Trump rails against NYT over report he told advisers he would change

Donald Trump continues to rail against the New York Times over a report that details his campaign’s failed attempts to change the tone of its Republican nominee.

“The failing @nytimes talks about anonymous sources and meetings that never happened,” Trump tweeted early Sunday morning, a day after Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman’s story, “Inside the Failing Mission to Tame Trump’s Tongue,” was published by the newspaper. “Their reporting is fiction. The media protects Hillary!”

“The failing @nytimes, which never spoke to me, keeps saying that I am saying to advisers that I will change,” he continued. “False, I am who I am — never said.”

The piece cites four unnamed sources who described a June 20 intervention staged by the real estate mogul’s daughter, Ivanka; her husband, Jared Kushner; Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort; and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie urging the candidate to “stick to a teleprompter and end his freestyle digressions and insults.”

“Mr. Trump bowed to his team’s entreaties, according to four people with detailed knowledge of the meeting, who described it on the condition of anonymity,” the paper said. “It was time, he agreed, to get on track.”

But “the effort to save Mr. Trump from himself has plainly failed,” the Times concluded:

At a rally in Fairfield, Conn., on Saturday, Trump talked repeatedly about one in particular.

“We have a newspaper that’s failing badly. It’s losing a lot of money. It’s gonna be out of business very soon. The New York Times, OK? I love it,” Trump said. “And they wrote a story today — anonymous sources have said, three anonymous sources, anonymous this, anonymous that. They don’t use names. I don’t really think they have any names, OK?”

He continued: “There are no anonymous, you know, with my campaign, I’ll be honest with you, it’s me. It’s me.”

“I’m not running against crooked Hillary,” Trump added. “I’m running against the crooked media.”

“Contrary to the ‘New York Times” nameless sources story,” Manafort said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, “the campaign is moving to get forward and is very strong.”

A spokeswoman for the New York Times declined to comment, but said the Trump campaign had not asked for a correction.

The attack on the news media comes on the heels of several rough weeks for his campaign — marred by a string of controversies that have apparently resulted in Clinton’s rise in the polls. According to RealClearPolitics’ most recent average of national polling data, the former secretary of state has opened up a 7-point lead over Trump (48 percent to 41 percent) among likely voters. Following last month’s Republican National Convention, Trump held a 1-point lead over Clinton in RCP’s poll average.

And Trump blames the media for that too.

In an interview with Time magazine last week, Trump said he has been taking the advice of GOP leaders, including Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, to stay on message.

“I am now listening to people that are telling me to be easier, nicer, be softer,” he said. “And you know, that’s OK, and I’m doing that. Personally, I don’t know if that’s what the country wants.”

On Thursday, Trump said he would continue his fiery approach while acknowledging it may ultimately cost him the election.

“I’ll just keep doing the same thing I’m doing right now,” he said on CNBC. “And at the end, it’s either going to work, or I’m going to, you know, I’m going to have a very, very nice, long vacation.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s tirade against the media continued Sunday afternoon.