The communications staff was caught by surprise when excerpts of the book also raised the question of the existence of the “pee tape” and talked about the size of the president’s hands — details they were unprepared for and that set off a scramble inside the West Wing.

“It’s almost like Comey wrote some of the stuff in the book just to get under Trump’s skin and goad him into saying something outrageous,” said the former official. “With the salacious stuff that came out Thursday night, the possibility of Trump exploding has gone up.”