NY Times Flatly Refuses Trump’s Demand It Retract Maggie Haberman’s 9/11 Report

FILE – A sign for The New York Times hangs above the entrance to its building in New York, May 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The New York Times flatly refused President Donald Trump’s demand for a retraction after he unleashed a furious attack on the newspaper and correspondent Maggie Haberman over reporting about his plans for the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

“We won’t be issuing a retraction,” the Times Communications team wrote to X. “This is another all too common example of the president lashing out at coverage he doesn’t like and belittling journalists who report the facts.”

The rebuke came after Trump used Truth Social Tuesday night to rail against New York Magazine coverage questioning his long-standing claims about visiting Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and reporting on why he will commemorate Friday’s anniversary at the Pentagon rather than in New York.

“The Failing New York Magazine wrote a story that I wasn’t down at the World Trade Center after the Tragedy of September 11th, because nobody saw me there,” Trump wrote.

“Well, I don’t think I would be the first thing on anyone’s mind but, I was there, obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers.”

Trump posted archival footage from Sept. 13, 2001, showing him discussing a visit to employees in lower Manhattan. He has repeatedly said he was near Ground Zero after the attacks and that his construction workers assisted recovery efforts. Responders who were at the site have said they do not remember seeing him there.

The president then turned his fire on Haberman over past reporting surrounding his decision to attend the Pentagon commemoration while Vice President JD Vance represents the administration in New York.

“Maggot knows that this is a lie!” Trump wrote.

The attack became increasingly personal, with Trump calling Haberman “unattractive both inside and out.”

“I haven’t spoken to her in a long time, and certainly there was no ‘fact checking’ for her story – There never is! Let her reveal her sources, because they don’t exist,” he wrote.

The Times pointed readers both to its coverage of Trump’s anniversary plans and its examination of the “evolving – and often disputed – account” of his actions surrounding Sept. 11.

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