WHAT BOOK IS TRUMP AFRAID OF?

There's been a lot of attention paid to the tweet President Trump posted this morning in which he claimed that NBC doctored the video of the May 2017 interview in which he acknowledged to Lester Holt that he'd fired James Comey over the "Russia thing." While I like Yastreblyansky's theory that Trump is experiencing decompensation, remember that lying about words documented on video is nothing new for Trump: It was reported in 2017, during the Alabama Senate campaign in which Roy Moore was accused of pedophilia, that Trump had told acquaintances that the Access Hollywood tape was fake:

He sees the calls for Mr. Moore to step aside as a version of the response to the now-famous “Access Hollywood” tape, in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitalia, and the flood of groping accusations against him that followed soon after. He suggested to a senator earlier this year that it was not authentic, and repeated that claim to an adviser more recently. (In the hours after it was revealed in October 2016, Mr. Trump acknowledged that the voice was his, and he apologized.)

I've looked at a lot of right-wing sites and none of them, not even the ones run by his most shameless sycophants (Infowars, Gateway Pundit, Hannity.com), are picking up on the current doctored-video allegation. Trump should really leave the disinformation to the pros, whose fake stories are much more elaborate and convoluted, and therefore persuasive to the rubes.

But here's another Trump tweet from this morning:

I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is. Truth doesn’t matter to them, they only have their hatred & agenda. This includes fake books, which come out about me all the time, always anonymous sources, and are pure fiction. Enemy of the People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2018

Is he worried about a book now? And if so, which one?

It could be Bob Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House. It will arrive in stores in twelve days, on Tuesday, September 11. If the usual pattern with books of this kind is followed, that means that next week, possibly right after Labor Day, we'll start to see news stories and reviews (based on "leaked" copies of the book, which is officially embargoed until the publication date). Woodward traditionally appears on a Sunday prime-time newsmagazine just before his publication date, so that will be September 9. By that time, we'll know all the juicy bits.

A few weeks ago, when the book was announced, I predicted that it wouldn't do much damage to Trump -- which may be true. The leaked tales might not be particularly salacious or damaging. But by now Trump might know what's coming -- and he might have reason to be afraid. We'll see.