{"id":67181,"date":"2025-12-10T20:34:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/67181\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T20:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:34:09","slug":"new-york-times-says-it-wont-be-deterred-from-writing-about-trumps-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/67181\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Times says it won’t be deterred from writing about Trump’s health"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times, attacked by President Donald Trump for reporting about his physical condition<\/a>, said on Wednesday that it wouldn\u2019t be deterred by \u201cfalse and inflammatory language\u201d that distorts the role of a free press.<\/p>\n

The president had posted on his Truth Social platform that he believed it was \u201cseditious, perhaps even treasonous\u201d for the Times and other media outlets to do \u201cFAKE\u201d reports on his health<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are true Enemies of the People, and we should do something about it,\u201d Trump wrote.<\/p>\n

The 79-year-old president wouldn\u2019t specify, but the newspaper has posted a handful of reports about his health in recent weeks. In a Nov. 25 story headlined \u201cShorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office,\u201d reporters examined Trump\u2019s public and travel schedules to conclude Americans were seeing less of him than they were used to.<\/p>\n

A story on Dec. 2, accompanied by a video, said that Trump \u201cappeared to be fighting sleep\u201d during a Cabinet meeting<\/a> that day.<\/p>\n

Trump says he hasn\u2019t slowed down<\/p>\n

Columnist Frank Bruni discussed these reports in a Dec. 8 opinion piece headlined \u201cTrump\u2019s Approval Ratings Have Declined. So Has His Vigor.\u201d Bruni wrote that Americans \u201cmight want to brace ourselves for some presidential deja vu. He\u2019s starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.\u201d Biden, who was in his early 80s, dropped out of the 2024 race<\/a> for the White House after a disastrous debate with Trump that raised doubts about the then-incumbent\u2019s fitness for office. <\/p>\n

Trump, in his post, said he was history\u2019s hardest-working president with a lengthy list of accomplishments. He said he went out of his way to do \u201clong, thorough and very boring\u201d medical examinations<\/a>, including three cognitive tests that he \u201cACED.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am \u2018slowing up,\u2019 and maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true,\u201d the Republican president said.<\/p>\n

The health of American presidents has long been a delicate and sometimes thorny issue between the White House and the press that covers it \u2014 from Grover Cleveland\u2019s secret tumor surgery to Woodrow Wilson\u2019s debilitating stroke to Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s polio to Dwight D. Eisenhower\u2019s heart attack. Trump has frequently critiqued the cognitive fitness of his predecessor, Biden. <\/p>\n

Trump has fought back against some reports<\/p>\n

Trump already has a $15 billion defamation lawsuit<\/a> pending against the Times. In the suit, filed in September, Trump targeted four Times journalists about three articles that discussed his finances. He has also been involved in legal cases involving The Associated Press<\/a> and CBS News<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

Nicole Taylor, a spokeswoman for The New York Times, said the outlet\u2019s reporting on Trump\u2019s health is heavily sourced, based on interviews with people close to the president and with medical experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmericans deserve in-depth reporting and regular updates about the health of the leaders they elect,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cMr. Trump welcomed our reporting on the age and fitness of his predecessors; we\u2019re applying the same journalistic scrutiny to his vitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor said that \u201cwe won\u2019t be deterred by false and inflammatory language that distorts the role of a free press.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http:\/\/x.com\/dbauder<\/a> and https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dbauder.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n