'Bacon. Wind. Marco Rubio': New York Times Trump coverage spurs laughter from critics

Bitter laughter rippled across social media Friday over the New York Times coverage of former President Donald Trump's confusing answer to a recent policy question.

The Times' decision to pull a short quote from a lengthy answer Trump delivered at the Economic Club of New York, which they described simply as "jumbled," infuriated political experts who took to X to vent their frustration with jokes.

"Trump's plan to fund childcare with tariffs makes no sense," wrote the New York Times Pitchbot, a satirical X account that makes national headlines taking jabs at the paper. "But we're going to pretend that it does."

Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf wrote a short fictional scene of a predicted interview soon to take place between Trump and the Gray Lady.

"President Trump, what do you have to say about evidence Russia is bankrolling the MAGA movement," the Times asks. Trump then replies, "Bacon. Wind. Marco Rubio. Man. Woman. Bflptgt."

The headline Rothkopf predicts for the interview? "Trump Strongly Rejects Myth of Russian Involvement in GOP."

Rothkopf's quip directly references Trump's response to panelist Reshma Saujani, an Economic Club of New York trustee, who asked Thursday if the former president would commit himself to policy targeting the mounting cost of childcare, which she noted costs the U.S. economy roughly $142 billion a year.

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Trump's lengthy response began, but was not limited to, "Well, I will do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, uh, somebody, we had Sen. Marco Rubio and my daughter Ivanka were so, uh, impactful on that issue, it's a very important issue, but I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because childcare is childcare is couldn't, you know, is something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it."

The Times coverage of this response was brief.

"In a jumbled answer, [Trump] said he would prioritize legislation on the issue but offered no specifics and insisted that his other economic policies, including tariffs, would 'take care' of child care," the Times reported.

This reporting prompted vocal Trump critic George Conway to create a new word to chastise the national newspaper.

"How about sane-tizing," he wrote.

New York Assembly Member Deborah Glick, a Democrat, issued a correction to the Times in the form of a direct response with information she felt their reporting missed.

"Trump repeatedly demonstrates he is an incoherent boob," Glick wrote. "Where is the parsing of his 'policy positions' in the way you are so critical of [Vice President Kamala Harris] - DOUBLE STANDARD?"

University of California law professor and historian Ariela Gross even provided the Times with a suggestion.

"Just report what Trump actually said," she wrote. "It’s not biased to show him in his own words as the blithering and dangerous fool he is."