Donald Trump made clear on Sunday that he is not giving up his role as media critic just because he was elected president of the United States. Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to harshly criticize the New York Times for its coverage of the “Trump phenomena.” The president-elect then went on to mock an open letter that publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and executive editor Dean Baquet wrote to readers after the election.
“Wow, the @nytimes is losing thousands of subscribers because of their very poor and highly inaccurate coverage of the ‘Trump phenomena,’” Trump wrote.
He then went on: “The @nytimes sent a letter to their subscribers apologizing for their BAD coverage of me. I wonder if it will change - doubt it?”
Trump was referring to the open letter to readers that Sulzberger and Baquet published on Friday promising that the paper would “reflect” on its coverage of the election. “Did Donald Trump’s sheer unconventionality lead us and other news outlets to underestimate his support among American voters?” they asked. “We cannot deliver the independent, original journalism for which we are known without the loyalty of our subscribers.”
The Times was a frequent target of Trump’s tweets during the campaign in which he never shied away from criticizing media outlets—and often specific reporters—for their coverage of his presidential bid. Yet this latest attack came shortly after Trump told 60 Minutes that he will be “restrained” on how he uses Twitter.
“I’m going to be very restrained, if I use it at all, I’m going to be very restrained,” Trump said in an interview that will air Sunday night. Yet he also said that social media helped him win the election and now gives him a useful tool to push back on negative stories as president. “I think I picked up yesterday 100,000 people. I’m not saying I love it, but it does get the word out,” he said. “When you give me a bad story or when you give me an inaccurate story or when somebody other than you in another network, or whatever, because of course, CBS would never do a thing like that, right? I have a method of fighting back.”
