President Trump took aim at The New York Times on Wednesday morning, declaring that the publication is “under siege” after the high-profile resignation of columnist Bari Weiss shook the journalism world one day earlier.
“Wow. The @nytimes is under siege. The real reason is that it has become Fake News,” the president tweeted to his more than 83 million followers.
“They never covered me correctly — they blew it,” he added. “People are fleeing, a total mess!”
Weiss dominated headlines on Tuesday after a scathing resignation letter was shared on her website that included accusations of a hostile work environment and bullying “by colleagues who disagree with my views.”
She also said some Times reporters called her a Nazi and a racist.
“There are terms for all of this: unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge. I’m no legal expert. But I know that this is wrong,” Weiss wrote.
“I do not understand how you have allowed this kind of behavior to go on inside your company in full view of the paper’s entire staff and the public,” she added. “And I certainly can’t square how you and other Times leaders have stood by while simultaneously praising me in private for my courage. Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.”
Weiss, who has described herself as a left-leaning centrist but has been a vocal critic of the left, came to the Times from The Wall Street Journal in 2017.
Weiss was one of 153 mostly liberal public intellectuals who signed an open letter that was published in Harper’s last week warning about what they view as an effort on the left to achieve ideological conformity by imposing limits on speech.
Trump has regularly attacked the Times during his presidency in also referring to it as “failing,” despite digital subscriptions reaching an all-time high during his tenure than began in January 2017.