City Pages, an alternative weekly newspaper, has removed an article it published titled ''Let's laugh at all these very good 'Trump has COVID' tweets.''
The article made fun of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump after they contracted coronavirus.
“So President Trump and the First Lady have COVID. Man, anyone else just in a really, inexplicably good mood this morning?” Editor-in-chief Emily Cassel wrote at the beginning of the article.
Publisher Mary Erickson called the article "insensitive and in bad taste."
"While it is in the spirit of alt-weekly journalism to provoke and to push boundaries, in this case we went too far. We apologize to our readers and to our advertisers, and wish President and Mrs. Trump a safe and speedy recovery," Erickson said.
In the article, Cassel ridiculed everyone who came into contact with Trump during campaign events in Minnesota earlier this week.
''Trump was in Minnesota [on] Wednesday for an enormous outdoor rally in Duluth and a big ol' indoor Twin Cities fundraiser with some of the state's wealthiest GOP donors. (Gee, I sure hope those billionaires are alright!!!),'' Cassel wrote.
The Trump campaign criticized City Pages owner the Star Tribune Media Company before it finally pulled the article.
''It’s sad to see a major newspaper implicitly endorse these vile and hateful sentiments,'' Trump campaign spokesperson Jacob Schneider told Fox News.
Cassel sent this statement to Fox News: ''Regarding my blog post and the subsequent blowback, I would simply like to quote the president: ‘Every time I speak of the haters and losers I do so with great love and affection. They cannot help the fact that they were born f----d up!'''
The tweet was a riff on one Trump wrote in 2014.
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