‘Worst in the Business!’: Trump Blows a Fuse After a Reporter Dared to Question Him About Releasing Files, Family’s Questionable Business Dealings
Tearing a page out of his tried and true media playbook, President Donald Trump brutally lashed out at an ABC News reporter — of course, a woman — who dared to ask him pointed and uncomfortable questions about his business ties to Saudi Arabia and the Epstein files, calling her “a terrible person and a terrible reporter.”
He became so upset over the questions from ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, that he even called on the Federal Communications Commission to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license.
It happened during a White House meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday. Trump welcomed the Saudi leader, who was reportedly behind the horrendous slaughter of Washington Post journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, with a military flyover and a horse-drawn carriage.
When Trump and the Prince took questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Bruce first asked if it was appropriate for the Trump family to conduct business with Saudi Arabia while Trump is president.
“Is that a conflict of interest?” Bruce asked before turning to bin Salman.
“U.S. intelligence concluded that you orchestrated the brutal murder of a journalist. 9/11 families are furious that you are here in the Oval Office. Why should Americans trust you? And the same to you, Mr. President?”
WOW! An ABC Reporter just CLOBBERED Trump And the Saudi Crown Prince with TWO of the best questions.
Please name this journalist so we can all nominate her for the Pulitzer Prize! pic.twitter.com/fb8WkfSYJE
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) November 18, 2025
She then asked, “Mr. President, why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?”
An enraged Trump exploded, spewing vicious insults. “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 is highly respected, asking him a horrible, insubordinate and just a terrible question. And you could even ask that same exact question nicely,” Trump angrily replied.
“You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter,” he continued with is indignant tirade.
“Who are you with?” Trump demanded.
“I’m with ABC News, sir,” she responded.
“Fake news,” Trump spat out. “ABC fake news, one of the worst, one of the worst in the business, but I’ll answer your question.”
“As far as the Epstein files, 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,” Trump insisted for the hundreth time, even as he has worked to prevent the release of the files and didn’t directly answer her question.
The House voted 427 to 1 on Tuesday to release the files, while the measure passed unanimously in the Senate.
Trump also denied having anything to do with his family business dealings in Saudi Arabia and claimed his family has done very little business with the Saudis before bragging that he’s the greatest president of all time.
Then he pivoted to defend bin Salman.
“As far as this gentleman is concerned, he’s done a phenomenal job. You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it,” Trump callously insisted, pointing to the Saudi leader seated at his right and contradicting what U.S. intelligence reported during Trump’s first term in office.
“And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that,” Trump berated Bruce.
Bin Salman then jumped in with “allow me to answer.”
“I feel painful about families of 9/11 in America but we have to focus on reality. Reality based on CIA documents and based on a lot of documents that Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose is to destroy this relation, to destroy the American-Saudi relationship,” bin Salman responded.
The families of 9/11 victims have accused the Saudi government of supporting the hijackers who killed thousands of Americans when they crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001. A judge ruled in August that their lawsuit against the country can proceed.
Bin Salman then denied any knowledge of the Khashoggi’s murder.
“About the journalist, it’s really painful to hear, you know, anyone that be losing his life, you know for no real purpose or nothing illegal … It’s painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the rights steps of investigation,” he declared.
He went on to deny that the Saudi government was involved and continued calling it “painful, but then he said something else, that it was “a huge mistake” and that he’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Many viewers online applauded the reporter for asking Trump hard-hitting questions.
“This is what real journalism looks like in an age of access-junkies and bootlickers: one woman with a mic, cutting through billions in oil, arms, and ego with 20 seconds of courage,” one X person wrote. “Every American journalist should be asking questions like this. Stop catering to him,” another added.
Some saw it as a sign of guilt or a form of deflection by the president.
“Dude has such a frail ego…all he does is deflect and cries like a baby. SMH,” another X user wrote. “Once he says FAKE NEWS just know he has no comeback,” one viewer wrote.