Trump calls on Fox News to fire reporter for backing up claims in Atlantic report

President Trump urged Fox News to fire national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin late Friday after she backed up claims made in a bombshell article the White House rejects.

Mr. Trump said Ms. Griffin should lose her job for reporting that two former members of his administration confirmed parts of The Atlantic article published the previous evening.

Posting on Twitter, Mr. Trump claimed the contents of The Atlantic article have been “refuted by many witnesses” and that Ms. Griffin “should be fired for this kind of reporting.”

“Never even called us for comment,” Mr. Trump complained. “@FoxNews is gone!” he tweeted, tagging the cable network’s Twitter account.

Ms. Griffin reported earlier Friday that two former senior White House officials confirmed parts of The Atlantic’s recent article about the president’s trip to France in 2018.

Sources confirmed reporting that Mr. Trump “disparaged veterans and did not want to drive to honor American war dead at Aisne-Marne Cemetery outside Paris,” Ms. Griffin on Twitter. .

One former Trump official, according to the Fox correspondent, said the president described American service members who fought in the Vietnam War as “suckers,” she tweeted.

Ms. Griffin also said two sources confirmed the president was against ordering the lowering of American flags after the death of Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, but relented.

The White House forcefully rejected The Atlantic story, written by its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, following its publication Thursday evening and called it “a disgrace.”

The Associated Press said Friday that it independently confirmed many of the president’s disparaging comments about U.S. service members reported in The Atlantic article.

Ms. Griffin had no immediate public reaction to Mr. Trump calling for her firing.