“[MSNBC] announced it on Twitter, and [NBC] found out when [the general public] did,” said a source.

“[MSNBC president] Phil Griffin was trying to undermine [NBC News president] Noah Oppenheim. There was never a conversation. They overplayed their hand in a huge way.”

Host Rachel Maddow teased the story on Twitter, then withheld the story till later in her program, revealing in a big ­anticlimax that Trump paid $38 million in taxes in 2005. “It’s their cable network, but it’s still NBC News. [NBC] did not appreciate being kept in the dark . . . To hype such a big story and not really deliver is a bit embarrassing. Airing a story you’ve hyped 20 minutes into your broadcast makes it a lot less of a ‘breaking news’ story.”