President Donald Trump on Tuesday shut down and refused to take a question from an ABC News reporter at a White House event due to a recent George Stephanopoulos interview with Vice President JD Vance.
“After what you did with [George] Stephanopoulos to the vice president of the United States, I don’t take questions from ABC ‘Fake News,’” the president said to an ABC News reporter who had tried to ask a question.
Trump had been fielding questions from reporters during a roundtable with Argentina President Javier Milei when he lashed out at the journalist. At issue was Stephanopoulos’ Sunday interview with Vance on his “This Week” show. Stephanopoulos shut down the interview after the VP refused to directly answer his questions about whether Trump “Border Czar” Tom Homan accepted a bribe in 2024.
“It’s not a weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn’t insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI … and you did not answer the question. Thank you for your time,” Stephanopoulos said to Vance as he cut him off. Stephanopoulos asked Vance five times to answer the question.
Trump has often criticized Stephanopoulos — whom he likes to call “Slopadopolus” — and ABC News for their coverage of him. The president sued the network last year over Stephanopoulos saying on air in March 2024 that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. ABC settled the lawsuit for $15 million and issued an apology, even though legal experts doubted that Trump would have won the suit.
Since he returned to the White House, Trump has tightened media access, often rejecting questions from reporters from mainstream news outlets, such as CNN, in favor of right-wing commentators in the “new media” seats in the White House press corps. These commentators often do not push Trump and the administration and openly praise them while attacking mainstream news outlets.
