Just hours after abruptly cancelling a planned interview with the “failing New York Times,” Trump’s team has confirmed that the meeting is back on. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks recently confirmed the meeting to a member of the press pool:
Hicks confirmed that Trump will meet with @nytimes “as planned.”
— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) November 22, 2016
Despite the interview originally being cancelled over a dispute of what would be “on” versus “off” the record, a statement just released by the New York Times indicates that Trump seemingly folded and agreed to have an on the record conversation with the NYT’s journalists and editorial columnists.
A portion of the meeting will be an on-the-record interview, as the newspaper originally wanted.
“Mr. Trump’s staff has told us that the President Elect’s meeting with The Times is on again,” Eileen Murphy, head of communications for the Times, said in a statement. “He will meet with our publisher off-the-record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists.”
Update: @nytimes meeting w/@realDonaldTrump is back on. Meeting w/journalists is on the record only. Here’s our statement: pic.twitter.com/xcicNcpkpN
— Clifford Levy (@cliffordlevy) November 22, 2016
Never a dull moment in the Trump administration.
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Here is what we wrote earlier this morning just after Trump cancelled his meeting with the New York Times:
Just one day after calling a summit of the major mainstream media executives and anchors at Trump Tower in which he referred to everyone as “dishonest, deceitful liars,” Trump this morning has continued his feud with the media by cancelling a planned meeting with the “failing New York Times.” A tweet sent by Trump this morning indicated that the meeting was cancelled after the New York Times tried to change the “terms and conditions” of the meeting which Trump found to be “not nice.”
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
Trump also took shots at the NYT’s for their “nasty tone,” “inaccurate” coverage and record-high complaints.
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
The failing @nytimes just announced that complaints about them are at a 15 year high. I can fully understand that – but why announce?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Meanwhile, the New York Times released a statement saying that they never tried to change the rules but refused Trump’s request to squash an on-the-record session.
NYT spox says paper didn’t change ground rules of Trump meeting, though his side pushed yesterday for only off the record component: pic.twitter.com/bTkCPucG7t
— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) November 22, 2016
While Trump has never had a great relationship with the New York Times, it turned nuclear back in October when they obtained and published a copy of his 1995 tax return along with a baseless headline implying that he hadn’t paid taxes in 20 years. In reality, the tax return merely revealed Trump’s usage of net operating losses to offset ordinary income which is a fairly common practice employed by many business owners.
In its leading Sunday story, the New York Times reports that “Trump Tax Records Obtained by The Times Reveal He Could Have Avoided Paying Taxes for Nearly Two Decades.” Specifically, it reports that according to a previously undisclosed 1995 tax filing, Trump reported a $916 million loss on his income tax returns that year which could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income tax for up to 18 years. As it explains, “the 1995 tax records, never before disclosed, reveal the extraordinary tax benefits that Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, derived from the financial wreckage he left behind in the early 1990s through mismanagement of three Atlantic City casinos, his ill-fated foray into the airline business and his ill-timed purchase of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.”
Certainly the early posturing seems to indicate that Trump will continue to have a fairly contentious relationship with the media for the next four years….and we suspect his supporters are just fine with that.
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