Newsweek’s headline on Thursday declaring that President Trump was spending Thanksgiving “tweeting, golfing and more” sparked a swift and scathing response from the president – via Twitter, of course.
“I thought Newsweek was out of business?” Trump asked.
Trump actually spent his Thanksgiving in Afghanistan on an unannounced trip to visit American troops, though the Newsweek piece, published Thursday morning, suggested he would “probably be tweeting, or expressing his opinions in another way.”
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, tweeted a screenshot of the article alongside some pictures of Trump on his visit overseas. “Fake news gonna fake,” he wrote.
The headline on the piece in question has now been changed to, “How Did Trump Spend Thanksgiving? Tweeting, Golfing — and Surprising U.S. Troops in Afghanistan.”
“Newsweek investigated the failures that led to the publication of the inaccurate report that President Trump spent Thanksgiving tweeting and golfing rather than visiting troops in Afghanistan,” a representative for Newsweek tells The Wrap. “The story has been corrected and the journalist responsible has been terminated. We will continue to review our processes and, if required, take further action.”
It remains true that Newsweek has been embattled of late. The former owners of the publication and a faith-based online media company were accused of attempting to defraud lenders in an indictment filed in October 2018. High-ranking editorial staffers have been leaving the publication and three senior editorial staffers were fired in retaliation for a story about a legal investigation into the company in February 2018.
As of Friday, Newsweek was still publishing, so no, it isn’t out of business.