Trump disputes NYT report that he questioned his associates about Pence's loyalty

President Donald Trump reaffirmed Saturday his confidence in Mike Pence, repeatedly criticizing a New York Times article claiming that Trump questioned the loyalty of his vice president, while saying that the newspaper had not asked for comment before it is published.

"The New York Times made a bogus story, as usual, about my relationship with @VP Mike Pence," the president wrote on Twitter. "They invented sources and refused to ask me, the only one who knows, a quote …"

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Trump added, "… I can not imagine a president having a better or closer relationship with his vice president than we two. Just more fake news, the enemy of the people! "

In a story published on Friday, the Times reported Trump recently asked White House counsel and advisers if they considered Pence to be loyal before the president's 2020 re-election campaign.

Earlier Saturday, speaking to reporters at the White House before leaving for California to investigate the damage caused by the state's fires, Trump dismissed the Times report.

Trump, known for his personal loyalty as a decisive factor in many of his hirings and hiring decisions, called the Vice President a "rider" and "great person" who has "already been tested, respect ".

"I do not question his loyalty at all," the president said of Pence, according to a group report. "He is 100% faithful. It was a bogus story. "

Trump also suggested that neither he nor the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, had been contacted to comment on the Times' story.

"How do you make a story like this, and you do not call the main one?" Said Trump. "I would give them a quote, I would say that's not true. And that's the end of their story. But they do not do that. "

The President added, "You know what quote would be? Mike Pence is 100%. Now you can not do your story. That's why they do not like calling me for a quote. "

Maggie Haberman, Times correspondent at the White House and co-author of the article (who is also a former POLITICO reporter), challenged the president's account in a tweet from Saturday. Haberman said she had corresponded with Sanders by e-mail before the article was published, and quoted a quote from White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley, taken up in the story.

"CHECKING THE FACTS: An email with @PressSec and an interview with the first deputy, Hogan Gidley, who is quoted, wrote Haberman online. "POTUS would need to explain to them why they did not provide us with a quote from him."

Mr. Pence was in Singapore Thursday for the Multinational Summit of East Asia, where he met briefly with National Security Adviser, John Bolton, with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Saturday, Mr. Pence represented the United States at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Papua New Guinea.

Interviewed by reporters on Saturday about the veracity of the report, Pence said he and the president had "very close" and "very strong" relations, according to a report from the pool. The vice president also revealed that the story had been mentioned in a recent conversation that he had shared with the president.

"He came," said Pence. "We laughed a lot."