(Image source from: DNA India)

The United States President Donald Trump wanted to have Syrian President Bashar al-Assad assassinated earlier this year but his defense secretary ignored the request, according to a new book that depicts top Trump aides sometimes disregarding presidential orders to limit what they saw as damaging and dangerous behavior.

Excerpts from the book, Fear: Trump in the White House, by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, were published by the Washington Post on Tuesday. The book, scheduled for release on September 11, is the latest to detail tensions within the White House under Trump's 20-month-old presidency.

The book portrays Trump as prone to profane outbursts and unprompted decision-making, painting a picture of the chaos that Woodward says amounts to an "administrative coup d'etat" and a "nervous breakdown" of the executive branch.

According to the book, Trump told defense Secretary Jim Mattis he wanted to have Assad assassinated after the Syrian President launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017.

Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it," but instead developed a plan for a limited air strike that did not threaten Assad personally. Mattis told associates after a separate incident that Trump acted like "a fifth - or sixth-grader," according to the book.

White House spokeswo¬man Sarah Sanders said the book is "nothing more than fabricated stories, many by former disgruntled employees, told to make the President look bad." The Pentagon declined to comment.

Woodward gained national fame in the 1970s for his reporting on the Watergate scandal and has since written a series of books that render behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions. For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and else insiders with the understanding he would not bring out how he got his information, the Post said.

By Sowmya Sangam