Donald Trump derides 'nasty' Woodward expose and claims it's made up

On Tuesday, the Washington Post ran excerpts from a blockbuster book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward called "Fear: Trump in the White House," about how top White House aides have navigated President Donald Trump's treacherous administration.

The book, based on sources close to the president, details incidents such as top aides hiding information in the hopes of averting war and informing the president Americans aren't allowed to just assassinate world leaders they don't like (even ones as reviled as Bashar al-Assad).

The President replied Tuesday afternoon in a Daily Caller exclusive.

“It’s just another bad book. He’s had a lot of credibility problems,” Trump claimed. “I probably would have preferred to speak to him, but maybe not. I think it probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the book. He wanted to write the book a certain way.”

He also muddied whether Woodward had tried speaking with him.

“It’s just nasty stuff. I never spoke to him. Maybe I wasn’t given messages that he called. I probably would have spoken to him if he’d called, if he’d gotten through. For some reason I didn’t get messages on it.”

He disputed accounts that aides had hidden materials from him and suggested Woodward had invented the stories.

“It could be just made up by the author,” he said.

Trump's staff followed suit.

“This book is nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. "While it is not always pretty, and rare that the press actually covers it, President Trump has broken through the bureaucratic process to deliver unprecedented successes for the American people.”