Does a viral screenshot deliver a real extract from Michael Wolff's book about U.S. President Donald Trump demanding a "gorilla channel" in the White House? No, that's not true: It's an old joke that first emerged in January 2018 as a response to the revelations in Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury.' Lead Stories confirmed that the book contains no mention of gorillas.
The claim reappeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X on March 25, 2026. It opened:
Holy shit it's real.
The post contained an image with the following text:
Wow, this extract from Wolff's book is a shocking insight into Trump's mind:
On his first night in the White House, President Trump complained that the TV in his bedroom was broken, because didn't have 'the gorilla channel'. Trump seemed to be under the impression that a TV channel existed that screened nothing but gorilla-based content, 24 hours a day.
To appease Trump, White House staff compiled a number of gorilla documentaries into makeshift gorilla channel, broadcast into Trump's bedroom from a hastily-constructed transmission tower on the South Lawn. However, Trump was unhappy with the channel they had created, moaning that it was 'boring' because 'the gorillas aren't fighting'.
Staff edited out all the parts of the documentaries where gorillas weren't hitting each other, and at last the president was satisfied. 'On some days he'll watch the gorilla channel for 17 hours straight', an insider told me. 'He kneels in front of the TV, with his face about four inches from the screen, and says encouraging things to the gorillas, like 'the way you hit that other gorilla was good'. I think he thinks the gorillas can hear him.'
This is what the shared image looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: screenshot of post by @HarrisonHSmith on X.)
The claim has been online since January 2018. At the time, Politico reported that the "Internet falls for Trump-'Gorilla Channel' parody".
(Image source: X.)
The rumor emerged on the internet around the day when Michael Wolff released (archived here) his book "Fire and Fury" (archived here). According to PolitiFact (archived here), it was started by a prankster account on January 4, 2018, and later that account admitted that it was "a joke."
In reality, neither in 2018 nor in 2026 did "Fire and Fury" mention a single gorilla, as confirmed by Lead Stories via a search across the electronic version of the book:
(Image source: Kindle.)
