President Donald Trump’s seemingly endless war with the media continues after the commander-in-chief abruptly ended an interview on Meet the Press.
“Let’s call it quits, because I’ve had enough,” Trump, 79, told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday, January 7, after the reporter questioned the president about the so-called “weaponization” fund meant to pay reparations to those jailed for their participation in the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
The president also seemingly took issue with questions regarding his constantly debunked claims that the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden, was “rigged.”
“Thank you darling, have a good time,” Trump told Welker as he reportedly “crushed his lapel mic underfoot on his way out,” per CNBC.
Before storming out, the president claimed that the current race for Los Angeles mayor is also being “rigged.” (Voters are waiting to see if Democrat Nithya Raman or Republican reality TV star-turned-politician Spencer Pratt will take on incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November.)
“The election was rigged, it was a dirty election and it’s happening again right now in California,” the president claimed, despite never producing any evidence to back up the allegation that the 2020 election or any election to follow has been “rigged.”
“They’re cheating on the election,” he continued, claiming that “all I have to do is look” and to “listen to people” in order to prove his claims, adding “let’s see what happens.”
He added, “Do you think it’s appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they’re nowhere close to picking a winner? They’re crooked, just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked and Meet the Press is crooked.”
Of course, this is far from the first time the president of the United States has attacked members of the press — particularly women reporters. During an Oval Office press conference on Wednesday, June 3, the president criticized CNN’s chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, calling the news organization a “very corrupt organization” before personally attacking the reporter.
“She’s a young beautiful woman. Never smiles. I never see a smile off her face,” he told her colleagues and those in attendance. “I see her standing there with hatred in her eyes, like she has hatred, because we had borders, because we have a strong military, because we cut our taxes, because we do things that everybody wanted, and then we win our election in a massive landslide.”
He continued, “And you should be ashamed of yourself. You used to be a conservative. She was a conservative from Alabama, can you believe it?”
Megyn Kelly and President Donald Trump have had their fair share of ups and downs over the years. Before Trump first ran for office, he and Kelly were cordial. However, things began to fracture after the pair got into a disagreement following the 2015 republican primary debate, where Trump criticized Kelly for how she handled […]
Before ending his Sunday interview on Meet the Press, the president also defended the controversial January 6 “weaponization” fund.
“If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve,” Trump said of the pardoned insurrectionists, some of whom were found guilty of physically assaulting police officers in an attempt to overthrow the government. “People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides, think of it.”
The president, like his claims of rigged elections, has provided no such evidence to back up his claims that the insurrection was “peaceful” and that those found guilty for their role had their lives “ruined.” As of December 2025, at least 40 pardoned insurrectionists have since faced other, non-related criminal charges, including child abuse and possession of child pornography.
