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Commander-In-Tweet: Trump Mocks The ‘New York Times’ Hours After Saying He Will Keep It Cool On Twitter

Published on: November 14, 2016 at 4:24 AM
By Tito Ojo-Medubi

President-elect Donald Trump mocked the New York Times on Twitter, hours after promising to be “ more restrained ” on social media, The Guardian is reporting.

In a slew of tweets on Sunday, the Manhattan billionaire mocked the New York Times , claiming that the publication was “losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the Trump phenomena.”

The newspaper had responded telling him that as a matter fact, subscriptions had increased, maintaining that the publication remained “proud” of its coverage of the U.S. elections. According to its latest earnings report , print copies were down in the 3rd quarter of 2015, but offset with over 116,000 new digital-only subscriptions.

Since Trump declared his ambitions in June 2015, digital-only news subscriptions have gone up by 35 percent. This amounts to over 1.3 million new online subscribers. Trump’s claims that the publication was losing readers and money showed he was wrong.

In another tweet, the 70-year-old politician then went on to scoff an open letter that publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and executive editor Dean Baquet had penciled for readers after he was declared winner of the elections. Trump had tweeted that the New York Times had apologized to their subscribers for the bad publicity they gave him. He added that he was skeptical of their latest stance and expected it to be business as usual.

In the letter, both men revealed that the publication would “reflect” on its coverage of the election, admitting that they did not take the Republican seriously in the race to win the White House.

“Did Donald Trump’s sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters?”

The publication, which has 1,150 staff writers, revealed in a circulated memo that the onus was on the New York Times to help Americans interpret and understand the new America. The paper, which was founded in 1851, promised to cover Trump’s presidency without “fear or favor.”

“We will chronicle the new administration with a lighting fast report that features stories told in every medium and on every platform. If many Americans no longer seem to understand each other, let’s make it our job to interpret and explain.”

The New York Times was consistently targeted by Trump in a deluge of tweets whenever he blasted the media for skewed reporting. In October, the publication did a story that Trump had not paid federal income tax for 18 years . They also compiled a list of “ 282 people, places and things ” the president-elect had insulted on Twitter. In addition, they ran stories on the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct brought against the “blue collar billionaire.”

In a third tweet on Sunday morning, Trump had called the newspaper “dishonest” for an online article published by foreign affairs writer Max Fisher, where he said the president-elect suggested that more countries needed to acquire or increase their nuclear weapons.

Trump flatly denied ever saying that.

However, in a televised Milwaukee town hall meeting in March, Trump did suggest countries that were not friends with the U.S. had nuclear abilities and it would make plenty of sense to have America’s allies have their own nuclear weapons.

“China, Pakistan, Russia…you have so many countries right now that have them. Now, wouldn’t you rather, in a certain sense, have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea has nuclear weapons?”

James Poniewozik speaking to CNN said that Trump’s approach was part of a bigger picture to make journalists tread carefully and fear him. The TV critic said that it was an intimidating tactic the president-elect was using to send a subtle message that “cross me and I’ll rally my voters, and you’ll lose your audience and money.”

In November, just days to the election, the New York Times published an article calling Trump, “nervous” and laying bare his “bottomless need for attention.” Former New York Post writer Michael Goodwin said the publication was too busy attacking the president-elect to realize that he was appealing to a massive spectrum of American people. According to him, this blinded the paper to a Trump win until it was too late.

Some political pundits have said Clinton lost because she focused too much on Trump, rather than on a message that resonated strongly with the American people.

The 70-year-old politician also dedicated a series of tweets to GOP luminaries. Despite his nice words, the irony of his messages was not lost because all the men had opposed his candidacy as president. Trump had called Jeb Bush “low energy” and dissed Matt Romney as a “choke artist” for losing the 2012 elections to President Obama. He took a veiled shot at Ohio Governor John Kasich, who refused to attend the GOP convention in Cleveland by only appreciating his constituents.

Should Donald Trump still be tweeting as president-elect?

[Featured Image by Paul Sancya/AP Images]

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