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Trump Celebrates Major Layoffs at The Atlantic in ‘Fake News’ Twitter Rant

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In a series of tweets slamming “fake news” on Tuesday night, President Trump celebrated the major layoffs at The Atlantic that were announced last week.

“Great News: The boring but very nasty magazine, The Atlantic, is rapidly failing, going down the tubes, and has just been forced to announce it is laying off at least 20% of its staff in order to limp into the future. This is a tough time to be in the Fake New Business!” Trump tweeted.

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The president’s attack on The Atlantic comes after the politics and culture news site published an article titled “The Malignant Cruelty of Donald Trump” on Tuesday afternoon. The piece, by contributing writer Peter Wehner, examined the conspiracy theories peddled by Trump over the years, including the baseless speculation that Joe Scarborough murdered a former employee.

Wehner responded to Trump’s tweet, supposing his article was what triggered Trump’s response.

Last week, The Atlantic announced that 68 employees would be laid off, representing 17% of the total staff, as the coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on the company’s in-person events revenue. In a memo, chairman David Bradley also said that executives would be taking pay cuts and that subscribers have actually increased since September.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, also responded to Trump’s tweet, saying that the company’s audience “has never been bigger.”

Trump also took a swipe at The New York Times, saying its Pulitzer Prize for the international report of the Russian collusion investigation should be revoked.

The president’s rant came after Twitter applied a warning label to his tweets for the first time. The social media company flagged Trump’s posts about how mail-in ballots would rig the 2020 election as misleading. Trump blasted Twitter for “interfering” with the election, as well as criticizing its fact-checking process that uses CNN and the Washington Post.

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