Trump decries New York Times for reaching the 'lowest level of journalism' after running anti-Semitic cartoon and refusing to apologize to him personally
- President Trump said Monday the New York Times reached a 'low point' when it ran an anti-Semitic cartoon on Thursday
- He said that the Times had not reached out to apologize for running the cartoon,
- The cartoon depicted Trump as a blind man wearing a yarmulke being led by a dog with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's face with a Star of David on the collar
- The Times on Sunday published a statement apologizing for the cartoon after its explanation on Saturday was criticized as insufficient
- Bret Stephens, a Times op-ed columnist, wrote a piece slamming his employer over the cartoon on Sunday
President Donald Trump said the New York Times has not apologized to him for running a political cartoon that pictured him in a yarmulke being led by a dachshund dog with the face of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
'The New York Times has apologized for the terrible Anti-Semitic Cartoon, but they haven't apologized to me for this or all of the Fake and Corrupt news they print on a daily basis,' Trump tweeted Monday. 'They have reached the lowest level of 'journalism,' and certainly a low point in @nytimes history!'
The Times ran the cartoon on Thursday in print, and on Saturday apologized for the cartoon, which it said 'included anti-Semitic tropes' and admitted was 'offensive' and 'an error of judgment to publish it.'
A blue Star of David is seen dangling from Netanyahu's 'collar' while Trump, portrayed as a blind man, holds the leash.
President Donald Trump said the New York Times has not reached out to him to apologize for running an anti-Semitic cartoon
The Times ran the cartoon on Thursday, which depicts President Trump as a blind man wearing a yarmulke being led by a 'guide dog' with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's face
Trump said that the Times, which he often calls 'fake news,' has reached the 'lowest level of journalism' by running the political cartoon
The newspaper said the cartoon was provided by the New York Times News Service and Syndicate and has been deleted.
'We are deeply sorry for the publication of an anti-Semitic political cartoon last Thursday in the print edition of The New York Times that circulates outside of the United States, and we are committed to making sure nothing like this happens again,' the Times Opinion section tweeted in a statement Saturday.
'Such imagery is always dangerous, and at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, it's all the more unacceptable,' the statement continued. 'We have investigated how this happened and learned that, because of a faulty process, a single editor working without adequate oversight downloaded the syndicated cartoon and made the decision to include it on the Opinion page.'
Trump often criticizes the Times, calling the publication 'fake news,' and blasting them for its leftist bias. He said the Times reached a 'low point' in publishing the cartoon and then not apologizing to him.
'Disgusting. I have no words for flagrant anti-Semitism on display here,' Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr., tweeted Saturday. 'Imagine this was in something other than a leftist newspaper?'
'The image was offensive, and it was an error of judgment to publish it,' the Times said Saturday in a statement addressing the image
In response to the continued outrage, the Times Opinion team issued another statement on Sunday that had a more explicit apology
New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens blasted his paper for the cartoon on Sunday
Jewish organizations continued to voice anger at the publication.
The American Jewish Committee slammed the Times, saying that it printed a cartoon 'that would not have looked out of place on a white supremacist website'.
'Apology not accepted,' the AJC tweeted in response to the Times' clarification on Saturday. 'What does this say about your processes or your decision makers? How are you fixing it?'
The AJC then tweeted: 'Naked antisemitism such as in this image is not 'an error of judgment. We have to wonder if the @nytimes editors would've published a similar cartoon depicting any other country or people.'
The cartoon was drawn by political cartoonist António Moreira Antunes of the Lisbon, Portugal-based newspaper Expresso.
Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a piece titled 'A Despicable Cartoon in The Times,' which blasted his employer over the cartoon.
The media's 'torrential criticism of Israel' and 'mainstreaming of anti-Zionism' has desensitized people to its 'inherent bigotry,' Stephens wrote.
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'I have now been with The Times for two years and I'm certain that the charge that the institution is in any way anti-Semitic is a calumny,' Stephens writes.
'But the publication of the cartoon isn't just an 'error of judgment. The paper owes the Israeli prime minister an apology.' Stephens continued. 'It owes itself some serious reflection as to how it came to publish that cartoon - and how its publication came, to many longtime readers, as a shock but not a surprise.'
The cartoon was intended as a criticism of the Trump administration's perceived pro-Israel bias.
Palestinian leaders have said Trump cannot be an honest broker for peace after he broke with long-standing U.S. policy and recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017 and moved the American embassy to the city last May.
Trump also established a precedent by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said he was disgusted by the 'anti-Semitism on display here,' and claimed more right-leaning newspapers would receive even more backlash for a similar faux pas
