Less than 12 hours after The New York Times reported - according to four sources - that the president ordered the firing of Special Counsel Mueller last June (but reportedly backed off after White House Counsel Don McGahn threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive), WSJ reports that Trump denies this report, slamming it as "fake news."

Of course, it was not just NYT, as has always been the case with this particular set of FBI or NSA sources, the WaPo was right there behind the NYT, to confirm the latest Trump leak:

Confirmed that Trump wanted Mueller fired, as NYT first reported, w/@PostRoz. Story coming soon. — Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 26, 2018

Within minutes of his arrival in Davos for meetings on Friday morning, President Trump dismissed the report as "fake news, fake news," as he prepared for his big speech this morning.

This report - and Trump's denial - come just days after Mueller's abrupt shift from Russia-collusion fact-finder to Trump-obstructionist-hunter.

Additionally, his comments come after he said Wednesday he was willing to testify under oath in Mr. Mueller’s investigation, which he has repeatedly called a “witch hunt,” putting the timeline for such an interview within two to three weeks. “I would love to do it, and I would like to do it as soon as possible,” the president said.

As we concluded yesterday, the bottom line is that the upcoming showdown between Trump and the "deep state", in which both sides are investigating each other, will likely be epic.

In the meantime, keep an eye on Trump's twitter account, and whether the president decides to fire Mueller, only for real this time. After all, few are capable of getting Twitter Trump so furious like the NYT.