Former executive at National Enquirer's corporate umbrella blasts Trump's alliance with his own 'fake news' tabloid

A former executive at the parent company that owns the National Enquirer not only attacked the corporation's affiliation with Donald Trump but also called the magazine "fake news."

"The Enquirer is really the father of fake news," former American Media Inc. senior vice president Stu Zakim told MSNBC Thursday. "There's no rule that says what you put on that cover has to be true, or what you put inside."

Earlier in the segment, Zakim said that although Trump and AMI chairman and Enquirer publisher David Pecker have "been friends for a really long time," the media executive only kept him around because it "helped his interests."

When asked why the Enquirer would keep a safe full of information on the president, the former AMI vice president explained how the company trafficks on secrets.

"It's about collecting favors, more than anything," Zakim said. "When you're a media owner and you have a vast variety of publications, as AMI does, information comes your way. As you collect famous people, you want to keep them in your favor. What better way to do that than killing stories that might embarrass them."

In "the long run," companies like AMI are able to use the information as leverage for trading favors or helping other publications they own, he said. 

Watch below, via MSNBC: