In Latest Attack on Washington Post, Trump Takes a Crack at Headline Writing

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In a presidency marked by unprecedented chaos, President Donald Trump’s animosity for “fake news”—accurate reporting by mainstream news outlets that typically include the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and NBC—has been one of the few constants.

In recent days, Trump has taken to specifically targeting Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos for stories in the Washington Post, which has won major awards for its reporting on the Trump administration. (Many of Trump’s tweets are wrong: Amazon does not own the paper; Bezos does.) While the president has attempted to couch his attacks on Amazon with the false claim that the company takes advantage of the US Postal Service, it’s clear that Trump’s anger lies with the paper.

On Thursday, Trump made that even more apparent. He also may have inadvertently revealed another reason behind his latest revenge obsession: his private ambitions to become a newspaper editor.

The Fake News Washington Post, Amazon’s “chief lobbyist,” has another (of many) phony headlines, “Trump Defiant As China Adds Trade Penalties.” WRONG! Should read, “Trump Defiant as U.S. Adds Trade Penalties, Will End Barriers And Massive I.P. Theft.” Typically bad reporting!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2018

If true, Mother Jones invites the president to our robust Slack headline channel, where editors would be happy to workshop the far-too-wordy, nonsensical headline proposed above.