President Donald Trump early Thursday touted The New York Times for its "praise" of Fox News' "Fox & Friends," two days after the newspaper demanded an apology from the cable news program for its claims about the newspaper and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In his tweet, he said the "failing" New York newspaper had called "Fox & Friends" the "most powerful T.V. show in America."
Trump's tweet was posted at 6:48 a.m., about a half-hour after "Fox & Friends" hosts commented on the show that The Times had called their show the most powerful.
"Do you know why, Steve [Doocy]?" said show co-host Ainsley Earhardt. "Because we have the best viewers. You guys are so awesome. Thank you so much for waking up for us."
Trump did not tweet a link concerning which story he was referring to, but the wording was used in a July 19 story in The Times that said the show has become the "most powerful" in the United States because the president closely follows it and interacts with it while it's on the air.
The show's account is the only one Trump follows on Twitter, the newspaper reported, and he regularly retweets videos from the program and comments while the program is on the air.
"For years, it was a nontaxing mix of news, lifestyle and conservative couch gab, a warm-up before Fox's day of politics and commentary," The Times' James Poniewozik wrote.
"Suddenly, for no other reason than its No. 1 fan, it is the most powerful TV show in America . . . Mr. [Steve] Doocy and Mr. [Brian] Kilmeade now offer strategic advice on healthcare legislation. Politicians use the show as a kind of virtual Oval Office pitch meeting. In turn, Mr. Trump's live tweets set and reshape the show's focus."
The article also compared the show to the children's program "Romper Room," and called it an "interactive magic mirror" for Trump.
The Times, meanwhile, has requested an on-air apology and tweet after last Friday, a Fox host said al-Baghdadi "was able to sneak away under the cover of darkness after a New York Times story" in 2015 and another one claimed the government "would have had al-Baghdadi based on the intelligence that we had except someone leaked information to the failing New York Times."
The segment referred to comments in a Fox News story, in which Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, said his team was "close" to al-Baghdadi after a 2015 raid, but the "lead went dead" after it "was leaked in a prominent national newspaper."
The Fox story connected Thomas with The Times, which in turn ran a story on saying Trump was wrong when he tweeted, in a reference to the Fox News claims, that the newspaper had "foiled" the attempt to kill al-Baghdadi.