President Trump assailed an American journalist in the Oval Office on Tuesday for asking Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, about the violent death of a Washington Post columnist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. U.S. intelligence has said the attack was carried out on the prince’s orders.
“You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Mr. Trump told the journalist, Mary Bruce of ABC News, later referring to her query as “a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.”
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” Mr. Trump said, referring to the murdered journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. “Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” The prince has denied involvement in the killing.
The president also referred to ABC as a “crappy company” and said that the network’s broadcasting license “should be taken away.” He said that his top broadcast regulator, Brendan Carr, whose agency grants licenses to local stations, “should look at that.”
The exchange occurred during Prince Mohammed’s first visit to the United States since Mr. Khashoggi’s death and dismemberment by Saudi agents. His death provoked international condemnation.
Mr. Trump appeared deeply frustrated with Ms. Bruce, the chief White House correspondent at ABC News. He insulted her again after she asked another question about why Mr. Trump had not unilaterally ordered the release of files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“It’s not the question that I mind; it’s your attitude,” Mr. Trump told Ms. Bruce, in scolding tones. “I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions.” He added: “You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”
The National Press Club criticized Mr. Trump’s remarks in a statement on Tuesday, saying that the death of Mr. Khashoggi was “a direct attack on press freedom.”
“Statements that appear to minimize or excuse the killing of a journalist have real-world consequences,” the group said. “They can undermine the essential principle that journalists must be able to work without fear of violence or retribution.”
Although Mr. Trump routinely denigrates the press, he also fields dozens of questions from White House correspondents over the course of a week, sometimes meeting with journalists several times in one day. He has doled out vitriol to both men and women, though women have faced some of his fiercest insults.
On Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Trump cut off a reporter for Bloomberg News, Catherine Lucey, when she tried to ask why he had not yet released the Epstein files.
“Quiet!” the president said. “Quiet, piggy.”
Mr. Trump has invoked that schoolyard insult in the past; Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe contestant, has said that Mr. Trump referred to her as “Miss Piggy” when urging her to lose weight.
Bloomberg News and ABC News did not comment on Tuesday about the insults lobbed at their reporters.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license in recent months, often doing so after ABC journalists asked him questions that he did not like. He also sued ABC News last year for defamation; the network paid $16 million to settle the suit.
Over the weekend, Mr. Trump attacked the late-night host Seth Meyers in a post on Truth Social, writing that Mr. Meyers “is suffering from an incurable case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).” He urged the host’s network, NBC, to “fire him, IMMEDIATELY!” Mr. Carr, who has regulatory purview over NBC, reposted the president’s message on X.
At the White House on Tuesday, Mr. Trump eventually signaled that he was no longer interested in fielding Ms. Bruce’s inquiries.
“You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter,” the president said. “No more questions from you.”
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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