President Donald Trump again took aim at the press on Tuesday, Nov. 18, angrily rebuking an ABC News reporter who asked about Jeffrey Epstein and claiming the network’s broadcast license should be reviewed.
The exchange happened during a White House press conference in the Oval Office alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. ABC News chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce raised a question about the Epstein files, prompting a sharp response from the president.
“People are wise to your hoax,” Trump, 79, told Bruce. He went on to accuse ABC of spreading false information and said federal regulators should consider action against the network. “ABC, your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators. And I’ll tell you something, I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and is so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, a chairman, who should look at that,” he said.
Trump argued that the network’s coverage has been overwhelmingly critical of him and suggested that its reporting has no credibility. “I think when you come in, and when you’re 97% negative to Trump, and then Trump wins the election in a landslide, that means obviously your news is not credible,” he said. He then dismissed Bruce’s question and urged her to focus on Democrats who had received money from Epstein.
He continued by criticizing her manner of questioning. “The way you ask a question with the anger and the meanness is terrible. You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter,” Trump said, before cutting her off: “No more questions from you.”
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The outburst follows a string of recent confrontations between Trump and reporters over the Epstein matter. The issue has returned to the spotlight ahead of a high-profile House bill tied to the files that was set to be voted on Tuesday afternoon.
Days earlier, on Friday, Nov. 14, Trump was asked about the files while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled from Washington, D.C., to Mar-a-Lago. That week, the House Oversight Committee released emails in which Epstein mentioned Trump by name, including one in which Epstein claimed Trump “knew about the girls” and asked Ghislaine Maxwell to stop.
Trump denied any wrongdoing, saying he knew nothing about the emails and that they would have surfaced long ago if credible. He added that he and Epstein had a “very bad relationship” for many years. When a journalist pressed him on whether anything in the emails was incriminating, Trump responded by telling her to “quiet” and calling her a “piggy.”
Two days after that incident, the president lashed out again when another reporter interrupted him during a question about Tucker Carlson’s interview with far-right podcaster Nick Fuentes. Trump complained about being cut off mid-answer and told the reporter, “You are the worst,” before adding that he didn’t understand why the outlet employed her.
Trump’s comments about ABC’s FCC license also come as he steps up public attacks on major networks. Over the weekend, he demanded that NBC fire late-night host Seth Meyers, calling his show a “ratings disaster” and labeling Meyers “talentless” in a Truth Social post. Shortly after, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr reposted a screenshot of Trump’s message on X without additional comment.
