Trump Slams ‘Fake News’ New York Times Over Opinion Editor’s Resignation Amid Backlash

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President Donald Trump wasted no time blasting The New York Times over the news that the paper’s chief opinion editor has been forced out over the backlash of publishing Senator Tom Cotton’s controversial op-ed.

“Opinion Editor at New York Times just walked out,” Trump tweeted. “That’s right, he quit over the excellent Op-Ed penned by our great Senator Tom Cotton. TRANSPARENCY! The State of Arkansas is very proud of Tom. The New York Times is Fake News!!!”

Opinion Editor at @nytimes just walked out. That’s right, he quit over the excellent Op-Ed penned by our great Senator @TomCottonAR. TRANSPARENCY! The State of Arkansas is very proud of Tom. The New York Times is Fake News!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2020

The Times faced internal and external uproar last week, ever since they published Cotton’s “Send in the Troops” essay. The piece called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the U.S. military to deal with the riots that occurred in the midst of the social unrest from George Floyd’s death.

Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger initially defended the piece on the grounds that the Times needs to open to different opinions. However, The Times eventually said that Cotton’s piece “did not meet their editorial standards,” that it “should not have been published,” and now Editorial Page Editor James Bennet has resigned amid Sulzberger’s lament for the “significant breakdown in our editing processes.”

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