US President Donald Trump on Friday called ABC News fake, the worst, and tore into its female White House reporter, calling her a “very loud” person.
ABC News correspondent Karen Travers attempted to question the president during an executive order signing on Friday about his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department, two departments he oversaw, after the lawsuit was filed the night before.
During a presser, the reporter asked, "Why are you suing the IRS?"
Trump: Who are you with?
Reporter: ABC News
Trump: You are a loud person. Let somebody else have a chance
Reporter: Can you answer the question?
Trump: ABC fake news. I didn't call on you Go ahead. I didn't call on you. Go ahead. Please. Go ahead. Go ahead... By the way, ABC is truly one of the worst?
The attack on Travers, which followed a growing trend of the president slamming women journalists with sexist insults, seemed to be a way for him to avoid answering the question about the lawsuit. The executive order signing was centred on an IndyCar race around the US Capitol to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, The Independent reported.
The complaint, which included the president’s two oldest sons and the Trump Organization, alleged that the IRS and Treasury failed to stop the leak of Trump’s tax records by an IRS contractor in 2019 and 2020, Independent reported.
Charles Littlejohn pleaded guilty in 2023 to leaking the president’s tax returns to the New York Times and received five years in prison. In 2020, the New York Times reported that Trump, despite his purported wealth, only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and no taxes for most of the previous 15 years
. At the time, Trump claimed that the story was “totally fake news.” Filed in the president’s “personal capacity,” the lawsuit sought damages of at least $10 billion from Trump’s own administration, claiming the leak of the tax documents caused “reputational and financial harm” and “unfairly tarnished” the business reputation of the Trumps and their company.
