President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One on September 7, 2018, as he travels to Fargo, North Dakota, to speak at a Joint Fundraising Committee. Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

President Donald Trump has waged a full-frontal assault against renowned investigative journalist Bob Woodward in advance of an upcoming tell-all book about the White House. But before Woodward got in the president's crosshairs, the veteran Washington Post reporter who famously covered the Watergate scandal alongside Carl Bernstein was cited favorably, and even defended, on multiple occasions by Trump. As president, Trump had referred to Woodward in private as someone who has "always been fair," and has publicly cited the reporter in his own defense. Yet in the lead-up to the expose, Trump has gone so far as to suggest Woodward has been an unreliable writer for decades.