During his campaign and tumultuous first year in office, President Trump demonstrated little knowledge of policy details. He was not interested in advice that conflicted with his instincts, and it was often impossible for White House staff to figure out what course he wanted to take. One compared it to “trying to figure out what a child wants.”

The portrait that emerges in the new book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff.

President Trump's aides vigorously sought Wednesday to undermine "Fire and Fury," a book by Michael Wolff whose early excerpts caused a stir in Washington. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post

Trump is depicted as presiding over a chaotic White House, struggling to settle into his new reality and eagerly trying to maintain his normal golf habits.

In the book, set to be officially released next week, Wolff writes that Trump became upset that he couldn’t give a Supreme Court seat to a friend rather than someone he didn’t know. He casts Trump as having “little or no interest” in Republican attempts to overhaul the Affordable Care Act. And Wolff says aides were incredulous over Trump’s claims that President Barack Obama had “wiretapped” Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.

Wolff says that his book is based on 200 conversations over the past 18 months.

But Wolff has been criticized in the past for shoddy reporting and the book is already being dismissed by Trump’s supporters. An editor who worked with Wolff was quoted as saying, “he is adroit at making the reader think that he has spent hours and days with his subject, when in fact he may have spent no time at all.”

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