The New York Times said it would run a correction after a headline in its Friday print edition misstated NATO’s full name, drawing online reactions from journalists, former Trump administration officials and President Donald Trump.
Headline error draws online attention
The New York Times said it would publish a correction after a headline in its Friday, April 3, 2026, print edition misstated the name behind the NATO acronym.
The headline, shown in photos shared on social media, read: “A North American Treaty Organization Without America?” NATO is short for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Social media reactions
Politico editor Sasha Issenberg posted a photo of the page on X and asked whether the Times knew what “NATO” stands for.
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer criticized the mistake, arguing that a major print headline should have been caught during editing. Former Trump administration official Richard Grenell also weighed in, posting “Yikes” alongside a reference to the article’s author, Steven Erlanger, who is the Times’ chief diplomatic correspondent for Europe.
President Donald Trump also commented on the error on April 4 in a Truth Social post, using it to attack the newspaper’s credibility.
Correction notice
A Times spokesperson said the paper would run a correction in its Saturday print edition. The correction text, as circulated by the Times and reported by other outlets, said the headline had misstated the organization’s full name and that it is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not the North American Treaty Organization.
Context of the underlying story
The headline appeared on a Times article about Trump and NATO. The Daily Wire reported that the story referenced Trump’s threats to leave the alliance and linked those threats to disputes over support from European allies amid military operations involving Iran.
The Daily Wire also reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized NATO in comments to Fox News host Sean Hannity, saying that if U.S. access to bases is constrained, the alliance would become “a one-way street.”
