Trump falsely claims New York Times apologized to its readers

Published March 29, 2017 12:29pm ET



President Trump on Wednesday falsely claimed the New York Times “apologized” to its readers for its coverage of the 2016 elections, and said the paper’s coverage was even “worse” during his presidency.

“Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!” Trump tweeted.


Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and executive editor Dean Baquet released a letter on Nov. 13 about the paper’s election night coverage, but never apologized for anything in the letter. The duo wrote the Times’ newsroom “turned on a dime” to cover the “unexpected result.”

The letter praised Times reporters for covering the election and said there were some unanswered questions about how the result happened. The duo then promised its readers the New York Times would work to answer those questions in its reporting and promised to “bring the same fairness, the same level of scrutiny, the same independence to our coverage of the new president and his team.”

Trump and his supporters have often mischaracterized this letter as an apology in the months since the election. Trump has waged an ongoing feud with the Times, despite frequently calling reporters from the paper for interviews. The second call he made to the media following the defeat of the American Health Care Act was to a New York Times reporter.


Trump later complained media coverage of his administration is unfair.

“If the people of our great country could only see how viciously and inaccurately my administration is covered by certain media!” he tweeted