trump Says He's 'Like, Really Smart' & 'A Very Stable Genius' In Response To Tell-All Book
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- President Donald Trump wants people to know he's "like, really smart" and "a very stable genius," taking to Twitter Saturday morning to defend his mental fitness and boast about his intelligence after the release of a book that portrays him as a leader who doesn't understand the weight of the presidency.
In the book, former aide Steve Bannon questions Trump's competence, but the president's having none of it.
He says critics are "taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence."
Trump says "my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart."
He says going from successful businessman to reality TV star to president on his first try "would qualify as not smart, but genius .... and a very stable genius at that!"
The president's latest tweetstorm comes after the release of 'Fire And Fury: Inside The Trump White House' by Michael Wolff, detailing a turbulent and at times chaotic first year in office for Trump and his administration.
The book draws a derogatory portrait of the 45th president as an undisciplined man-child who didn't actually want to win the White House, and who spends his evenings eating cheeseburgers in bed, watching television and talking on the telephone to old friends.
Trump recently blasted his former chief strategist Steve Bannon after learning Bannon shared revealing information with Wolff.
"Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency," Trump said in part of a 266 word statement. "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
Chatter about Trump's mental fitness for office has intensified in recent months on cable news shows and among Democrats in Congress.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders this week called such suggestions "disgraceful and laughable."
"If he was unfit, he probably wouldn't be sitting there and wouldn't have defeated the most qualified group of candidates the Republican Party has ever seen," she said, calling him "an incredibly strong and good leader."
In early December, the House voted overwhelmingly to kill a resolution from a liberal Democrat to impeach Trump. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, said Trump had associated his presidency with causes rooted in bigotry and racism.
To back his claim accusing Trump of high misdemeanors, Green cited incidents such as Trump's blaming both sides for violence at a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and his sharing of hateful, anti-Muslim videos posted online by a fringe British extremist group.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in a statement shortly before the vote that while "legitimate questions have been raised about his fitness to lead this nation," they argued "now is not the time to consider articles of impeachment."
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
