President Donald Trump, it seems, has been in a grumpy mood.
In the last 24 hours he’s berated three reporters in the Oval Office over questions on the release of the Epstein files, which the House just overwhelmingly voted to release, and the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I think the license should be taken away from ABC,” Trump told a reporter Tuesday evening, seated beside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “Because your news is so fake, and it’s so wrong.”
Trump added that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr should “look at” stripping the network’s license because ABC is “97% negative to Trump” and therefore “not credible.”
The confrontation began when an ABC reporter asked Trump why, if he was in favor of Congress voting to release the Epstein files, he wouldn’t just order his administration to release them. (Trump had previously strenuously opposed the files’ release, recanting only after it became clear the House had the votes anyway; the bill’s fate in the Senate is still unclear.) The same reporter had earlier asked Trump about the Trump Organization’s business dealings in Saudi Arabia, and pressed the crown prince directly about Khashoggi’s killing.
Trump bristled immediately. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” he said, cutting off the question about Khashoggi. When MBS offered a carefully worded response—calling the murder “painful” and saying Saudi Arabia had “improved our system to be sure that nothing [like that] happened”—Trump interjected again, accusing the reporter of trying to “embarrass” his guest. Moments later, he called the journalist a “terrible person.”
It was only days after Trump made headlines for barking at a female Bloomberg News correspondent to be “quiet, piggy” aboard Air Force One when she asked about Epstein.
Trump’s behavior has inspired outrage from press freedom groups and concerns about how he treats female reporters.
The president’s Oval Office clash came right before the House voted to force the release of Epstein-related documents, an effort originally led by Democrats and a small faction of Republicans against Trump’s wishes. Trump initially opposed the bill, but reversed himself over the weekend and said Monday he would sign it if it reaches his desk.His attacks on the press, however, echoed earlier episodes throughout his political career. At the National Association of Black Journalists convention in 2024, Trump told ABC’s Rachel Scott she was “nasty” and “hostile” when she questioned him about his history of racist comments. He has also called reporters “terrible,” “obnoxious,” or “the worst.” He also had a series of run-ins with several journalists who aggressively covered him, including The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and CNN’s Jim Acosta.
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