President Donald Trump isn’t happy about a series of stories published this week speculating that his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, feels “isolated” and would turn on the president and cooperate with investigators, if charged with a crime.
In his trademark angry Saturday morning tweetstorm, the president lashed out at the New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman for a Friday story which she co-authored, titled “Michael Cohen Has Said He Would Take a Bullet for Trump. Maybe Not Anymore”. It quotes several Trump associates – including Roger Stone and Sam Nunberg – along with a handful of “anonymous” sources to claim that despite Cohen’s many public professions of loyalty, the longtime Trump associate has suffered years of ridicule at the hands of his overbearing boss and is more disgruntled than he’s willing to let on.
Other targets of Trump’s ire included “drunk/drugged up loser” Sam Nunberg, who was heavily quoted in the New York Times story.
The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.” They use….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
….non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
….it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2018
But the New York Times isn’t the only major paper that has questioned Cohen’s loyalty. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal published an “exclusive” quoting a Trump confidant expressing his “expert opinion” that Cohen would turn on Trump if pressured and threatened with a lengthy prison sentence.
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This isn’t the first time Trump has singled out Maggie Haberman for ridicule as the relationship between Haberman and Trump deteriorated significantly since the early days of his administration.
In fact, Haberman, as one of the Times’ chief White House reporters, has often been targeted by the president in a way that makes her almost representative for the paper as a whole.
Glenn Thrush, Haberman’s former reporting partner on the White House beat, came to her defense:
At least six easily debunked misstatements of fact in this one – and one intentional misspelling from Mr. Trumpp. https://t.co/jdr85SOrJS
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) April 21, 2018
With his constant attacks, Trump has provided priceless free publicity for the NYT reporter, in the process making her into a household name, a fact she clearly has grasped by providing a link to the NYT story in her response to Trump’s tweet:
One B, sir (or Dan?). Here’s the story that seems to have touched a nerve. https://t.co/M34kkP0sQb https://t.co/V73uBzg7wJ
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 21, 2018
Despite Trump’s hash words for Haberman, his initial misspelling of her name (in his original tweet, Trump called her “Habberman”), and claiming he has “nothing to do with,” the pair have a long history: she was the reporter Trump first notified he was entering the 2016 presidential race, and they appear to remain in contact.
