President Donald Trump lashed out at Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel Saturday over a misleading photo of the crowd at a Trump event Friday that the reporter tweeted.
.@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo! pic.twitter.com/XAblFGh1ob
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017
Trump’s tweet references a photo Weigel tweeted showing a mostly empty arena, sarcastically repeating Trump’s claim that the arena was “packed to the rafters.”
It appears that Trump is indeed correct, the stadium was packed when Trump spoke.
Weigel apologized almost immediately after, even admitting that it was “very fair” for Trump to call him out:
Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I’d gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner. https://t.co/fQY7GMNSaD
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 9, 2017
It was a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post. I deleted it after like 20 minutes. Very fair to call me out.
Everything I say on Twitter is a joke, except what I say about @swin24. https://t.co/tI7SQnpoN9
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 9, 2017
Trump has only increased tension with the media over the last week, tweeting Saturday morning that CNN made a “vicious and purposeful mistake” after they published a report with a major error about contacts between Donald Trump Jr. and Wikileaks. (RELATED: CNN Botches Major ‘Bombshell’ Alleging Contacts Between Don Jr. And WikiLeaks)