President Donald Trump on Wednesday complained of “so many Fake News stories today,” amid reports about his children’s management of a Manhattan property and his own relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“Wow, so many Fake News stories today,” Trump tweeted in one of his characteristic early-morning complaints. “No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth.”
Wow, so many Fake News stories today. No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth. The Fake News Media is out of control!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2017
NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2017
Trump specifically singled out NBC News’ report from early Wednesday morning that Tillerson was so frustrated with Trump’s policies and his own clashes with White House staff about his own department that he threatened to resign.
According to NBC News, Tillerson openly disparaged the President as a “moron.”
Vice President Mike Pence, Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis managed to talk Tillerson down and “beg him to stay,” according to the report.
A collaboration between ProPublica, the New Yorker and WNYC seemed like another potential target for the President’s ire. The outlets on Wednesday reported that Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the President’s eldest children, were investigated for felony fraud in 2012 for giving false information to prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a project in lower Manhattan.
The case against them was dropped, according to the report, after Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz asked Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to do so.
Kasowitz later donated money and helped fundraise for Vance Jr.’s reelection campaign to the tune of more than $50,000, according to the report, a sum Vance now says he plans to return, more than four years later.
This post has been updated.
