President Donald Trump has accused an ABC reporter of having “hate in your heart” and suggested the administration may go after the press if they treat him unfairly.
As he left the White House on Tuesday for his trip to the UK, Trump was asked about plans by Attorney General Pam Bondi to crack down on hate speech in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Bondi’s comments sent First Amendment-loving members of MAGA world into a spin on Monday, with some even going so far as to call her a “moron” for making such a claim.
However, when pressed by ABC’s Jonathan Karl on what he thought, the president replied: “We’ll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly.”
“It’s hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe we’ll go after ABC,” Trump said.
The personal attack was met with an immediate backlash by Democrats.
Donald Trump says he will send the DOJ after the press if they say things he doesn’t like. https://t.co/c3Mik1c3dx
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 16, 2025
“So is the AG going to go after journalists who displease the president?” asked former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod.
California Governor Gavin Newsom was more definitive, writing on X: “Donald Trump says he will send the DOJ after the press if they say things he doesn’t like.”
But Trump’s comments were merely the latest in a string of threats he has made against the media over the past 24 hours.
Late on Monday, the president filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times and some of its most prominent reporters for articles and a book that made the case that he built his business fortune, in part, through fraud.
On Tuesday, he lashed out at Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist John Lyons for asking him if it was “appropriate” that he was enriching himself while in office.
“In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump said, before telling Lyons to be “quiet” as he moved on to take Karl’s question about free speech.
In responding to Karl, Trump also referenced the $16 million settlement the ABC recently paid the president over on-air statement by correspondent George Stephanopoulos, who mistakenly said that Trump had been found liable for raping New York writer E. Jean Carroll (when he had in fact been found liable of sexual assault).
Describing this as a “form of hate speech,” Trump told Karl: “Maybe they’ll have to go after you.”
Tensions over free speech have intensified in the wake of Kirk’s brutal death last week.
The White House has framed the killing as a left-wing attack, despite a motive from the suspect, Tyler Robinson, remaining unclear.
But since Kirk was murdered last week, Trump has threatened to use racketeering laws to imprison Democratic donors he claims are funding agitation against the right; White House aide Stephen Miller has vowed to “go after” liberal non-government organizations believed to be targeting conservatives; and Vice President JD Vance has urged people to report anyone seen as celebrating Kirk’s death.
Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime. For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.Under 18 U.S.C. §…
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) September 16, 2025
Bondi also doubled down on Tuesday, vowing to use the full force of the law to crack down on left-wing people using violent rhetoric to silence conservatives.
“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime,” she posted on X.
“For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.”
The post Trump Melts Down at ABC’s Jonathan Karl: ‘Hate in Your Heart’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
