Media and political professionals are criticizing a new interview the New York Times conducted with President Trump, complaining that Trump wasn't challenged enough.

The Times published its 30-minute, impromptu interview from West Palm Beach, Fla., where the president has been staying over the holidays, on Thursday night.

Reaction on social media by others in the news business was swift.

"I’m sorry but given how few interviews Trump does this was a complete waste of 30 minutes," Tim Miller, a former communications aide to Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, said on Twitter. "Reads like they were afraid to challenge any of his absurd statements for fear he’d walk off."

Michael Cohen, a columnist for the Boston Globe, tweeted that the interview contained "too great a focus on political/process questions."

Elizabeth Spiers, a communications consultant and former editor of the defunct website Gawker, said that critics of the interview were right to be "angry" that there was "no minimal pushback" on Trump from Michael Schmidt, the reporter who conducted the Q&A.

In the interview, Trump made several definitive and debatable claims, including that he has "absolute right" to direct the Justice Department to do as he wishes and that he was more adept at understanding legislation "than any president that's ever been in office."

Quotes from the interview were printed in a news article, which did not attempt to dispute any of Trump's assertion, and a partial transcript of the Q&A was also published online thereafter.

Maggie Haberman, another Times reporter, and other journalists, however, defended the piece.

"Half of Twitter thinks the Schmidt interview was revealing about the POTUS because it was his unfiltered thoughts," she said on Twitter. "The other half is angry that [Schmidt] did not audition as an extra for the courtroom remake of 'A Few Good Men' and interrupt him constantly."

Daily Beast reporter Sam Stein tweeted, "Would I have done it different than the NYT’s. Of course! everyone has their style. But I certainly understand their approach to this."