commander-in-tweets

Trump accuses NYT reporter of trying 'to destroy Michael Cohen' so he'll talk to the feds

April 21, 2018

.polaris__post-meta--date { display: none; } .polaris__post-meta--date.no-script { display: block; padding-left: 45px } April 21, 2018

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

In rapid-fire tweets Saturday morning, President Trump accused New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman — who co-wrote a Friday story on Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney — of faking the report in an effort to coerce Cohen into talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe:

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

Trump posted his tweet series twice, the second iteration replacing a first attempt in which Trump misspelled "Haberman" as "Habberman."

The Times story in question suggests Cohen's loyalty to Trump may be fading after years of Trump treating him "poorly, with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and, at least twice, threats of being fired." "Donald goes out of his way to treat [Cohen] like garbage," said Trump adviser Roger Stone.