Donald Trump referred to The Atlantic as a “threat to democracy” and called its top editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, a “sleazebag” journalist for his scoop about Trump disparaging a slain U.S. soldier and refusing to pay her funeral bill.
That was just a portion of Trump’s rant against the media on Friday afternoon in Austin, Texas, where he renewed insults of old, calling the press “evil” and “fake news people.”
The report Trump raged about was penned and published by Goldberg on Tuesday. It cited multiple sources alleging that Trump referred to murdered U.S. soldier Vanessa Guillén as a “f---ing Mexican” in a 2020 White House meeting when he learned her funeral, which he’d agreed to pay for, cost $60,000.
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Goldberg claimed his reporting was based on “contemporaneous notes” and people inside the meeting, but nobody has spoken on the record at other outlets to confirm the report. Mark Meadows, Trump’s then-chief of staff who attended the meeting, has called the report untrue. Guillén’s loved ones have also characterized the report as being a lie.
The magazine editor defended his work in an appearance on CNN Wednesday, pointing out that Guillén’s family would have no way of knowing what was said in a White House meeting they didn’t attend.
“I have sources who are sitting in that meeting,” Goldberg said. “I have contemporaneous notes taken by participants in that meeting that described exactly what I described in the story. We’ve seen this pattern again and again and again. They deny, deny, deny, and then it comes out as true.”
Trump had already disputed Goldberg’s reporting through his proxies, but he personally called out the “failing” Atlantic himself on Friday and said they’d “made up the story.”
Trump said Guillén’s family was attending his press conference. He thanked them for being outspoken supporters of him—Vanessa’s sister, Mayra Guillén, said she voted early for Trump this week—and for joining him in disputing the Atlantic’s reporting.
“The Guillén family is here,” Trump said. “They are incredible, incredible, brave and beautiful family. They lost their daughter and sister, and she’s up in heaven looking down, very proud of you and very proud of the stance that you took.”
He later said of the family’s support, “They didn’t have to do this. They could have sat back... I have these people saying all this bad stuff, then all of a sudden the family that they’re talking about comes out of nowhere and says, ‘President Trump was perfect.’”
Trump also took aim at John Kelly in his rant on Friday. He slammed his former White House chief of staff for telling the Atlantic and The New York Times that Trump admired Adolf Hitler’s power over his generals, and for telling the Times that Trump “met the definition of a fascist” and “would govern like a dictator if allowed.”
Trump called his former top aide a “nut job” who was disgruntled.
“It was phony stories by a general that got fired,” Trump claimed. “And there’s a whack job, total whack job, a general. It’s funny when you fire people—see, Biden has never fired anybody, but when you fire people for doing a bad job, they get a little bit angry.”
