Politics

Trump Predicts NYT Will Go Out Of Business After He Leaves Office

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

President Donald Trump predicted Sunday that The New York Times will go out of business after he leaves office, and that the paper will probably endorse him for president next year to stave off bankruptcy.

“The New York Times will be out of business soon after I leave office, hopefully in 6 years,” Trump tweeted.

“They have Zero credibility and are losing a fortune, even now, especially after their massive unfunded liability. I’m fairly certain they’ll endorse me just to keep it all going!”

The New York Times will be out of business soon after I leave office, hopefully in 6 years. They have Zero credibility and are losing a fortune, even now, especially after their massive unfunded liability. I’m fairly certain they’ll endorse me just to keep it all going!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2019

In a series of tweets earlier in the day, Trump also called The Times “an evil propaganda machine for the Democrat Party.”

He was responding to a leak of a transcript of a Times meeting in which Executive Editor Dean Baquet discussing the paper’s shift from covering the Russia collusion probe to whether or not Trump is racist.

“The Failing New York Times, in one of the most devastating portrayals of bad journalism in history, got caught by a leaker that they are shifting from their Phony Russian Collusion Narrative (the Mueller Report & his testimony were a total disaster), to a Racism Witch Hunt,” Trump tweeted.

Baquet held a staff meeting after the paper came under fire from liberals earlier this month for not calling Trump a racist in one of its headlines. Baquet said that The Times “built our newsroom to cover” the Trump-Russia story.

“Now we have to regroup, and shift resources and emphasis to take on a different story,” Baquet said at the meeting.

“The day Bob Mueller walked off that witness stand, two things happened. Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, ‘Holy shit, Bob Mueller is not going to do it,'” he continued.

Trump’s claim that The Times is “losing a fortune” appears inaccurate. The company made a $24 million profit in its most recent fiscal quarter, though it did announce on Aug. 7 that advertising revenue and digital subscriptions fell short of projections.