Former President Donald Trump has described The New York Times' Maggie Haberman a "maggot" in an attack on her upcoming book about his presidency.
Haberman's new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, will be released next week but excerpts have been widely publicized in the media.
Anecdotes from the book appear to paint the former president in a poor light, including a claim that he considered firing his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner via a tweet. They were White House advisers at the time.
Trump slammed Haberman, senior political reporter at The New York Times, on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
"Maggot Hagerman [sic] of the Unfunded Liability plagued New York Times is my self appointed Biographer, even though she got the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax & the Mueller Report conclusion completely wrong, & refused to write about the FACT that the Democrats spied on my campaign, Lied to Congress, & Cheated and Lied to the FISA Court," the former president wrote.
He was referring to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged links between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia as well as the fact that two warrants obtained to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page were later deemed to be invalid because the government made "material misstatements" in their effort to obtain them.
"Maggot was also duped on Impeachment Hoax #1 & Impeachment Hoax #2, & said in 2016 that, 'Trump will NOT run for President.' She is a bad writer with very bad sources!" Trump added.
Haberman's book also says that the former president had threatened to go after her phone records in order to identify leakers.
"Trump, angry about my published stories, would bellow that he wanted administration officials to obtain my phone records and identify my sources," Haberman wrote
The former president also made up an excuse for not revealing his tax returns during the 2016 election while on a plane, according to Haberman's account.
"Well, you know my taxes are under audit. I always get audited," Trump reportedly said. "So what I mean is, well I could just say, 'I'll release them when I'm no longer under audit. 'Cause I'll never not be under audit."
Trump repeatedly said he could not release his tax returns in 2016 because he was under audit, though there was no legal barrier to doing so. He became the first major party presidential candidate not to release his tax returns since the practice began with President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.
Trump previously criticized Haberman's book in a statement issued in February, saying: "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. She claims I speak with Kim Jong Un of North Korea, but not other world leaders. Wrong!"
Newsweek has asked Haberman and Trump's office for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
