President Donald Trump also railed against the press on Twitter earlier Wednesday, saying it has “never been more dishonest.” | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images White House Trump rails against the press after NYT report

President Donald Trump on Wednesday labeled The New York Times “the enemy of the people” in a tweet, attacking the newspaper over a report in which it spelled out the president’s alleged efforts to influence ongoing investigations into his campaign and allies.

“The New York Times reporting is false,” the president wrote online Wednesday morning. “They are a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”


Trump did not refute any specific parts of the Times report in the tweet, though he responded on Tuesday to a reporter’s question about the piece regarding former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.

The Times reported the president asked whether Whitaker could put Geoffrey Berman, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in charge of an investigation into pre-election hush payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. The Times reported that Whitaker told the president that he could not ask Berman to oversee the investigation because the U.S. attorney had already recused himself from it.

“No, not at all, I don’t know who gave you that,” Trump told reporters Tuesday when asked about the Times’ reporting. “That’s more fake news. There’s a lot of fake news out there.”

The president also railed against the press on Twitter earlier Wednesday, saying it has “never been more dishonest" and echoing cries against the media he has made often throughout his presidency.

“The writers don’t even call asking for verification,” Trump tweeted. “They are totally out of control. Sadly, I kept many of them in business. In six years, they all go BUST!”

Maggie Haberman, one of the Times reporters who authored the piece, said Wednesday on CNN that the Times reached out to the White House multiple times before publishing the report.

Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger on Wednesday posted a response to Trump, in which he said the president had retreated from the standard set by his predecessors with his "incendiary rhetoric."

"In demonizing the free press as the enemy, simply for performing its role of asking difficult questions and bringing uncomfortable information to light, President Trump is retreating from a distinctly American principle," Sulzberger said. "It’s a principle that previous occupants of the Oval Office fiercely defended regardless of their politics, party affiliation or complaints about how they were covered."

"As I have repeatedly told President Trump face to face," the publisher added, "there are mounting signs that this incendiary rhetoric is encouraging threats and violence against journalists at home and abroad."