Donald Trump hosted a press briefing at the Oval Office alongside Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, where he did what he does best – dodged questions from reporters and accused them of “fake news.” The question that triggered Trump the most was from a reporter from the ABC News network. “Why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?” the reporter, Mary Bruce, from ABC News asked.
Slamming the reporter, Trump replied, “It’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who’s highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate, and just a terrible question.”
.@POTUS TORCHES @marykbruce — then dismantles her question: “You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter… I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert — I guess I turned out to be right.” pic.twitter.com/o0EhrHW1mz
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 18, 2025
Trump went on to label the reporter simply doing her job as a “terrible person” and added, “You could even ask that same question… you’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter. You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you.”
Addressing the question about the Epstein files, Trump said during the press briefing, “As far as the Epstein files… I have nothing to do with. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert. People are wise to your hoax. Your c—-y company is one of the perpetrators.”
The US President also said that he would take away the license from ABC News. “And I’ll tell you something, I think the license should be taken away from ABC, because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong. And we have a great commissioner, chairman who should look at that,” said Trump, referring to Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who happens to be in charge of broadcasters’ licenses.
This is the second time in a month that Trump has dismissed a reporter from the ABC network. At a press briefing in October, Trump didn’t even let the reporter frame the question and interrupted, saying, “I don’t take questions from ABC fake news. After what you did with Stephanopoulos to the Vice President of the United States, I don’t take questions from ABC fake news.”
It was only earlier this week that Trump lashed out at a female reporter who questioned him about the Epstein files. Answering to one of the journalists, Trump said, “I know nothing about that. They would have announced that a long time ago. Jeffrey Epstein and I had a very bad relationship for many years.”
Later, he slammed a Bloomberg reporter who asked him about him being mentioned in the emails released by the Epstein estate. Pointing a finger at the female reporter, Trump said, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.”
Trump, who claims to have cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein, reacted to the emails released from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein last week. One of the emails documented a conversation between convicted sex offender Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, in which Epstein claimed that Trump “spent hours at my house” with one of the alleged victims.
Trump tried to diffuse the controversy in his Truth Social post, blaming the Democrats, and he called it the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.” “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” an excerpt from Trump’s statement read.
Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on 10 August 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York. He was arrested in 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has voted 427-1 to release the Epstein file immediately. The Senate’s approval on the bill is now awaited.
