Dear Commons Community,

Donald Trump’s tweet insulting Vanity Fair initially seemed like the ordinary example of the president-elect lashing out when he’s displeased by one of the media but this time it appears to have backfired.   As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Trump tweeted Thursday that Vanity Fair was in “big trouble” with “really poor numbers.” (Actually, the circulation has increased in recent years.)

The outburst, likely provoked by a devastating review of Trump’s New York City steakhouse, sparked a surge in subscriptions 100-fold above a usual day, according to Poynter. That set a record for parent company Condé Nast for the most subscriptions any of its magazines has ever sold in a single day, a spokesperson told Poynter.

Vanity Fair routinely publishes stories critical of the president-elect, and publisher Graydon Carter has traded insults with Trump for decades.

But it appears an article by Tina Nguyen, titled “Trump Grill Could Be the Worst Restaurant in America,” rubbed him the wrong way this time. Apart from the unappetizing food, Nguyen mercilessly picks apart the restaurant’s décor, bathrooms, menus, wait staff, and the overall “cheap version of rich” aesthetic. It’s a thoroughly damning critique almost guaranteed to irritate the notoriously thin-skinned president-elect, or as Nguyen calls him, a “shallow, mediocre man.” 

Vanity Fair capitalized on Trump’s attack with tongue-in-cheek ads on its website to subscribe to “the magazine Trump doesn’t want you to read.”  

After Trump tweeted about the magazine, the steakhouse review received 1 million unique views, Vanity Fair told Folio Friday. Other Trump stories on the magazine’s website brought in more than 330,000 visitors, and Vanity Fair gained almost 10,000 new Twitter followers.”  

I was suppose to go Trump’s Grill tonight with my wife but we have decided to cancel our reservation. :))

Tony