President Trump lashed out at a Washington Post reporter Saturday over a tweet that erroneously downsized the crowd at a Trump rally in Florida. Trump was…
President Trump lashed out at a Washington Post reporter Saturday over a tweet that erroneously downsized the crowd at a Trump rally in Florida.
Trump was upset at a since-deleted tweet from politics reporter Dave Weigel that appeared to mock the president for declaring the rally “packed to the rafters” on Friday night. Wiegel’s tweet included a picture of a half-empty Pensacola Bay Center.
“@DaveWeigel WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in,” Trump tweeted just after 5 p.m. Saturday.
“Real photos now shown as I spoke. Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo!”
Weigel apologized three minutes later, tweeting that he deleted the post after Daily Mail political editor David Martosko told him that he was wrong.
“Sure thing: I apologize,” Weigel tweeted, quoting the president’s post. “I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I’d gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner.”
In a second tweet Saturday, Weigel added, “It was a bad tweet on my personal account, not a story for Washington Post. I deleted it after like 20 minutes. Very fair to call me out.”
Trump famously disputed the lackluster crowd size at his inauguration. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump’s was the largest crowd ever an inauguration, though National Park Service photos from the ceremony showed far fewer attendees in the National Mall than were at President Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.
