White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt ripped a New York Times reporter for linking to a news story claiming that President Trump’s DC takeover hammered restaurants – even after the misleading report was corrected by the news outlet.
Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent at the New York Times, linked to a WUSA9 story on Tuesday in a post on X as he blasted Trump’s “militarized takeover” of the US capital.
WUSA9, a local DC news outlet, had reported that restaurant reservations plunged over 25% after Trump sent the National Guard into DC.
But it turns out the outlet was comparing data from last week to year-ago figures from Restaurant Week, when big promotions and discounts typically draw in more diners.
The White House said it contacted WUSA9 about the error, and the news site later updated its story — to instead report that restaurant reservations rallied nearly 30% at the start of Restaurant Week, which coincided with Trump’s DC takeover.
“Peter was so excited to criticize President Trump that he didn’t even realize the article he shared was updated, because it dishonestly compared last year’s DC ‘restaurant week’ data to non-restaurant week data this year,” Leavitt wrote in a post on X.
She added that Baker “is indistinguishable from a junior Democrat comms staffer — except he’s even worse at his job.”
On Wednesday, Baker made another social media post informing his more than 550,000 followers that WUSA9 had “updated it with numbers showing that reservations rose again.”
“I shared the original WUSA story and after they updated it I shared the updated story too. Obviously it’s not my own reporting, so I’ll leave it to them to explain their thinking,” Baker told The Post.
WUSA9 did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Baker, meanwhile, kept his original post online – prompting backlash from the White House press secretary.
“This is the problem with activist reporters and why Americans’ trust in the mass media is at the lowest point in more than five decades,” Leavitt wrote in a post on X on Wednesday.
“Instead of fully retracting his original post that received nearly a million views, Peter posted a mealymouthed reply trying to excuse why he got it completely wrong to begin with.”
It’s unclear whether there is any causal link between the federal takeover and the impact on restaurant reservations.
WUSA9 also reported that local bar and restaurant owners blamed the federal takeover for a dip in business, claiming National Guard members on District streets acted as a deterrent to diners.
