Early Tuesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a meeting with the New York Times. Though the meeting is now back on, it follows his pattern of last-minute changes and railing against the media.
Trump: NY Times Is So ‘Not Nice’
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted the following:
I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
“Not nice.” They’re so “nasty.” Dear goddess, he sounds like a whiny child.
The New York Times saw things a little bit differently. They reported that it was Trump’s people who wanted to change the terms of the meeting, and that they learned of the cancellation via Twitter:
“A spokeswoman for The Times, Eileen Murphy, responded that the paper had not changed the arrangements for the meeting and was not aware it had been canceled until reading Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts. The company said that Mr. Trump’s team had asked on Monday to change the ground rules, but that the paper had declined.
‘We did not change the ground rules at all and made no attempt to,’ she said. ‘They tried to yesterday — asking for only a private meeting and no on-the-record segment, which we refused to agree to.'”
Shortly thereafter, however, the meeting was back on. And Trump’s tone had significantly changed.
The meeting with the @nytimes is back on at 12:30 today. Look forward to it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
The Times reports that a short off-the-record session will take place with the paper’s publisher, followed by an on-the-record session with journalists.
1 of 2 Mr. Trump's staff has told us that the President Elect's meeting with The Times is on again.
— Eileen Murphy (@NYTeileen) November 22, 2016
2 of 2 President Elect will meet with our publisher off-the-record. Then, on-the-record with our journalists & editorial columnists.
— Eileen Murphy (@NYTeileen) November 22, 2016
This whole affair is insane. He is the President-elect now. He is no longer a private businessman.
He needs to start acting like it.
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