President Donald Trump spent Monday night going after the New York Times over a photograph of his Miami golf resort, telling his followers the paper was bound for hell and offering up a second image he claimed showed what the building really looks like.
The 80-year-old president posted twice on Truth Social about a Times photo of Trump National Doral Miami, shot by staff photographer Scott McIntyre, which ran with a story about his business dealings in office.
"Think of it, The New York Times DOCTORED the picture of the beautiful exterior facade of Doral, in Miami, trying to make it look as bad as possible," Trump wrote at 10:52 p.m. "These people are STONE COLD LOSERS — Totally dishonest. That's why they're going TO HELL, and their subscription numbers are way down!"
In an earlier post, he said the paper had "blackened and denigrated" the facade to make the property look "shoddy, filthy, and just plain BAD," according to Newsweek, which has asked the Times and McIntyre for comment.
The two pictures he placed side by side are not the same photograph. The Times image shows a man in a white cap climbing the entrance steps, hard midday shadows, and two mature palms framing the shot. The image Trump offered as the true facade has no palms in frame at all, a different fountain set in sculpted hedging, different flower beds, and the flat, even lighting of resort marketing photography.
The Times story Trump was reacting to concerned his plan to hold the G20 summit at the private club he owns, a plan that has drawn almost no organized protest. His 2019 attempt to put the G7 at the same resort collapsed under Republican backlash.
The paper reported Trump made at least $2.2 billion last year, took a luxury jet from Qatar that the government then spent hundreds of millions more to retrofit, and secured relief from back taxes that could exceed $100 million. Democrats have called the jet a symbol of graft.
"He has defined deviancy down," said Paul Rosenzweig, a former Bush administration official.
