President Donald Trump broke from a press conference on the ongoing war with Iran to criticize The New York Times as a “failing” and “fake” news outlet after he was asked about whether he’s concerned about committing war crimes.
Trump was taking questions Monday when he appeared to snap when asked by a Times reporter about whether his threat to bomb Iranian infrastructure would amount to war crimes under international law.
“The failing New York Times. Your circulation, way down at The New York Times,” he interrupted the reporter’s question upon hearing which outlet he works for.
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After answering the question in the negative, saying he’s “not at all” concerned and suggesting that he thinks it’s more important above all to disarm Iran, Trump went on a tangent about the news outlet.
“Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet,” he interrupted after pointing at reporters with raised hands to ask a question.
“You no longer have credibility at the New York Times. Because the New York Times said, ‘Oh, Trump won’t win the election,’ and I won in a landslide. I won every swing state. New York Times said, ‘Oh, Trump won’t win the election.’ New York Times has no credibility,” he said, presumably about the 2024 election that Trump won against Kamala Harris. Trump has also falsely said that he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden.
“The credibility they have is it used to be ‘all the news that’s fit to print.’ The Old Gray Lady, it was great,” he said of the outlet’s slogan and nickname. “But they’re running on past fumes, and you can’t keep doing that. You have to be able to give the correct news, and people like you, who I know, are fake. You’re fake.”
Trump has for years criticized the news outlet, going so far as to recently call it a “true enemy of the people” and “a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation” over its coverage of his past close ties to the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The Times on Sunday reported on how his threats to bomb Iran’s infrastructure would amount to war crimes under international law if carried out.
