President Donald Trump is miffed at his press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for the way she addressed questions about the Stormy Daniels scandal, CNN reports.
According to a source, Trump believes Sanders comments "were essentially putting the Stormy Daniels storyline on steroids."
"POTUS is very unhappy," the source told CNN.
Daniels says she was paid hush money to keep a 2006 affair with Trump quiet. On Tuesday, she filed a lawsuit against him claiming a nondisclosure pact she signed is not valid because Trump, allegedly identified by the phony name of "David Dennison," never signed it.
Responding to the lawsuit in her Wednesday briefing with White House reporters, Sanders said "the president has denied the allegations against him. And again, this case has already been won in arbitration," a statement that appeared to imply Trump has a legal agreement with Daniels.
Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Wednesday night that Sanders' insistence the matter was settled isn't accurate.
"I personally like Ms. Sanders. I think she has a near impossible job … I'm confident she didn't know it was nonsense when she effectively told that to the world. But it's absolutely bogus. It's nonsense," Avenatti said.
"Any claim by the administration that Donald Trump won in arbitration is no different than me claiming I won the Super Bowl a few weeks ago. It's complete hooey."
Trump repeatedly has denied having an affair with Daniels.