Trump Tells Reporter To Never Talk Again During Press Briefing

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Allison Robbert/The Washington Post/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It’s not exactly new for Donald Trump to lash out at reporters during White House press briefing. But when he told a news reporter in the Oval Office to never speak again during a meeting shared in a video on X, it took on a whole other meeting for some people. Some took this to be a bigger censorship, even if Trump just said it to one reporter, and it worries others about what could come, if Trump has his way.

Of course, Trump does still allow various news outlets in the White House to ask questions and gather information. So no, it’s not just a Fox News love fest in there. But Trump almost always goes viral because of something he says to a reporter from a new tower or outlet that he doesn’t totally love, and that’s what happened in this case.

He told the reporter they are “fake news.”

In the clip on X, Trump talks about United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro and says that she “choked.” He is discussing her decision not to move forward with a case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn regarding vandalism on the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. Prosecutors had previously argued that Hearn took a piece of the Reflecting Pool’s liner.

According to NPR, the case against all three accused individuals, including Hearn, was dropped. In the X clip, after Trump mentions Pirro and the way he believes she dropped the ball on the case, a reporter for MS NOW asks if Trump is reconsidering Pirro’s position in D.C. It’s a fair question, given Trump’s mini rant about her. But he doesn’t seem to like it.

“I don’t know what…you don’t…you’re fake news,” Trump says, pointing a finger at the reporter off-camera. “Don’t ever talk again. You’re fake news. One of the worst in the business. Fortunately, nobody watches you.”

According to TV Insider, in July 2026, MS NOW failed to stack up against Fox News in terms of viewership numbers, but it did surpass CNN’s numbers for daily views. MS NOW averaged 1.02 million primetime viewers and 636,000 total day viewers in July. CNN averaged 658,000 primetime viewers and 465,000 total day viewers for the same month.

The reporter was from MS NOW.

Although Trump doesn’t mention who the reporter is with in the clip from the Oval Office press meeting, we now know it was a reporter from MS NOW. In a Reddit post about the interaction, users discussed how much more it will take for a member of the press to lash out at Trump. Sure, that would cause them to lose access to these types of meetings at the White House, but there are plenty of people waiting for that to finally happen.

“Crazy the media in a country that considers itself to be the leaders of democracy allows themselves to be treated like this and don’t challenge this nonsense,” one Redditor commented.

Another person wrote, “I am desperately waiting for someone in the press corps to just lose their s–t on him. Like, they’re going to get blacklisted anyway, might as well go out in a blaze of glory. Also it irks me anytime this clown tries (but fails) to be funny/witty that the press corps laughs along with him. Such disgustingly sycophantic behavior.”

Trump also has something against ABC News.

Trump doesn’t only believe that MS NOW is fake news, though. He has had a vendetta against ABC for quite some time. The outlet accused the Federal Communications Commission of censoring the media under Trump’s orders. According to an official filing in July 2026, submitted a 119-page filing about Trump.

“The Administration has openly and repeatedly called for the revocation of ABC’s licenses, because it dislikes the content and viewpoints expressed on ABC network programs,” the filing states.

ABC News remains another hated news source for the Trump Administration.

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Chrissy Bobic