Former President Donald Trump is calling foul on New York Times reporter and author Maggie Haberman’s upcoming book about him, “Confidence Man,” saying her claim that he used to flush documents down the White House toilet and frequently clog the pipes in the process is a figment of her creative imagination.
Trump called into Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” Saturday morning and, of course, co-host Will Cain was sure to ask about that dirty little detail.
“The big takeaway is that you have ripped up papers and flushed them down the toilet. What is your reaction on what you’re hearing on other mainstream media channels in this book by Maggie Haberman?” Cain asked.
“Yeah, it’s fake news and she’s a fake writer,” Trump prefaced, following up with a lengthy tirade about the veteran journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner.
“It’s a totally false story. She made it up,” he continued. “I don’t believe they have sources. Who is going to be a source for that anyway? Who would know that? There is no source. They make it up. You know, they oftentimes, these fake writers like her, they act like they know me like she knows me. I haven’t spoken to her in a very, very long time. She knows me no better than any other writer. They write books like they know and then they make things like that up. There would be no way of her knowing if it were the fact. There would be no way of her understanding that or knowing it. But it’s a totally fake story made up by her, as much of the news is.”
Earlier this week, tidbits from Haberman’s upcoming book were released, the most talked-about one saying that while Trump was in office, White House staff would periodically find wads of paper clogging a toilet. Those pieces of paper are believed to be official documents that Trump had flushed.
In addition, the National Archives asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of official documents after retrieving 15 boxes of materials from the former president’s Florida home that had been moved out of the White House in error.
That revelation, of course, made its way around both morning shows and late-night comedy monologues. “The View” co-host Ana Navarro criticized the hypocrisy of Trump and the Republican party for fixating on Hilary Clinton’s emails, while Trump was allegedly doing this. “I mean, I knew they were full of crap, but I didn’t realize it went this far,” she joked.
“What do you think about the fact that Donald Trump actually had to come out and in writing deny he clogged up the toilet at the White House,” Jimmy Kimmel wondered. “It’s a conversation you have with your 3-year-old: ‘Did you flush papers down the toilet?’ not the former president.