WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday via Twitter called the federal appeals court decision to block his travel and refugee ban “disgraceful” while attacking the New York Times for a “fake news” story that was factual.
Trump on Friday morning was dealing with two stories that broke on Thursday: the adverse court ruling that keeps on ice his temporary ban covering seven majority Muslim nations — and the news that he told President Xi Jinping of China last night that the U.S. will honor the “One China” policy even though he suggested a few weeks ago that the matter of Taiwan may be open to discussion.
Tweet No. 1: “The failing @nytimes does major FAKE NEWS China story saying ‘Mr.Xi has not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov.14.’ We spoke at length yesterday!” 7:35 a.m. Eastern Time
Backstory No. 1: Updated. The White House released a statement on Trump’s “lengthy” phone call with Xi at about 11 p.m. ET on Thursday. The print edition of the Friday New York Times has the headline “China’s President, Stung by Taiwan Call, Is Said to Shun Trump”
Perhaps Trump was looking at the print version of the story, which did not mention the call, which was not flagged by the White House until about 11 p.m. By the morning, however, the updated NYT web version of the story fully incorporated the news of the phone conversion.
The lede — that’s the opening paragraph — of the New York Times web version of the story about China is about how Trump and Xi talked on Thursday evening.
Indeed, that’s the news peg for the story. The very conversation Trump mentions in his post as being ignored is at the very top of the story.
What may have caught the president’s attention is this paragraph — the third one in the web version of the article — with the Nov. 14 mention:
“The concession was clearly designed to put an end to an extended chill in the relationship between China and the United States. Mr. Xi, stung by Mr. Trump’s unorthodox telephone call with the president of Taiwan in December and his subsequent assertion that the United States might no longer abide by the One China policy, had not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov. 14, the week after he was elected.”
That was just a reference to the prior time they talked before the evening of Feb. 9.
Tweet No. 2: “LAWFARE: ‘Remarkably, in the entire opinion, the panel did not bother even to cite this (the) statute.’ A disgraceful decision!” 7:15 a.m. Eastern Time
Backstory No. 2: Trump is still smarting over the unanimous decision of the three-judge federal panel. The judges paid him an underhanded compliment, by the way: when Trump said during the campaign the U.S. needed a Muslim ban – well, they believed him.
ON TAP FRIDAY:Trump meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and in the afternoon. The two leaders are set to hold a joint press conference.