During an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran, Donald Trump revealed that he chose Moran for the tense interview marking his 100th day in office because he had never heard of the veteran reporter.
Moran, who serves as the network’s senior national correspondent and previously co-anchored Nightline, was personally picked by the president for the interview. Throughout the interview, Trump frequently challenged Moran’s line of questioning, criticized his Disney-owned network, and targeted the ‘fake news’ media in general.
In a heated moment where Moran attempted to fact check Trump, the president revealed that the choice wasn’t exactly a compliment.
Trump stated, ‘They’re giving you the big break of a lifetime. I picked you to do the interview because frankly, I’d never heard of you, but you’re not being very nice.’
The comments came as the two sparred over deported El Salvador native Kilmar Abrego Garcia and evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang, designated by the U.S. as a ‘foreign terrorist organization.’
Moran cited a photo Trump had posted multiple times showing knuckle tattoos on Garcia – who remains imprisoned in his native El Salvador – that represent MS-13 but Moran said was ‘photoshopped.’
As the reporter bemoans that ‘I knew this would come’ Trump claimed that he was ‘not being very nice’ before claiming he had MS-13 tattooed.
Moran said ‘we’ll agree to disagree’ and attempted to move on but Trump continues.
He asks: ‘Terry. Do you want me to show the picture?’
Moran responds that he saw the picture, claims to ‘agree to disagree again’ before Trump asks if he thinks it was photoshop.
‘Fair enough, he did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I’m not an expert on them,’ Moran said, speaking of the actual tattoos on Garcia’s knuckles.
Trump refuses: ‘He had MS as clear as you can be. Not “interpreted.” This is why people no longer believe the news, because it’s fake news.’
Moran then suggests that he doesn’t have ‘MS-13’ tattooed on him in photos taken in El Salvador and then shows Trump the photograph.
Trump asks: ‘But they’re there now, right?’
Moran stonewalls and then said ‘they’re in your picture,’ again alleging photoshop.
‘He’s got MS-13 on his knuckles. Okay?’
Moran denies Trump this again before Trump lands one more missive.
‘You do such a disservice. Why don’t you just say, “Yes, he does,” and, you know, go on to something else?’
Moran finally moves on to talking to Trump about Ukraine by saying: ‘We’ll take a look at that, sir.’
Trump insulted Moran again when the reporter started to take him on about his handling of the war.
The president told Moran that he believes Vladimir Putin ‘wants peace.’
Moran asked: ‘Still, even while he’s raining missiles?
‘His dream was to take over the whole country. Because of me, he’s not going to do that … you start hitting me with fake questions. You’re being dishonest,’ Trump responded.
‘I don’t trust you. I don’t trust, I don’t trust a lot of people. I don’t trust you. Look at you. You come in all shootin’ for bear. You’re so happy to do the interview and then you start hitting me with fake questions,’ Trump quips before trying to talk about the Garcia photo again.
Elsewhere in the interview, the president defended his Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after a tumultuous month at the Pentagon.
Moran asked Trump if he had ‘100 percent confidence’ in Hegseth and Trump immediately snapped back.
‘I don’t have a hundred percent confidence in anything, OK? Anything. Do I have a hundred percent? It’s a stupid question.’
‘It’s a pretty important position,’ Moran replied.
‘No, no, no. You don’t have a hundred percent. Only a liar would say, ‘I have a hundred percent confidence.’ I don’t have a hundred percent confidence that we’re gonna finish this interview,’ Trump said.
Moran tried to diffuse the situation, joking: ‘we will.’
The president spoke about how he had counseled the Defense Secretary during a series of leaks and an internal investigation that led to several top officials being fired.
‘I had a talk with him, and whatever I said I probably wouldn’t be inclined to tell you but we had a good talk. He’s a talented guy. He’s young. He’s smart, highly educated. And I think he’s gonna be a very good defense—hopefully a great defense secretary,’ he said.
Trump was also annoyed by a question from Moran wondering if ‘the reputation of the United States has gone down under’ his presidency.
He then went in on the failures of the Biden administration and the unwillingness of the mainstream media to cover his decline.
‘We were laughed at all over the world. We had — a president that couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs, couldn’t walk down a flight of stairs, couldn’t walk across a stage without falling. We had a president that was grossly incompetent,’ he said.
‘You knew it, I knew it, and everybody knew it. But you guys didn’t want to write it because you’re fake news and, by the way, ABC is one of the worst. I have to be honest with you.’
‘Thank you for the opinion. But more importantly, thank you for having us here,’ Moran replies.
The pair end the conversation with a cordial exchange of ‘thank yous’ for the chat.
Trump doubled-down on his international tariff plans despite widespread disapproval and a wildly unpredictable stock market since he launched the economic policy.
The president did not offer any reassurance to voters when Moran asked if Americans will be forced to ‘hang tough’ through economic hardship and a volatile market.
‘I said all of these things during my campaign – I said, you’re going to have a transition period,’ Trump said in a sit-down interview airing on his 100th day back in the Oval Office.
Moran said: ‘There is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you saying, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you answer those concerns?’
‘Well, they did sign up for it, actually,’ Trump insisted. ‘And this is what I campaigned on. I said that we’ve been abused by other countries at levels that nobody’s ever seen before.’
The president added: ‘I could’ve left it that way, and at some point, there would’ve been an implosion like nobody’s ever seen. But I said, ‘No, we have to fix it.’ I’ve — I’ve wanted to do this for many years.’
He went on to reassure Americans by listing the items where prices have decreased since January – including on gasoline and eggs.
‘Hard times are ahead?’ Moran posed.
‘I don’t think so,’ Trump replied, and predicted: ‘I think great times are ahead.’
‘Since I came in, gasoline is down, groceries are down, egg prices are down,’ he claimed. ‘Many things are down, just about everything.’
Trump wrote on his social media platform that ‘it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic’ when it comes to his plan to bring down the cost of living.
‘You said that to the American people,’ Moran said in reference to the post. ‘Is that what Americans should expect? Some hard times?’
‘I’ve said that during my campaign,’ Trump replied. ‘Look, we won a campaign by a lot. We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by a lot. You know, we had a tremendous campaign.’
‘I said all of these things during my campaign. I said, ‘You’re going to have a transition period.”
‘We’ve been ripped off by every country all over the world,’ he continued. ‘They’re laughing at us. They thought we were stupid people, and we were. And I said, ‘That’s not going to happen. We’re not going to let that happen.”
Trump revealed on his April 2 ‘Liberation Day’ event at the White House his plans to impose sweeping and significant tariffs on other nations.
He claims the U.S. has gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to international trade agreements – and he wants to right the ship.
The president brought a team of surprise guests to a rally in Michigan on Tuesday evening to mark the first 100 days of his second term.
He is staging his largest public event since returning to the White House in a state that has been especially rocked by his steep trade tariffs.
Trump invited a pair of administration personnel to the stage – Special Assistant to the President and Communications Advisor Margo Martin and homeland security advisor and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The president celebrated the 100th day of his second term – yet spent much of his rally marking it in campaign mode, fixated on past grudges and grievances.
He repeatedly mocked his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, attacking his mental acuity and even how he appears in a bathing suit.
Trump again and again returned to immigration, his signature issue, at the rally that marked his largest political event since returning to the White House – boasting about his administration’s ‘mass deportation’ efforts that have sent arrests for illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico plummeting .
