President-elect Donald Trump must have an angel on his shoulder today because he now has incredibly positive things to say about the New York Times — a paper he has been ridiculing through much of his campaign.
Since being elected, he’s also gone back on his promise to prosecute “Crooked Hillary,” telling “60 Minutes,” that, “They [the Clintons] are good people. I don’t want to hurt them.” He’s also spoken kindly about President Obama, after questioning where he was born and calling him the “worst president” and a “disaster.”
Trump, who angrily canceled his Tuesday meeting with the NYT and then changed his mind, really went overboard in his praise.
(Julie Davis covers the White House for the NYT.)
Earlier in the day, Trump had these barbs for the NYT.
Reporters who attended the meeting reported on Twitter that Trump said the NYT has been “about the roughest of all” the media outlets to cover him.
This is going to be a really intriguing love-hate relationship to watch: A story published by HuffPost in August, reported that Trump has called the NYT “failing, sick, disgusting and a joke.”
Eduardo, a random Hillary Clinton supporter on Twitter, summed things up nicely.
He wrote, “He is either a shameless liar or there is something seriously wrong with him.” Donna Comer remarked, “As usual, talks out of both sides of his mouth. What a disgrace to us all. We can only hope, dementia….then he can be removed from office.”
NYT reporter Eric Lichtblau said, “Thought we were failing? #confused.”
Ex-NYT reporter Brian Stelter, who hosts CNN’s “UnReliable Sources” and never misses a chance to get preachy, reacted to the news, asking, “Can a jewel be ‘failing?'”
Then he irritated a bunch of his followers by writing this:
“Trump deserves credit for sitting around the table with NYT reporters/editors & answering pointed Q’s. Next: post-election press conference?”
And then he became even more annoying by explaining how his tweet had “enraged” some of his followers:
“This tweet has enraged some ppl. Context: An hour-long group interview is a big deal. Arguably ‘harder’ than a televised presser. Revealing.”
Zack Tellbloom, for instance, ragged on Stelter, saying, “You’re lowering the bar so low it’s embarrassing. Delete that fucking stupid tweet before you get dragged more.”