When North Korea said it was going to test an intercontinental ballistic missile that would reach the U.S. Donald Trump grabbed his Twitter machine and roared, ‘North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!’

Reading Trump’s tweet I scratched my head, wondering exactly what he meant: Did Trump mean North Korea’s missile test was never going to happen – or did he mean that no nuclear weapon (fired by North Korea) was ever going to reach U.S. soil?

You could read what he’d written either way – but the New York Times didn’t care.

Gripped by the frenzy that seizes the Times whenever Trump tweets, the newspaper declared Trump had said the missile test would never happen and ABC, CNN and a bevy of other news media chimed in singing ‘Amen.’

Of course, the Times’ goal was to harpoon Trump. But more often than not the Times swings and misses which helps Trump. The unkindest thing the Times could do to Trump would be to never mention his name. But hammering Trump sells newspapers so every morning the Times wakes up hungry for another story. It’s not going to stop. And, I expect, Trump doesn’t want it to.