The Latest: Trump says he doesn't talk to Bannon | News & Observer

The Latest on a new book about President Donald Trump (all times local):

11:59 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he no longer speaks with former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who unloaded on his administration in a new book.

Trump told reporters Thursday, "I don't talk to him," before he began a White House meeting with Republican senators on immigration reform.

Bannon questioned Trump's fitness for office and made scandalous allegations against the president and his family in excerpts of the book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," by Michael Wolff.

As the bombshell book surfaced Wednesday, Trump unleashed on Bannon in a statement, saying he had "lost his mind."

Speaking on Thursday at the White House, Trump said Bannon spoke positively of him Wednesday night on his Breitbart radio show. Trump noted, "He called me a great man last night." And Trump added that his counter-attack had its desired outcome. "He obviously changed his tune pretty quick."

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10:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump is demanding the author and publisher of a new book about him immediately halt its release.

Trump attorney Charles Harder sent a cease-and-desist letter dated Thursday to Michael Wolff, author of "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House."

The same letter was also sent to Steve Rubin, president and publisher of Henry Holt and Co. It demands a halt to publication of the book or of excerpts.

Wolff's book is set for release on Jan. 9. It paints a derogatory portrait of Trump.

Harder also demands that Wolff and Rubin issue a "full and complete" retraction and apology to Trump.

The attorney also asks that Wolff and Rubin immediately forward electronic and hard copies of the book to his office in California.

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3:38 a.m.

President Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on former top adviser Steve Bannon, responding to a new book that portrays Trump as an undisciplined man-child who didn't actually want to win the White House and quotes Bannon as calling his son's contact with a Russian lawyer "treasonous."

Hitting back via a formal White House statement rather than a more-typical Twitter volley, Trump insisted Bannon had little to do with his victorious campaign and "has nothing to do with me or my Presidency."

"When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind," Trump said Wednesday.

It was a blistering attack against the man who helped deliver the presidency to Trump. It was spurred by an unflattering new book by writer Michael Wolff that paints Trump as a leader who doesn't understand the weight of the presidency and spends his evenings eating cheeseburgers in bed, watching television and talking on the phone to old friends.