Trump Brags About How Fast He Writes Social Media Rants After Jeffrey Goldberg Stealth-Roasts Him To His Face
President Donald Trump earnestly bragged “you would be amazed” at how quickly he composes his Truth Social rants after The Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg stealth-roasted him on the subject.
On the eve of Trump’s 100th day in office — a political benchmark that dates back to FDR — a new interview from The Atlantic dropped amid a raft of polls that show tanking approval and deep dissatisfaction with the economy.
Trump announced the interview — which was conducted by Goldberg, Ashley Parker, and Michael Scherer — with a Truth Social post last week attacking the magazine and Goldberg:
Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on “Suckers and Losers” and, SignalGate, something he was somewhat more “successful” with. Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly! The story they are writing, they have told my representatives, will be entitled, “The Most Consequential President of this Century.” I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be “truthful.” Are they capable of writing a fair story on “TRUMP”? The way I look at it, what can be so bad – I WON!
That 133-word post was the subject of an odd boast by Trump toward the beginning of that interview.
Goldberg — who was locked in public combat with the Trump administration not long ago as they tried to assail his accurate reporting on Signalgate — confronted Trump over the post and its apparent acknowledgement of his reporting’s legitimacy.
But he also snuck in a wisecrack about the effort it takes to write Truth Social posts that seemed to sail over Trump’s head:
Goldberg: I want to ask you about something that you just wrote in your Truth Social post. By the way, I love the line, “I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg.”
Trump: Oh, you like that? I had to do that.
Goldberg: It’s a nice flair.
Trump: I had to explain to people. That’s my way of explaining to people that you’re up here, because most people would say, “Why are you doing that?” I’m doing that because there is a certain respect.
Goldberg: You wrote, after talking about “many fictional stories,” that I was “somewhat more ‘successful’” with Signalgate. I just didn’t understand what that means.
Trump: Well, I only meant that it got—
Goldberg: Are you saying that Signalgate was real?
Trump: Yeah, it was real. And I was gonna put in something else, but I didn’t have enough time.
Goldberg: How long does it take you to write these?
Trump: Not long.
Goldberg: I didn’t think so.
Trump: I go quickly as hell. You’d be amazed. You’d be impressed. And I like doing them myself. Sometimes I dictate them out, but I like doing them myself. What I’m saying is that it became a big story. You were successful, and it became a big story.
Goldberg: But you’re not saying that it was successful in the sense that it exposed an operations-security problem that you have to fix.
Trump: No. What I’m saying is, it was successful in that you got it out very much to the public.
Goldberg: Oh.
Trump: You were able to get something out. It became a very big story.
Read the excerpted transcript here.
