Donald Trump’s announcement that he will make a third run for the White House has been met with the coolest of reactions from the media – with one once supportive newspaper trolling the former US president.
On Tuesday, Trump made public the worst kept secret in politics by unveiling his 2024 campaign from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He appeared to preview a campaign slogan – “Make America Great And Glorious Again” or “MAGAGA” – that raised plenty of eyebrows on social media.
The announcement came despite the disappointing midterm election results that saw the majority of the candidates he endorsed defeated, and his low energy performance on Tuesday only added to the lack of enthusiasm around Trump’s latest pitch.
Step forward the New York Post, the newspaper owned by conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
“Florida Man Makes Announcement,” was the headline running across the bottom of the front page of its Wednesday edition, directing readers to an article on buried on page 26.
The tone of the story, under the headline Been There, Don That, was even more savage.
The copy refers to Trump as a “Florida retiree” and his Mar-a-Lago resort as a “classified-documents library”, a reference to the investigation Trump faces for retaining government records, some of which were marked as highly classified.
It adds: “His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup.”
The reporter also points out that Trump himself has stated that “his qualifications for office include being a ‘stable genius’.”
Maggie Haberman, reporter for The New York Times and author of Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, said on CNN: “There is nobody who knows better than Rupert Murdoch that the way to upset Donald Trump is not to say his name.”
Last week, the Post put the blame for the Republican Party’s showing in the midterm elections squarely on the former president and his choice of candidates.
On its Thursday front page, the Post depicted Trump as the hapless nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty.
“Don (who couldn’t build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP’s men put the party back together again?” the tabloid newspaper asked.
On Wednesday, the Post suggested Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis was “DeFUTURE” of the GOP with this front page.
DeSantis is widely tipped to run for president in 2024 and convincingly won reelection in the midterms.