President Donald Trump berated a reporter on Sunday for asking a basic question during a press availability aboard Air Force One.
Trump was asked about the unfolding situation in Iran, where the regime has launched a deadly crackdown amid nationwide protests and threatened to attack U.S. military bases if Trump intervenes.
“If they do that, we’ll consider things, targets, that they wouldn’t believe,” Trump warned. “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
He said Iran would be met with “a very, very powerful force” if it attacked U.S. targets.
“Do you think Iran takes your threats seriously?” someone asked.
It’s not clear who asked the question, but Trump said the reporter was from CNN.
“I think so. Don’t you think so, CNN?” Trump replied, then went through a list of overseas military actions including the 2020 assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, 2019 strike that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria, and the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela that removed President Nicolás Maduro.
“She says, CNN, ‘Do you think they take your threat seriously?’” Trump repeated in a mocking tone. “Wouldn’t you say they do after all of the things we’ve done? What a stupid question.”
Trump has a long history of attacking both male and female reporters, but has been particularly rude to women who cover him, especially in recent months.
Last month, he slammed CNN’s Kaitlan Collins as “always Stupid and Nasty” in a rant posted on his Truth Social website, misspelling her name in the process. When CBS News White House correspondent Nancy Cordes tried to ask a question during a Thanksgiving press gaggle, he fired back: “Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?”
He called Katie Rogers of The New York Times “ugly” after she co-authored a report on his lighter schedule as he ages, slammed ABC’s Mary Bruce for asking what he called “a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question,” and insulted Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey with a now-infamous “Quiet, piggy!”
