Trump calls for reporter’s firing after apology over photo

President Trump on Saturday called on The Washington Post to fire one of its reporters after the journalist apologized for posting a misleading photo of a mostly empty arena taken ahead of a Trump rally in Florida.

“.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired,” Trump tweeted.

.@daveweigel of the Washington Post just admitted that his picture was a FAKE (fraud?) showing an almost empty arena last night for my speech in Pensacola when, in fact, he knew the arena was packed (as shown also on T.V.). FAKE NEWS, he should be fired.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 9, 2017

{mosads}

An hour earlier, Trump blasted the reporter, Dave Weigel, for posting the photo and demanded an apology. 

“@DaveWeigel @WashingtonPost put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived @ the venue, w/ thousands of people outside, on their way in. Real photos now shown as I spoke,” Trump tweeted. “Packed house, many people unable to get in. Demand apology & retraction from FAKE NEWS WaPo!”

Weigel quickly responded to the president’s tweet, pointing out that he had deleted the photo from his Twitter account and offering an apology for the error. 

“Sure thing: I apologize. I deleted the photo after @dmartosko told me I’d gotten it wrong. Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner,” Weigel wrote on Twitter.

In a follow-up tweet, Weigel said that it was “very fair” to call out the misleading tweet, but noted that it was posted to his personal Twitter account, rather than an official Washington Post handle.

Trump’s tweets attacking Weigel and calling for his termination from the Post were his latest targeting news outlets and reporters on Saturday. Earlier in the day, he went after ABC News’s Brian Ross over a corrected news report, as well as CNN, also for a corrected report. 

Updated 6:50 p.m.