Following a morning of back-and-forth negotiations, Donald Trump sat down with the journalists of The New York Times on Tuesday afternoon.
After abruptly canceling and then rescheduling the sitdown with executives and journalists of the Times, Trump arrived at the Manhattan headquarters for a 12:30 p.m. ET meeting, which included a question-and-answer session that was live-tweeted by the newspaper’s reporters.
Trump had requested the face-to-face but abruptly backed out of the sitdown early Tuesday morning. “I cancelled today’s meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice,” he tweeted around 6 a.m. ET. He also lamented how “they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!”
In response to Trump’s series of tweets, the Times spoke with his team and agreed to reschedule the meeting on its original terms. The Times denied they made any attempts to change the ground rules in a statement and later posted a report citing anonymous sources who said Reince Priebus, Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff, misinformed Trump about the meeting over fears about the questions he might face.
Priebus accompanied Trump on Tuesday, along with Trump’s policy adviser Stephen Miller, senior adviser Kellyanne Conway and spokeswoman Hope Hicks.
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Unlike Trump’s Monday’s meeting with the TV press, which was entirely off the record, the Times meeting included an on-the-record Q&A session with presidential campaign reporters, senior news editors and columnists. There will also be an off-the-record session with the newspaper’s publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
During the session, Trump fielded questions about his controversial appointment of Steve Bannon as chief strategist and support of the alt-right, conflicts of interest between his family and business and the presidency, and his decision to drop any further investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails — something his administration also announced Tuesday morning.
The Q&A, which concluded shortly after 2 p.m., was his most in-depth interview since being elected, as the president-elect has yet to hold the traditional news conference that usually occurs within days of winning on Election Day.
Footage on Twitter showed Trump leaving the Times lobby in Midtown to a mix of cheers and boos. A crowd had gathered in hopes of seeing him arrive, though he entered through a private entrance. The group grew larger by the time he left.
Trump leaves through NY Times lobby to a mix of cheers and boos pic.twitter.com/zibvRzFFr4
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) November 22, 2016
Trump got booed after leaving his meeting with the Times. Reminder, the Times lobby is public https://t.co/tVUbva2TBc pic.twitter.com/gbMz0nC7yz
— Colin Jones (@colinjones) November 22, 2016
Read the live-tweets from inside the Times newsroom below, pulled in reverse chronological order.
Our meeting with Trump is now over. Thanks for following along.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump gets asked about his commitment to first amendment, says, “I think you’ll be happy.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
“I would love to be the one who made peace with Israel and the Palestinians, that would be such a great achievement.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“I don’t think we should be a nation-builder,” Trump says of the US role in the world.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump on GOP leaders @McConnellPress & @SpeakerRyan: “Right now they’re in love with me. Four weeks ago, they weren’t in love with me”
— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) November 22, 2016
Donald Trump on The New York Times: “I do read it. Unfortunately. I’d live about 20 years longer if I didn’t.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Asked point-blank about Nazi conference in DC over wknd: @realDonaldTrump tells @nytimes “of course” “I disavow and condemn them”
— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) November 22, 2016
“I feel comfortable,” Trump says of adapting to the job.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
“I think he’s looking to do absolutely the right thing for the country in terms of transition,” Trump says of Obama.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
‘He did tell me what he thought were the biggest problems, in particular one problem,” Trump says. Won’t say what that was.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
“A lot of people are coming to his defense right now,” Trump says of Bannon. Reince voices support too at conference table.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
On Bannon:”If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn’t even think about hiring him.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump on Bannon: “I think it’s very hard on him. I think he’s having a hard time with it. Because it’s not him.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump: “Breitbart is just a publication.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump is asked about concerns from minority groups about Breitbart News’s coverage under Steve Bannon. His reply: pic.twitter.com/FBqCGwQpBr
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Trump is pressed if he has definitively ruled out prosecuting Hillary Clinton. “It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“I think it would be very very divisive for the country,” Trump says about prosecuting the Clintons.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
2/2 “I think I will explain it that we in many ways will save our country.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Tom Friedman asks if Trump will withdraw from climate change accords. Trump: “I’m looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Does Trump think human activity is linked to climate change? “I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Conflicts of interest? Trump says: “If it were up to some people, I would never, ever see my daughter Ivanka again.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Dean Baquet asks if Trump feels like he did things to energize the alt-right movement. “I don’t think so, Dean,” Trump replies.
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Trump: “It’s not a group I want to energize, and if they are energized, I want to look into it and find out why.” (2/2)
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“The African-American community liked me. They liked what I was saying,” Trump says.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
“I’d rather do the popular vote,” Trump says. “I think we’d do as well or better.” Says he was “never a fan of the electoral college.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump is at NYT, says he has been treated unfairly during campaign. Says he’d like to improve relationship,that it would make his job easier
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump on the experience of the campaign: “It’s been 18 months of brutality in a true sense.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump’s remarks about NYT’s “rough” coverage of him- “I’ve been treated very unfairly”- lasted about 4 min. Now onto reviewing the campaign.
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“You could make the case the Washington Post was bad, but every once in awhile I actually got a good article,” Trump says.
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
“I have great respect for the New York Times. I have tremendous respect,” says Trump. “I think I’ve been treated very rough.”
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Trump is speaking in measured, quiet tones. “I will say the Times is about the roughest of all,” he says of NYT’s coverage of his campaign.
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
