The NYT publisher challenges Trump's rewriting of an unofficial conversation

This was supposed to be an unofficial meeting, but President Donald Trump had d & # 39; 39, other projects.

Nine days after sitting with AG publisher AG New York Times AG Sulzberger at the White House, Trump decided to make the private meeting public, at 8:30 am, the president He said on Twitter that he had spoken with Sulzberger, one of the most powerful media officials in the world. the country, on "the large amounts of fake news being broadcast by the media", sending the Times scramble to offer its own version of the events.

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The Times has long been a wink to Trump, a regular reader of The Times who has a fascination for the newspaper despite his strong criticism of his coverage. So, it was not surprising that Trump is trying to rotate the meeting with Sulzberger to his advantage.

"Had a very good and interesting meeting at the White House with AG Sulzberger, New York Times Editor" Trump wrote on Twitter. "I spent a lot of time talking about the large amount of Fake News aired by the media and how Fake News turned into a phrase," Enemy of the People "& # 39; & # 39;

The tweet forced the Times to explain in detail What happened at the meeting, arguing that Trump's decision to publicly discuss the meeting canceled their unofficial agreement.

"J & I said directly to the President that I thought his tongue was not only divisive but increasingly dangerous "in a statement published by the Times about the July 20 meeting at the White House "I warned that this inflammatory language contributes to an increase in threats against journalists and will lead to violence."

"I have repeatedly emphasized that this is especially true at abroad, where some regimes use the rhetoric of the president to justify the r "I warned that it was putting lives at risk, that it was undermining the democratic ideals of our nation, and that it was eroding one of our country's greatest exports: a commitment to freedom of expression and a free press. "

seems to have had little effect on Trump, who criticized the press last week during a speech in Missouri and whose White House banned a CNN reporter from covering an event there- low. And the president seems not to have the intention of giving up his most loaded rhetoric on the press, including calling the journalists "the enemy of the people," a phrase that is not the same. he repeated in his tweet on Sunday about the meeting.

The conversation between Trump and Sulzberger occurred because of increased tensions with the media. The president went on to claim that the cover that he does not like is "false news". During the speech in Missouri last week, Trump said that what the media is covering is "not what's happening" and urged his supporters not to believe the news. "Do not believe the shit you see from these people – the false news," he said during the speech.

Meanwhile, a CNN reporter was prevented from covering an event last week at the White House. indignation of the journalists.

Sulzberger's article was a frequent target of Trump, who attacked both the Times and some of his reporters, including the name of the White House correspondent, Maggie Haberman

. meet the US presidents. Sulzberger also attended a recent dinner at the house of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, according to a story about the couple released Saturday. But Times critics rushed to Sulzberger's meeting with the president, arguing that this had given Trump the opportunity to use the meeting to amplify his attacks on the press.

"The media are always played by Trump .. Always going to the meeting, the Times was going to be played," Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal group, wrote on Twitter. "His tweet after the meeting will do more damage than anything that was gained by going to the meeting.Do you think your pleas will be heard?"

This is not the first time the Times has to navigate a conversation with Trump. In 2016, BuzzFeed reported that presidential candidate Trump was hesitant about immigration during an informal conversation with the Times' editorial board, a revelation that prompted Trump to agree for the release of the discussion (which he resisted). The Times finally decided to honor its unofficial agreement.

Sulzberger said that he had told Trump that previous presidents had disputed the coverage of their administration but that he needed to reconsider his more general anti-press rants.

"I have clearly said repeatedly that I did not ask him … softening his attacks on the Times he felt our cover was unfair," Sulzberger said. "Instead, I begged him to reconsider his wider attacks on journalism, which I believe are dangerous and harmful to our country."

The New York Times reported that Sulzberger had gone to the White House with James Bennet. oversees the Times editorial page.

"Mr. Trump's assistants have requested that the meeting be officially recorded, which has also been the practice for such meetings in the past," the statement added, "but with Mr. Trump's tweet this In the morning, he put the meeting on the record and decided to respond to the characterization of their conversation by the chairman, based on the detailed notes taken by AG and James. "