Trump says 'total loser' MSNBC host was never his friend -- in midnight Twitter meltdown against the press

Six minutes before midnight on Saturday, the president of the United States publicly denied ever having a friendship with a television host.

Hours after attacking MSNBC, President Donald Trump attacked MSNBC anchor Donny Deutsch, the host of the new show "Saturday Night Politics."

"Little Donny Deutsch, whose show, like his previous shoebiz (sic) tries, is a disaster, has been saying that I had been a friend of his. This is false," Trump tweeted.

He then broadened his attack to include CNN anchor Erin Burnett.

"He, and separately Erin Burnett, used to beg me to be on episodes of the Apprentice (both were bad), but that was it. Hardly knew him, other than to know he was, and is, a total loser. When he makes statements about me, they are made up, he knows nothing," Trump argued.

Eight minutes after midnight, Trump seemed to realize how his tweet was being perceived.

"I know it is not at all 'presidential' to hit back at the corrupt media, or people who work for the corrupt media, when they make false statements about me or the Trump administration. Problem is, if you don’t hit back, people believe the fake news is true. So we’ll hit back," Trump said.

He did not cite any false statements that were made.