Donald Trump holds meeting with New York Times three hours after claiming he had cancelled it

Anyone following the tycoon's Twitter feed on Tuesday may have been a little confused

Mr Trump was due to meet with the publisher and staff of America's most prestigious newspaper (AP)

Even by the standards of someone known for quick U-turns, this was a rapid reversal.

On Tuesday morning, barely 12 hours after berating senior television journalists and anchors for their “unfair” coverage of him, Donald Trump tweeted to say that a meeting scheduled with the New York Times had been cancelled.

“I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice,” he said.

“Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone.”

The newspaper, which was due to hold a meeting with the President-elect that would include both on-the-record and off-the-record portions, said it was somewhat mystified.

Officials at the paper, which has been one of the few media organisations to thoroughly probe Mr Trump’s policies, business dealings and personal tax details, said Mr Trump’s early morning tweet was the first it had heard the meeting was off.

Within an hour, it emerged that Mr Trump, who has been very critical of the newspaper, was going to go ahead with the meeting after all.

“Mr Trump’s staff has told us that the President-elect’s meeting with The Times is on again,” Eileen Murphy, the paper's head of communications said in a statement.

“He will meet with our publisher off the record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists.”