President Donald Trump has once again mocked a journalist for asking a question he didn’t like.
Holding a press gaggle in the middle of his Mar-a-Lago jungle-themed Halloween party, Trump took questions surrounded by blue-suited Secret Service members and at least one person dressed as what appeared to be a parrot.
“Do you expect to go back to war with Iran this week?” a journalist asked.
After having to get part of the question repeated, Trump, 80, snapped.
“Why would you ask such a stupid question?” he began, then referencing that the reporter was from The New York Times.
“New York Times. OK, Let’s say I did, would I tell you?”
Then Trump adopted a mocking expression and repeated the question he had been asked, mimicking the journalist.
“Would I tell you? Let’s say I did, would I tell you?” he repeated. “It’s not a question for The New York Times.”
Without attempting any kind of genuine answer to the question, Trump then changed the subject.
There has been much speculation that aggression against Iran will pick up once the midterms are over, as the war is highly unpopular. A White House official told MS NOW, “We do not comment on sensitive military plans that may or may not exist. President Trump keeps all options on the table to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
The president’s relationship with the media has often been fraught, but in recent months it has deteriorated significantly.
He banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House and also excluded CNN from Air Force One when the network was supposed to be covering the president for all the networks.
Earlier this week, Trump insulted a journalist’s weight when asked about his health, and he has repeatedly targeted female journalists with comments about their appearance.
The Halloween briefing was an 11-minute back-and-forth in a room packed with people, and Trump was keen to show off his party.
“These are the biggest guys on Wall Street and they spent all day long getting ready, I only had 10 minutes,” he lamented, before complaining he was only going to have “15 minutes of Halloween” before returning to work.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
