--- title: Trump Doubles Down on 'Stable Genius' Tweet at Camp David description: President Donald Trump on Saturday defended calling himself "like, really smart" on Twitter and insulted Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff. canonical: https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-06T19:33:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:47.435Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Doubles Down on Tweet Saying He's 'Like, Really Smart' og:description: He also dismissed author Michael Wolff og:url: https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Doubles Down on Tweet Saying He's 'Like, Really Smart' twitter:description: He also dismissed author Michael Wolff twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Donald Trump Doubles Down on 'Stable Genius' Tweet at Camp David > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Trump Criticises Author of "Fire and Fury" And Defends Tweet about His Own Intelligence [Watch (HLS stream): Trump Criticises Author of "Fire and Fury" And Defends Tweet about His Own Intelligence](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/M9R0HGkK.m3u8) (0:59)  _Published 2018-01-06. US President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his tweets about his own mental state and intellect, and hit out at Michael Wolff, the author of a controversial new book bashing Trump's White House._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 6, 2018 7:33 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 6, 2018 7:33 PM UTC During a visit to Camp David Saturday, President Donald Trump doubled down on his morning [tweets](http://time.com/5090982/donald-trump-twitter-stable-genius/?xid=homepage) in which he called himself “like, really smart” and “a very stable genius.” When asked by a reporter why he felt compelled to tweet about his mental state, Trump said the messages were meant to refute accounts of his presidency — and allegedly dubious competence — in [Michael Wolff](http://time.com/5089728/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-trump-white-house/)‘s book [_Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House_](http://time.com/5090567/donald-trump-michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-library/)_._ After saying he was a “very excellent student” at “the best colleges, or college,” Trump boasted about his success in business, television and politics. He then said Wolff “doesn’t know me at all” and did not interview him for the book, [as Wolff has claimed](http://time.com/5089521/michael-wolff-fire-fury-donald-trump-book/). “I don’t know this man. I guess ‘Sloppy Steve’ \[Bannon\] brought him into the White House quite a bit,” Trump said. “That’s why Sloppy Steve is now looking for a job.” You can see Trump’s full response in the video above. ## Transcript This morning you were tweeting about your mental state. Why did you feel the need to tweet about that this morning? Well, only because I went to the best colleges or college. I went to a, I had a situation where I was a very excellent student and came out made billions and billions of dollars, became one of the top business people Went to television and for ten years it was a tremendous success as you probably have heard. I ran for president one time and won and then I hear this guy that does not know me, doesn't know me at all, by the way did not interview me for three. He said he interviewed me for three hours in the White House. It didn't exist, okay? It's in his imagination. He was never in the Oval Office. We didn't have an interview and I did a quick interview with him a long time ago having to do with an article but I don't know this man and I guess sloppy Steve brought him into the White House quite a bit and it was one of those things that's why sloppy Steve is now looking for a job ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Doubles Down on 'Stable Genius' Tweet at Camp David","datePublished":"2018-01-06T19:33:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:47.435Z","description":"He defended calling himself 'like, really smart'","url":"https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/","name":"Donald Trump Doubles Down on 'Stable Genius' Tweet at Camp David"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Trump Criticises Author of \"Fire and Fury\" And Defends Tweet about His Own Intelligence","description":"US President Donald Trump on Saturday defended his tweets about his own mental state and intellect, and hit out at Michael Wolff, the author of a controversial new book bashing Trump's White House.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/M9R0HGkK/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-01-06T18:52:33.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/M9R0HGkK.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/","duration":"PT59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5091242/trump-michael-wolff/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```