WASHINGTON — A Time magazine cover featuring Donald Trump hangs on the walls of at least four of the president’s golf clubs, in Florida, Virginia, Ireland, and Scotland.
But closer inspection reveals that the March 1, 2009, cover is false.
The Washington Post investigated and reported Tuesday that Time had no magazine cover with that date, nor had the publication featured Trump on its cover at any time in 2009.
Is the president who railed against ‘‘fake news’’ as recently as Tuesday decorating his clubs with phony magazine covers?
A Time spokeswoman confirmed for the Post that the cover in question is not real. Representatives for the Trump Organization and the White House declined to comment.
It was unclear who produced the phony magazine cover, or why.
President chastises CNN over credibilityNEW YORK — President Trump used the resignations of three CNN journalists involved in a retracted Russia-related story to resume his attack on the network’s credibility Tuesday.
The story was about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between a Trump associate and the head of a Russian investment fund. CNN accepted the journalists’ resignations Monday.
Trump wrote in a Tuesday morning tweet, ‘‘Wow, CNN had to retract big story on ‘Russia,’ with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!’’
A message seeking comment was left at CNN.
The story was posted on the network’s website Thursday and was removed, with all links disabled, Friday night. CNN immediately apologized to Anthony Scaramucci, the Trump transition team member who was reported to be involved in the meeting.
The story’s author, Thomas Frank, was among those who resigned, according to a network executive who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss personnel issues. Also losing their jobs were Eric Lichtblau, an assistant managing editor in CNN’s Washington bureau, and Lex Harris, head of the investigations unit. (AP)
Confidence across globe plummets
NEW YORK — Donald Trump has been president for less than six months but it’s been enough time to send opinions of American leadership plunging.
According to a Pew Research Center public survey of 37 countries, a median of just 22 percent of respondents have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in international matters, compared with 64 percent at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency. As a country, the US’s favorable rating fell in the same period to 49 percent from 64 percent.
Israel and Russia were the only countries surveyed where the public prefers Trump to Obama.
According to Pew, the steepest slides in the view of Trump came in European allies such as Sweden, Netherlands, and Germany, and in South Korea. The decline was less pronounced in some majority-Muslim countries such as Turkey, Tunisia, and Jordan, partly because approval for Obama was already low. Trump was the lowest rated of the world’s major leaders. (Bloomberg)
Podesta meets with House committeeWASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman met Tuesday with a House committee investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
John Podesta spoke with members of the House intelligence committee behind closed doors. He told reporters afterward he was ‘‘happy to cooperate’’ but couldn’t say what questions he'd been asked.
The hacking of Podesta’s personal e-mail account and the release of the e-mails by WikiLeaks during the campaign is one focus of the committee’s investigation.
While President Donald Trump has previously declined to name Russia as responsible for election meddling, in recent days he has referred to Russia in criticizing the Obama administration’s response to the hack. Podesta said the Obama administration was ‘‘trying to make the best judgment they could.’’ (AP)
