NY Times Editor Defends Sunday Edition Declaring Trump ‘Unfit To Lead’ That Outraged MAGA

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New York Times Opinions editor Kathleen Kingsbury defended the publication against criticism over the timing of its lead column Sunday declaring former President Donald Trump “unfit to lead”

In an essay condemning political violence, Kingsbury explained that the edition was printed days before Saturday’s failed assassination attempt on the Republican leader.

Trump narrowly survived after he was shot in the ear as he gave a speech at his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. One attendee was killed and two seriously injured in the shooting.

The Times preprinted Sunday edition ran a project looking back at Trump’s record as president during his first term and urging voters to “reject” him as a candidate. The front page declared that Trump had “failed the tests of leadership and betrayed America.”

As the edition hit newsstands, the newspaper was slammed by conservatives who reacted in disbelief that it was published the day after the shooting.

Billionaire Elon Musk , owner of social media platform X and critic of “legacy media”, blasted the newspaper masthead as “truly callous and despicable human beings.”

In her essay, however, Kingsbury detailed the banal logistical reason behind the ill timing of the editorial pull out.

The print edition of Sunday Opinion is prepared days before it appears on newsstands, and the July 14 section was finalized and printed before the events of Saturday evening. There is no connection between our prior decision to run this editorial package in print and Saturday’s incident – we would have changed our plans if we could have. (Indeed, we have held off on further online publication for the time being).

The project, a collection of essays, which was first published online on Thursday, was commissioned for reproduction in the weekend’s print edition.