Trump blasts 'failing NY Times' over report on 'opposition' to breastfeeding measure

(AP)

President Trump on Monday blasted the “failing NY Times” for reporting that his administration opposed a pro-breastfeeding measure at the U.N.-tied World Health Assembly, claiming the problem was the resolution's limits on promoting formula.

“The failing NY Times Fake News story today about breast feeding must be called out. The U.S. strongly supports breast feeding but we don’t believe a woman should be denied access to formula. Many women need this option because of malnutrition and poverty,” Trump tweeted Monday.

The president’s tweet was a direct response to an article published by The New York Times on Sunday, titled “U.S. Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution Stuns World Health Officials.” 

The resolution was introduced by Ecuador at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May, and the U.S. delegation reportedly sought to water down the measure by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote and support breast-feeding,” along with another section calling on policymakers to restrict the promotion of food products that could have negative effects on young children, according to the Times.

The Times reported that the U.S. delegation threatened other nations, by suggesting that the U.S. would implement trade measures with the purpose of punishing them, citing more than a dozen participants from several of the countries present.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, in an email to the Times, defended the administration's stance.

“The resolution as originally drafted placed unnecessary hurdles for mothers seeking to provide nutrition to their children,” an HHS spokesman said in the email to the Times. “We recognize not all women are able to breast-feed for a variety of reasons. These women should have the choice and access to alternatives for the health of their babies, and not be stigmatized for the ways in which they are able to do so.”