While the heads of broadcast news and cable news networks agreed to meet on Monday with President-elect Donald Trump off the record at his New York high-rise, The New York Times did not. Yet on Tuesday the newspaper that Trump had often maligned was still granted a sit-down interview with him on Tuesday — after he first tweeted otherwise! — that was on the record and quite revealing, according to many of the reporters in the room who live tweeted the event.
I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
New NYT statement: "the President Elect's meeting with The Times is on again" https://t.co/3NgEP33KWX pic.twitter.com/CiTi9ar2hd
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 22, 2016
Video: A mix of cheers, boos, and shouted questions as Trump leaves the NYT building https://t.co/23RicNJIWz
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) Nov. 22, 2016
"My company's so unimportant to me relative to what I'm doing." Trump.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
"In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly. There's never been a case like this,"he says of his tangles
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump on his businesses/conflict q's: "The law's totally on my side, the president can't have a conflict of interest."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
What about selling your company? “That’s a really hard thing to do, because I have real estate."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Trump acknowledges the DC hotel he owns is "probably a more valuable asset than it was before." Says the brand is "hotter."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
And Times staffers also tweeted what Trump had to say about climate change:
Does Trump think human activity is linked to climate change? “I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Tom Friedman asks if Trump will withdraw from climate change accords. Trump: “I’m looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Yet Trump’s own past tweets on the matter of climate change have taken quite a different tone:
Any and all weather events are used by the GLOBAL WARMING HOAXSTERS to justify higher taxes to save our planet! They don't believe it $$$$!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2014
President Obama was terrible on @60Minutes tonight. He said CLIMATE CHANGE is the most important thing, not all of the current disasters!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2015
And here’s what Trump himself had to say about The New York Times on Tuesday:
“I have great respect for the New York Times. I have tremendous respect,” says Trump. “I think I've been treated very rough."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Wrapping up hourlong session with the "failing @nytimes," @realDonaldTrump calls NYT "a great great American jewel – world jewel"
— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) November 22, 2016
Yet he has said the following about the Times — as recently as early Tuesday morning:
The failing @nytimes just announced that complaints about them are at a 15 year high. I can fully understand that – but why announce?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
My lawyers want to sue the failing @nytimes so badly for irresponsible intent. I said no (for now), but they are watching. Really disgusting
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2016
Here’s what Trump said about President Barack Obama during his Tuesday meeting at the Times:
"I had a great meeting with President Obama," Trump says, says he never met him before. "I really liked him a lot."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
But Trump has in the past has tweeted this about Obama’s birth certificate:
Read this–@BarackObama's birth certificate "cannot survive judicial scrutiny" because of "phantom numbers" http://t.co/DIv9sLI2
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2012
Always remember, I was the one who got Obama to release his birth certificate, or whatever that was! Hilary couldn't, McCain couldn't.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2014
Trump said the following on Tuesday about his adviser Steve Bannon, who has served as an executive of Breitbart:
Trump: "Breitbart is just a publication."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
On Bannon:"If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn't even think about hiring him."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump said this on Tuesday about Hillary Clinton, according to Times staffers:
Trump is pressed if he has definitively ruled out prosecuting Hillary Clinton. “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
"I think it would be very very divisive for the country," Trump says about prosecuting the Clintons.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways."
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
That last tweet was Trump making clear he doesn't favor prosecution. Added people could argue the Clinton Foundation has done "good work."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
But keep in mind just a little more than a month ago Trump tweeted the following about Clinton:
Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail. Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2016
