The Arizona Republic has received death threats, cancellations, and now a response from the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over its endorsement of Hillary Clinton.
Trump tweeted a response Friday morning saying people were "really smart in cancelling subscriptions."
The people are really smart in cancelling subscriptions to the Dallas & Arizona papers & now USA Today will lose readers! The people get it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2016
With its first-ever endorsement of a Democrat president in 126 years of publication, the Republic joined other traditionally conservative newspaper editorial boards -- including The Cincinnati Enquirer, which hadn't backed a Democrat for nearly 100 years.
The Dallas Morning News made headlines earlier in September for its Clinton endorsement.
"This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation's highest office since before World War II — if you're counting, that's more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections," the editorial read.
The Republic, Enquirer and Morning News have all taken a hit to their subscriptions, according to The Washington Times.
USA Today's editorial board also broke its own political tradition Friday morning by "unanimous consensus" upon saying Trump was "unfit for the presidency."
According to the article, it's the first time in the paper's 34 years it has ever "taken sides" in a presidential race -- although the editorial board did not endorse Hillary Clinton.
Trump responded while visiting Grand Rapids, Michigan, Friday.
"Well, I don't read USA TODAY. It's not much of a newspaper as far as I'm concerned ... All I know is we're leading in the polls, we're doing well, we have the pulse of the nation," Trump told WZZM 13.
An NPR article on the endorsements noted that most people say a newspaper's endorsement doesn't affect their vote, but "a 2011 study pointed out one scenario where a newspaper editorial board may make a difference: when a newspaper bucks its own tradition."
