Trump condemns Bob Woodward book as 'con'

US President Donald Trump has condemned a book on his White House by renowned Watergate journalist Bob Woodward as a "con on the public".

Mr Trump's chief of staff and defence secretary, in responses posted by the president on Twitter, described the book as "pathetic" and "fiction", BBC News reports.

In the book, senior aides are quoted as saying they hid sensitive documents to prevent Mr Trump signing them.

They are quoted as calling him an "idiot" and a "liar".

The book - Fear: Trump in the White House, scheduled for release on 11 September - reveals a chaotic administration having a "nervous breakdown of executive power".

Woodward is a widely respected and veteran journalist who helped expose President Richard Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.