A top political aide to Donald Trump aide was fired after a Buzzfeed reporter who was granted special access to the billionaire real estate mogul wrote what turned out to be a critical article.
Sam Nunberg reportedly had assured Trump that Buzzfeed reporter McKay Coppins was not looking to write a hit piece and that the two were friends. Wary at first because of Buzzfeed's liberal tilt, Trump eventually agreed to a sit-down interview with Coppins in New Hampshire in February acting on his aide's assurances that the reporter was not looking to write a critical piece.
Trump was touring New England and delivering political speeches as what
was seen by many as a precursor to an upcoming bid for New York State governor.
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In the snarky
Buzzfeed piece that followed, titled "36 hours on the Fake Campaign Trail with Donald Trump," Coppins describes
Trump's apparent interest in the governorship in New York as nothing more than a "charade."
"Trump can no longer escape the fact that his political 'career' — a long con that the blustery billionaire has perpetrated on the country for 25 years by repeatedly pretending to consider various runs for office, only to bail out after generating hundreds of headlines — finally appears to be on the brink of collapse," Coppins writes.
After Coppins' piece was published last Thursday, Trump reportedly reacted to it by uttering his now famous catchphrase to Nunberg, "You're fired."
Nunberg subsequently
discussed his firing with the New York Post.
"I told [Trump] when he fired me, 'Sir, I’m willing to offer you my resignation.' He didn’t accept that," the Upper East Side political consultant said.
Nunberg further insisted that his firing was "not unfair. . . I failed Mr. Trump, and that’s the long and short of it."
When asked about the firing, Trump told the New York Post "I called [Nunberg] in and said, 'Sam, you’re fired!'" The billionaire developer added that the Buzzfeed piece was filled with "inaccurate reporting" and featured out-of-context remarks.
Trump, as he frequently does, also turned to Twitter to voice his disappointment with the article.
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Coppins said he stands by the story.