How worked up was he? “On a fucking warpath,” one administration official told Rolling Stone magazine.
No, there’s another element – and a brutal one for the president. It’s where the story was published: in the Wall Street Journal, whose conservative opinion side has often backed him and whose news side has a reputation for ensuring that explosive stories are bulletproof: accurate in their facts and fully prepared to stand up under legal scrutiny.
What’s more, the newspaper is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, Trump’s most important media ally.
This lines up with Trump constantly saying this or that media organization is nasty. It's with him or against him kind of thing.