Philip Rucker and Carol Leonning's A Very Stable Genius talks about first person accounts of President Donald Trump and conflicts with others. The first - and most notorious - example occurred at the Pentagon with Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. President Trump said that they were "losers", "dopes", and "babies." Tillerson, in turn, was fired and later called Trump a "moron." Mattis, who later "retired" under suspicious circumstances, later mocked Trump, saying he was "honored" to be considered an "overrated General" because Trump had also called Meryl Streep an "overrated actress."
Rucker and Leonnig argue that Trump is, in fact, not a "very stable genius," which is something that he has repeatedly called himself. Rucker and Leonnig point to another example of Trump's instability. To that end, they point to a time in which Trump purportedly wanted to reverse the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, saying that it's "just so unfair that American companies aren’t allowed to pay bribes to get business overseas."
Throughout the book, Rucker and Leonnig portray Trump as an unstable, petulant child who is mostly ignorant of geopolitics and history.
