Trump lashed out at New York Times White House and national security correspondent David Sanger aboard Air Force One, calling him “treasonous” and “fake” during a tense exchange with reporters.
The confrontation came just after Trump concluded a high-profile trip to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a tightly managed summit filled with ceremony and limited transparency.
On the flight back to the United States, Trump spent nearly half an hour answering questions in the press cabin aboard Air Force One. The exchange turned sharply hostile when Sanger questioned him about the Iran War.
Instead of responding to the substance of the question, Trump launched into a personal attack on the journalist at close range, escalating the moment into a public confrontation in the confined space of the aircraft.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Trump also appeared to mistakenly refer to Sanger as “Ed,” adding confusion to an already heated exchange.
The incident fits into a broader pattern of the president clashing aggressively with reporters who challenge him on foreign policy and national security issues.
NYT CORRESPONDENT DAVID SANGER: What would the use be in repeating the bombing? You did it for 38 days And you did not get the political changes in Iran–
DONALD TRUMP: I got, I had a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy, Ed (SIC)–.
And guys like you write about incorrectly. We had a total military victory. We knocked out their entire Navy. We knocked down their entire Air Force. We knocked all of their anti-aircraft weaponry. We knocked off all of the radar. We knocked of all of our leaders, number one.
And then we knocked out all of their leaders in the second division. And we knocked out numerous of their leaders in the 3rd Division, and they’re very confused.
We’ve had a total victory except… By people like you that don’t write the truth, you know, you should write.
I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write, but you and The New York Times and CNN I would say are the worst.
REPORTER: On another war–
DONALD TRUMP: And you should know better than that. You know better. You went to write. And you’re right. And you should be ashamed of yourself.
REPORTER: Another war. Is there any…
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I actually think it’s treason. When you write like they’re doing well militarily and they have no Navy, no Air Force, no anti-anything.
By the way, we knocked out 85% of their manufacturing for the missiles. We knocked out everything.
We haven’t knocked out other than one bridge and we did because they misbehaved. But we have bridges we can knock down. We can knock out their bridges and their electrical capacity. Within two days, we can knock out the whole thing.
And then I read The New York Times, and they act like they’re doing well. And everybody does it. That’s why your subscribers are way down. You know, TheTimes subscribers are way down because it’s fake news. Subscribers are way, way down, way there.
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