WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's heated war with the media reached new heights as he turned the brag-worthy feat of raising $5.6 million for veterans' charities into a sparring match with reporters pressing him on the issue.

"The press should be ashamed of themselves," a defensive Trump railed during a Tuesday news conference at Trump Tower, called to announce a list of 41 charities that received a cut of the money he raised during a highly publicized January fundraiser.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee had previously declined to disclose which charities had received the $6 million he'd claimed to have raised, and his campaign had gone back and forth about how much pledged money had come through. The Washington Post had pressed for an accounting of the donations, and several charities said they received checks just last week.

Throughout Tuesday's 40-minute question-and-answer session, Trump accused the media of being "unbelievably dishonest" in their treatment of him.

"I sent people checks of a lot of money. … And instead of being like, 'Thank you very much, Mr. Trump,' or 'Trump did a good job,' everyone's saying: 'Who got (the money)? Who got it? Who got it?' And you make me look very bad," he complained. "I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job."

While Trump has frequently made the media a punching bag, calling out reporters during his signature rallies, the taunts Tuesday were intense, even for him. The billionaire mogul interrupted his recitation of the list of groups receiving portions of the money to complain about the way reporters had called up charities to try to verify his contributions. He called the political press "disgusting" and dismissed one ABC News reporter as "a sleaze."

While Trump's fundraiser, held opposite a Fox News debate he chose to boycott, should have been a positive story for Trump, his campaign's refusal to disclose details about the money raised became a sticking point. Trump insisted Tuesday that "most of the money went out quite a while ago," but that didn't seem to be the case.

The Associated Press spoke or left messages with each of the organizations Trump named. Of the 26 groups that responded by Tuesday, half said they had received checks from Trump just last week.