Trump, Acosta writes, had just called the reporter “fake news” and “very fake news” after being asked about Russian election interference at a press conference in February 2017. A “senior White House official” tells Acosta: “The president’s insane.” A “former White House national security official” says staffers were not sure the president had not been “compromised” by Russia. The confrontation, in which Trump called Acosta “a rude, terrible person”, had been brewing for months. On the day he lost his hard White House pass, Acosta writes, “everything in my life began to spiral out of control”. As the president and his aides claimed exoneration, Acosta writes, “Trump once again called the press ‘the enemy of the people’.

Source: The Guardian May 25, 2019 14:37 UTC