When reporter SV Dáte finally got to ask the US president a question, he kept it simple.
“Mr president, after three and a half years, do you regret at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?”
Mr Dáte, White House correspondent for the Huffington Post, later said he had been waiting for five years to ask the question.
Appearing startled, Donald Trump responded: “All the what?”
“All the lying, all the dishonesties,” Mr Dáte continued, during a White House press conference on Thursday.
“That who has done?” Mr Trump replied, in an apparent attempt to deflect the question.
All the lying “you have done,” Mr Dáte continued, before being cut off from finishing his sentence.
Mr Trump then called on another journalist after appearing not to appreciate Mr Dáte’s line of questioning, a tactic that has become commonplace throughout his presidency.
Mr Dáte won plenty of plaudits on Twitter after putting the question to the president.
“Not all heroes wear capes,” wrote one user. “BRAVO”.
“Thank you for your courage today. Funny how that liar had nothing to say,” another wrote.
Meanwhile, others questioned why Mr Dáte’s colleagues did not follow up on his question.
“It would have been appropriate for the person following you asking a question stayed on point instead of letting him off the hook,” one said.
“Not a strong moment of solidarity”.
At the coronavirus briefing, the president again suggested that mail-in balloting would lead to voter fraud, a claim roundly dismissed by experts.
He also pedalled a false claim that California senator Kamala Harris may be ineligible for the vice president’s office.
