US President Donald Trump has criticised Michael Wolff's new book 'Fire and Fury - Inside the Trump White House'.

The astonishing book has questioned the President’s mental state and said that Mr Trump’s staff regard him as a “child”. 

Mr Wolff has now claimed that the new book could bring down Mr Trump’s presidency, as he nears his second year as US leader. 

He said: “I think one of the interesting effects of the book so far is a very clear ‘emperor has no clothes’ effect. 

“That the story that I have told, seems to present this presidency in such a way that it says he can't do his job, the ‘emperor has no clothes’.

“Suddenly everywhere people are going, 'Oh my God, it's true, he has no clothes’.

“That is the background to the perception and the understanding that will finally end this, that will end this presidency.”

In the interview, Mr Wolff also told BBC’s Today programme “every person in the White House” believes Mr Trump is child-like. 

He said: “Sometimes it is like an 11-year-old, sometimes it is like a 6-year-old. Sometimes its a 2-year-old. And it is all about his need for immediate gratification. I want what I want when I want it.”

Mr Wolff also said that Trump is increasingly forgetful, repeating stories word-for-word inside 10 minutes and fails to recognise friends.

Excerpts from Fire and Fury released before publication included unflattering descriptions of Mr Trump's character and shocking claims about the President's strategy during his electoral campaign.

The book alleges Mr Trump and his team had no intention of winning the election and had run simply as a branding exercise.

President Trump desperately tried to stop the publication of the book and was quick to take to Twitter to criticise its validity. 

He wrote: “Michael Wolff is a total loser who made up stories in order to sell this really boring and untruthful book. 

“He used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!”

He also later tweeted: “Now that Russian collusion, after one year of intense study, has proven to be a total hoax on the American public, the Democrats and their lapdogs, the Fake News Mainstream Media, are taking out the old Ronald Reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence.

“Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. 

“I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!”

According to the book, which Mr Wolff claims to be based on nearly 200 interviews with White House staff, Mr Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon predicted the 25th Amendment could be used on the President.

The 25th Amendment details the order of succession if a president or vice president resigns, dies, or is removed from office.

Following news of the book release, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “I authorized zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phoney book! 

“I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!”

Publishers decided to bring forward the release date of the book to Friday, four days earlier than they were planned amid Mr Trump’s legal threats. 

Bookshops have reported people queueing outside to secure a copy with one in Washington sold out within minutes.

The huge publicity generated by Trump’s reaction sent it straight to the top of the internet retailer Amazon’s worldwide best-seller chart.