President Donald Trump on Friday refuted a New York Times story by reporter Maggie Haberman in her upcoming book about Trump’s presidency.
“Yet another fake book, by a reporter who knows nothing about me, Maggot Haberman of the New York Times, is making up stories about my relationship with foreign leaders,” Trump said in a statement. “She claims I speak with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, but not other world leaders. Wrong!”
In an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Haberman stated, “He has been telling people that he has maintained some kind of a correspondence or a discussion with Kim Jong Un.” While Haberman explained it is not unusual for presidents to remain in contact with other world leaders, she said, “This would obviously be unusual because this is the only one to my knowledge that he is saying that he is still in touch with.”
Haberman claimed Trump “had a fixation with this relationship” with Kim Jong Un. “Those letters, you know, from Kim Jong Un, that The Washington Post, in terrific reporting, reported on the fact that he had taken with him to the White House, the original copies, he would wave them around, as I understand, he would wave them around in the White House and he would wave them around at Mar-a-Lago,” Haberman continued. “He would have them in his boxes, and he would take them out and show them to people.”
The 45th president on Thursday responded to a different Haberman story: “Also, another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet, is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book.”
Haberman’s claim that Trump flushed documents down a White House toilet was, self-admittedly, based solely on her piecing together comments from staff members. Haberman even admitted on CNN that no one knows the nature of the papers that were allegedly seen flushed at the White House.
Haberman’s bashing of President Trump’s legacy comes as she is promoting her new book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”
In December, the 45th president revealed that he is working on his own memoir, which will counter the negative books being written by news reporters eager to make a name for themselves. Until then, Trump is continually forced to refute fake news stories written in an attempt to diminish the accomplishments of his historic presidency.