President Donald Trump finally admitted to asking former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to lie about the size of his inauguration crowd, according to a new book.
Trump privately admitted to his advisers that he’d crossed a line by asking Spicer to berate reporters, the book says.
He was furious over reports and photos that compared crowd sizes at his inauguration to the one either years earlier for President Obama.
And at the time Kellyanne Conway attempted to calm the fuming president and keep him from sending Spicer to argue over the crowd size, Fox News’ Howard Kurtz wrote in a new book ‘Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, and The War Over The Truth.’
![Trump privately admitted to his advisers that he'd crossed a line by asking Spicer to berate reporters, the book says](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/23/06/487C430B00000578-0-image-m-68_1516688859421.jpg)
President Donald Trump (pictured Thursday) finally admitted to asking former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to lie about the size of his inauguration crowd, according to a new book. Spicer is pictured right during the infamous press briefing
![He was furious over reports and photos that compared crowd sizes at his inauguration to the one either years earlier for President Obama](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/23/06/487C431300000578-0-image-a-70_1516689045638.jpg)
He was furious over reports and photos that compared crowd sizes at his inauguration to the one either years earlier for President Obama
The book will be released Monday, January 29, but was obtained early by the Washington Post.
Conway attempted to use a method she’d used multiple times in the former months to calm down the president, Kurt writes.
‘She invoked a line that she often employed when Trump was exercised over some slight,’ the book explains.
‘”You’re really big,'” she said. “That’s really small.”‘
But her go-to tactic failed and Spicer marched out to his first-ever press briefing to tensely confront reporters for the way the inauguration were covered. Conway famously covered for Spicer after the fact, calling his statements ‘alternative facts.’
After the confrontational statements, in which Spicer called the inauguration crowd ‘largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,’ Trump admitted he’d crossed a line.
‘You were right,’ Trump allegedly told his advisers.
‘I shouldn’t have done that.’
![Spicer also says he wished hadn't made the assertions in an interview with the New York Times in September. He is pictured January 21, 2017, during the infamous first press conference](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/23/06/487C430F00000578-0-image-a-71_1516689056114.jpg)
Spicer also says he wished hadn’t made the assertions in an interview with the New York Times in September. He is pictured January 21, 2017, during the infamous first press conference
![And at the time Kellyanne Conway attempted to calm the fuming president and keep him from sending Spicer to argue over the crowd size, Fox News' Howard Kurtz wrote in a new book 'Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, and The War Over The Truth'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/23/06/48507C3900000578-0-image-a-74_1516689070831.jpg)
And at the time Kellyanne Conway attempted to calm the fuming president and keep him from sending Spicer to argue over the crowd size, Fox News’ Howard Kurtz wrote in a new book ‘Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, and The War Over The Truth’
![After the confrontational statements, in which Spicer called the inauguration crowd 'largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,' Trump admitted he'd crossed a line. He and Melania are pictured at the inauguraiton](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/01/23/06/487C430700000578-0-image-a-72_1516689058667.jpg)
After the confrontational statements, in which Spicer called the inauguration crowd ‘largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,’ Trump admitted he’d crossed a line. He and Melania are pictured at the inauguraiton
Spicer also says he wished hadn’t made the assertions in an interview with the New York Times in September.
Kurtz’s book comes just weeks after Michael Wolf’s bombshell book ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.’
Wolff’s book threw Washington into a frenzy, unleashing explosive details about the first year of the Trump presidency.
Kurt’s book is similar in that it describes the White House as a frantic place and Trump’s staff as toeing a line and keeping an eye out for any new tweets, the Post reported.
He interviewed former White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus, who left the administration in July, who described the atmosphere after Trump tweeted to accuse Obama of wire tapping his Trump Tower apartment.
‘Nobody in the White House quite knew what to do,’ Kurt said about the atmosphere there.
Kurtz also goes into detail on the battling between Ivanka Trump and former adviser Steve Bannon.
‘You love your dad. I get that,’ Bannon is quoted as having said to Ivanka during one of their spats.
‘But you’re juts another staffer who doesn’t know what you’re doing.’