The New York Times editorial board tore apart Donald Trump’s baseless old boast about being one of the most transparent U.S. presidents of all time in an editorial published Monday.
The newspaper’s board wrote in the editorial ― titled “You Call That Transparency, Mr. President?” — that “this is true only if you measure transparency by the president’s tweets, which are too often characterized by incoherence and dishonesty.”
“By every other metric, Mr. Trump is a master of muddiness,” the paper said in the article centered on the costs Trump’s family has landed on the U.S. taxpayer.
The editorial noted Trump’s ongoing battles to keep his personal finances out of public view and his orders that his administration stonewall the impeachment inquiry into his Ukraine misconduct.
The last formal White House press briefing was held in March 2019.
“The president clearly believes that he should not have to answer to anyone for anything, be it his stiff-arming of Congress, his ‘discussions’ with Ukraine or the cost of his golf habit,” the editorial concluded. “He is wrong.”
“As with so many of Mr. Trump’s evasions, Americans deserve to know how much they are paying for his family’s highflying lifestyle,” it said. “And they deserve to know before they cast their votes in November.”