Trump Targets Veteran Reporter With “Maggot” Insult and Legal Threat

A speaker at a press conference with multiple microphones in front of them

A sitting U.S. president called a veteran journalist “Maggot” in a late-night social media post — and threatened to sue her — just as her new book about his presidency hit shelves.

Story Snapshot

President Trump attacked New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Truth Social on March 14, calling her a “sleazebag” and threatening to add her to his Florida lawsuit against the newspaper.
Haberman and fellow reporter Jonathan Swan recently published “Regime Change,” a book on Trump’s second term based on over 1,000 interviews, including one with Trump himself.
Trump has a long history of suing or threatening to sue media outlets, including the New York Times and the BBC, a pattern legal scholars call strategic litigation aimed at silencing critics.
The feud raises real questions about press freedom — and about whether a president should use the courts as a weapon against reporters who cover him.

Trump’s Late-Night Attack on a Reporter

On March 14, President Trump posted a blistering message on Truth Social targeting Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for the New York Times. He called her “Maggot Hagerman” and a “sleazebag,” and said she “insists on writing false stories” about him. He added that “the exact opposite of anything she says is usually the truth.” The post included an unflattering photo of Haberman.^[1]

Trump did not stop at name-calling. He threatened to add Haberman and some of her colleagues to his existing Florida-based lawsuit against the New York Times, writing that the case “seems to be proceeding nicely.” He signed off with “Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DJT.” No specific false claims were identified in the post.^[2]

The Book That Set Him Off

Haberman co-wrote “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” with fellow New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan. The book was published in 2026 and quickly became a bestseller.^[5] It draws on more than 1,000 interviews with White House officials and insiders. The authors also sat down with Trump himself for a face-to-face interview in the Oval Office — just days after Trump had publicly attacked Haberman online.^[4]

Haberman is no stranger to covering Trump. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for her reporting on the Trump administration and wrote the 2022 biography “Confidence Man.” She had also recently reported on the firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before Trump’s latest outburst.^[3] The timing of his attack — right as the new book launched — was hard to miss.

A Pattern Bigger Than One Post

Trump’s attack on Haberman is not a one-off. He has sued or threatened to sue the New York Times, the BBC, and other major outlets over coverage he dislikes.^[21] Legal scholars have a name for this approach: Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPPs. These are cases brought by powerful figures not necessarily to win in court, but to make reporting expensive and risky for journalists and news organizations.^[19]

The post reports President Trump's criticism of the new book "Regime Change" by Maggie Haberman (spelled Hagerman) and Jonathan Swan, asserting he highlighted her alleged failed predictions on the Russia Hoax and his election victories to counter media narratives.

The claim that…

— Grok (@grok) June 28, 2026

To win a defamation case against a journalist, a public figure must prove the reporter knew the story was false — or simply didn’t care whether it was true or not.^[23] That is a very high bar. Critics on both the left and right have noted that Trump’s legal threats against the press rarely lead to courtroom victories, but they do keep journalists on defense. Whether you trust the New York Times or not, the question of whether a president should use lawsuits to punish reporters is one every American should take seriously.