President Donald Trump bashed a staff writer from The Atlantic for not being “capable or competent” because she doesn’t “know” that he “won the presidency three times,” reciting one of his frequent falsehoods.
Ashley Parker apparently requested an interview with the president — which Trump rebuffed in a very public way. He branded her a “Radical Left Lunatic” who was “not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview” in a Truth Social post Tuesday. His reasoning appeared to be based on what he views as her lack of knowledge about the outcome of the 2020 election.
“To this date, she doesn’t even know that I won the Presidency THREE times. If you have some other reporter, let us know, but Ashley is not capable or competent enough to understand the intricacies of High Level politics,” the president said. Parker has won the Pulitzer Prize — three times.
Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton and 2024 election against Kamala Harris. He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, but has repeatedly, and falsely, claimed that he was victorious.
Trump also slammed The Atlantic as a “third rate magazine.” Picking at another old wound, Trump once again accused the magazine of falsifying the story about his 2018 trip to a French cemetery, where he allegedly described fallen U.S. soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.”
The 2020 article wasn’t written by Parker and Trump has repeatedly denied having ever made the comments. In 2023, John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff from his first term, confirmed that the president made those remarks.
Trump continued to bash the magazine in his Truth Social post. “The Atlantic is doing terribly, losing a fortune, and will hopefully fold up and be gone in the not too distant future. It has absolutely no credibility, and would be far better off, in terms of ‘journalism,’ to cease publication.”
Regarding a future interview, he added: “Nevertheless, when you have a writer with intelligence, competence, and fairness, please let me know!”
The Independent has reached out to The Atlantic for comment. In a statement to HuffPost, a spokesperson for the magazine said: “Atlantic reporters are diligent and fair and continue to pursue stories of importance to the public.”
This isn’t first time that Trump has lashed out at Ashley. In 2019, Ashley and Philip Rucker wrote a piece for the Washington Post titled: Trump’s lost summer: Aides claim victory, but others see incompetence and intolerance.
In response, Trump wrote on X that the pair are “nasty lightweight reporters” who “shouldn’t even be allowed on the grounds of the White House because their reporting is so DISGUSTING & FAKE.”
Trump’s Tuesday comments are the latest in his administration’s tirade against the media since returning to office.
The president has threatened to sue authors, publishers and the media that use anonymous sources. He barred a reporter at the Associated Press from attending events at the Oval Office after the organization refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by Trump’s new name for it. He has also accused MSNBC and CNN of “illegal” reporting and branded them as “political arms of the Democrat Party.” His Federal Communications Commission chair ordered investigations into PBS and NPR.
He dismantled the Voice of America’s parent agency over the weekend, a move that led to 1,300 employees being placed on leave.
Even before returning to the White House, he launched legal battles against numerous news networks and suggested others’ broadcasting licenses be revoked. Trump has repeatedly referred to the press as “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”
