Today NBC News reported that at a July 20 meeting that President Trump expressed a desire to expand the US nuclear arsenal from 4,000 to 32,000 warheads. The object of the report was clear, to further push the Democrat narrative that Trump is an idiot. Trump protested,

Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017

With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2017

giving rise to yet more anti-Trumpian rage.

Now someone who was there has issued an on-the-record statement:

Defense Secretary James Mattis disputed an NBC News report Wednesday that President Donald Trump sought a tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear stockpile during a summer meeting.

“Recent reports that the president called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible,” Mattis said in his statement. Trump, during a brief interaction with reporters ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, mentioned that Mattis would be releasing a statement contesting the NBC News report.
…
It is the second time in as many weeks that a Cabinet secretary has disputed NBC News’ reporting about the July meeting. The network reported last week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came close to resigning over the summer and had called Trump a “moron” after the meeting ended. Tillerson called an impromptu news conference to say he had never considered resigning, and a State Department spokeswoman later said the secretary had never called the president a “moron.”

I’m sure the same folks who were gleefully flogging the utterly bizarre NBC story will now suddenly discover that Mattis, whom was once revered at part of a “suicide pact” devoted to keeping Trump in line, is now simply another Trumptard shill. Or they will find some part of the NBC story that Mattis didn’t specifically disavow and cling onto it for all it’s worth. But the facts here are simple. NBC is simply running with anything negative on Trump that they can find. There is no longer any pretense that NBC has more journalistic integrity than the National Enquirer because it doesn’t.