Donald Trump is coming under fire for going on an extended Twitter attack against journalists on Sunday afternoon — a day that happened to be his wife’s 50th birthday.
On Sunday, the president lashed out at reporters who he claimed published fake news, including those who covered Russian interference in the 2016 election and the investigation of whether Trump’s campaign played a role. Trump claimed that those who won “Noble Prizes” — apparently confusing the Nobel Prize with the Pulitzer Prize — should return the prizes.
“When will all of the ‘reporters’ who have received Noble Prizes for their work on Russia, Russia, Russia, only to have been proven totally wrong (and, in fact, it was the other side who committed the crimes), be turning back their cherished ‘Nobles’ so that they can be given….to the REAL REPORTERS & JOURNALISTS who got it right. I can give the Committee a very comprehensive list,” Trump tweeted .
Trump went on to question when the “Noble Committee” will “DEMAND” the prizes back, claiming they had been won based on a fraud. He added that the “Fake News Organizations” behind the stories should be sued.
The attack was spurred by a report from the New York Times claiming that Trump watched up to five hours of television every morning, often not starting his official workday until around noon. The president claimed that the report was not accurate in an initial tweet before taking aim at reporting on Russian election interference.
Trump’s attack garnered some viral interest, with the misspelled “Noble Prize” shooting to the top of Twitter trends and many mocking Trump for his apparent confusion of the two prestigious but very different awards.
The attack caught the attention of The Atlantic columnist David Frum, who took to Twitter to chide the president for spending his wife’s birthday by going on the attack against his enemies.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 26, 2020
Sunday was the first lady’s 50th birthday, something that Donald Trump marked on Twitter close to two hours before posting the angry messages aimed at the media. As the New York Post noted, she got a number of well wishes on her birthday, which was spent at the White House as the Trump administration remains locked down during the coronavirus pandemic.
Frum was not the only one to notice that Trump’s Twitter attack on journalists came on the afternoon of his wife’s birthday. Many replied to Trump’s tweets by suggesting that he focus on his wife rather than growing angry at reporters.
“Seems like Melania’s birthday is going well,” replied political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.