'It's a gossip page!' Trump trashes WSJ on right-wing TV after bevy of explosive reports

President Donald Trump launched into an angry tirade about the Wall Street Journal during an interview with Rob Finnerty on the far-right Newsmax cable network Friday evening.

Trump is suing the Journal, a right-leaning publication under the umbrella of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, following the paper's reporting on a salacious birthday letter he allegedly sent to deceased financier and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump denies having written the letter, although his denials contradict some known facts.

"You've been very open about wanting an expedited deposition from Rupert Murdoch," said Finnerty. "This is somebody that you were close with ... do you think maybe the better question is, why do you think the Journal is attacking you like that?"

"Well, it's funny because the New York Post has been terrific," said Trump. "He's a really good man. Keith Poole runs it, and they've been great. The Wall Street Journal has been terrible. They've been so bad. It's like a gossip page. It's like it's not the Wall Street Journal, it's gossip."

"When they write things wrong, I feel I have to protect myself," said Trump. "I have to protect my voters. I have to protect MAGA. And if I don't do it, I wouldn't be here with you. I wouldn't be, frankly, I wouldn't be president. I wouldn't. Who knows what would have happened if I didn't fight back?"

"I mean, they were, it turned out to be a whole phony thing," he added. "The Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and many other hoaxes too. That was just an offshoot, but many other hoaxes. And so I feel I have to protect myself. Wall Street Journal I find to be very, very dishonest as it pertains to me."

The Russian election interference scandal was, notably, not a hoax.

Watch the video below or at the link here.