Trump storms out of interview after grilling on false election claims

Mon 8 Jun 2026 at 9:16am

Mon 8 Jun 2026 at 9:16am

In short:

An NBC program has aired an interview with Donald Trump in which he abruptly walked out after calling the host "crooked".

The interview, shot on Friday local time, escalated after the US president faced questions about his plans to fund victims of so-called government "weaponisation".

The interview was interrupted several times by weather and audio issues as torrential rain pounded the roof.

US President Donald Trump has angrily stormed out of an interview with American broadcaster NBC after he was questioned about his unfounded claims of election fraud.

"You're a one-sided, crooked network," Mr Trump told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker.

"Sorry. Let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time," he said before standing up and walking out of the interview that aired on Sunday, local time.

The interview, filmed on Friday, was conducted on a farm in Wisconsin and was interrupted several times by weather and audio issues as torrential rain pounded the roof.

Several questions followed about Iran, nuclear weapons and his campaign pledges to keep the United States out of foreign wars.

"First of all, I didn't guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?" Mr Trump said, before accusing Welker of being "a big liberal, a big progressive".

"No, I'm just a journalist," she countered.

Mr Trump went on to say: "I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We've been doing this for three months."

The tone escalated again as the discussion turned to Mr Trump's proposed taxpayer-funded program to compensate people he believes were victims of partisan prosecution under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

"I don't know what's going to happen with the weaponisation fund," he said.

"I love the idea because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden … they destroyed people. They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong."

Welker said, "There is no evidence for what you're saying."

Mr Trump reiterated past false claims that the 2020 election was "rigged" and said last week's primary in California was, too.

Welker held her ground, asking the president to present evidence.

"You are either crooked or you're stupid," Mr Trump finally shot back before leaving the camera's view while Welker attempted to keep him engaged.

On Sunday, Welker told viewers that she had spoken with Mr Trump on Saturday about the weather disruptions and that he had agreed to give her another interview.

AFP