He spent the morning like he does on many occasions, lashing and trashing.  Today, the target of Donald Trump’s ire was Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Maggie Haberman of The New York Times.  What set him off?  Her piece this morning on Trump’s treatment of his consigliere, Michael Cohen, was not kind.

  •  “For years Mr. Trump treated Mr. Cohen poorly, with gratuitous insults, dismissive statements and, at least twice, threats of being fired, according to interviews with a half-dozen people familiar with their relationship…’Donald goes out of his way to treat him like garbage,’ said Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Trump’s informal and longest-serving political adviser.”

Which promoted this pre-golf response:

The most interesting part of the tweet-storm?  “Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that.” One could take that as a wish, or perhaps a veiled threat.

Why?  Because of lines like this from the Haberman piece:

  • “Mr. Trump’s lawyers and advisers have become resigned to the strong possibility that Mr. Cohen, who has a wife and two children and faces the prospect of devastating legal fees, if not criminal charges, could end up cooperating with federal officials who are investigating him for activity that could relate, at least in part, to work he did for Mr. Trump.”

Michael Cohen knows where the bodies are buried, perhaps better than anyone in the Trump organization. But the F.B.I. raid on Cohen’s office has suddenly changed the dynamic of their relationship. From Haberman and The Times:

  • “Mr. Trump has long felt he had leverage over Mr. Cohen, but people who have worked for the president said the raid has changed all that.
  • “Ironically, Michael now holds the leverage over Trump,” said Sam Nunberg, a former aide to Mr. Trump who worked with Mr. Cohen and Mr. Stone. Mr. Nunberg said that Mr. Cohen “should maximize” that leverage.”

The Times’ Maggie Haberman has done a brilliant job of covering the world’s most difficult stories about one of the world’s most difficult people.  As for being a “third rate reporter” he never speaks to?