President Donald Trump met with Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, in what was expected to be a heated exchange between the two. This meeting follows a series of contentious stories published by The Atlantic, including the infamous “Suckers and Losers” claim and the SignalGate debacle, both of which have been major sources of tension between the president and the publication.
Trump made the announcement via a post on Truth Social on Thursday morning, emphasizing his belief that Goldberg has been responsible for several “fictional stories” about him.
“Later today I will be meeting with, of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor of The Atlantic, and the person responsible for many fictional stories about me, including the made-up HOAX on ‘Suckers and Losers’ and SignalGate, something he was somewhat more ‘successful’ with,” Trump wrote, continuing his critique of Goldberg. “Jeffrey is bringing with him Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, not exactly pro-Trump writers, either, to put it mildly!”
Trump also noted that the trio of reporters, including Goldberg, Scherer, and Parker, had told his team they were working on a story titled The Most Consequential President of This Century. Trump, ever the provocateur, framed the upcoming interview as both an act of curiosity and a challenge to himself. “I am doing this interview out of curiosity, and as a competition with myself, just to see if it’s possible for The Atlantic to be ‘truthful.’ Are they capable of writing a fair story on ‘TRUMP’? The way I look at it, what can be so bad — I WON!” Trump quipped.
The timing of this meeting came amidst continued tensions between Trump and the mainstream media. The “Suckers and Losers” article, which relied heavily on anonymous sources, claimed that Trump had belittled fallen American soldiers, referring to them as “losers” and “suckers.” These comments were vehemently denied by Trump and his supporters, with former National Security Advisor John Bolton, a key figure in the administration, stating that he had not heard Trump make such remarks during the meeting in question.
Goldberg’s collaborators in this interview, Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker, both seasoned political reporters, are also no strangers to controversy. Scherer, who previously worked as a political reporter at The Washington Post, led Time magazine’s Washington bureau. Meanwhile, Parker, a former senior national political correspondent at The Washington Post, has long been a key figure in political reporting.
In the end, this meeting seems to be another chapter in the long-running saga between Trump and the press — one in which both sides remained fiercely entrenched in their respective narratives. Whether or not The Atlantic can be “truthful” in Trump’s eyes, as he jokingly challenged, remains to be seen.
