Trump Rips ‘Failing New York Times,’ AFP Journos for WILD Questions About Iran War

Curtis Houck
April 6th, 2026 6:19 PM

Text to Speech

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On Monday afternoon, President Trump held a briefing alongside senior military officials and CIA Director John Ratcliffe about the daring, unprecedented mission to rescue two American heroes trapped behind enemy lines in Iran. He also took questions from the press corps, including one from The New York Times on whether escalating attacks on Iran would constitute war crimes and another from Agence France-Presse (AFP) citing “critics” who believe Trump’s tough talk is proof he’s mental unstable.

Times White House reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs barely got a word out before the President demanded to know which outlet he represented: “Deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violate the Geneva Conventions and international law.”

After sharing he’s “Zolan from The New York Times,” Trump began tearing into him: “Uh-huh. The failing, the failing New York Times. Circulation way down at The New York Times.”

Kanno-Youngs finished his question amid the cross-talk: “Are you concerned — are you concerned that your threat to bomb power plants and bridges amount to war crimes?”

Trump demurred: “No, not at all. No, no, I’m not. I hope I don’t have to do it. But again, I just said 47 years they’ve been negotiating with these people, they’re great negotiators.”

When Kanno-Youngs restated his question, Trump torched The Times for siding with and believeing the “mentally...disturbed” and “sick of mind” people in the Iranian regime should be allowed to have nuclear weapons (click “expand”):

KANNO-YOUNGS: [Inaudible]. But why would that attack not violate international law?

TRUMP: And because they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and if somebody that takes my place someday is weak and ineffective, which possibly that will happen because we had numerous presidents that were weak, ineffective, and afraid of Iran. We’re never going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And if you think it’s okay for people that are sick of mind, that are tough, smart and sick, really sick ideological, you know, from — from a policy standpoint, from a standpoint, any which way you want to say mentally, these are disturbed people. If you think I’m going to allow them and powerful and rich to have a nuclear weapon, you can tell your friends at The New York Times not going to happen.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Even if it means violating international law? Even if it means violating international law?

TRUMP: Quiet, quiet, quiet. You no longer have credibility with The New York Times because The New York Times said, ‘oh, Trump won’t win the election.’ And I won in a landslide. I won every swing state. New York Times said, ‘oh, Trump won’t win the election.’ New York Times has no credibility. The credibility they have is it used to be all the news that’s fit to print a great — the Old Gray Lady, it was great. But they’re running on past fumes and you can’t keep doing that. You have to be able to give the correct news. And people like you who I know are fake. You’re fake.

A few minutes later, AFP’s Danny Kemp asked this in light of Trump’s Truth Social post about calling the Iranians “crazy bastards”: “[W]hat is your response to critics who say that it is your mental health that should perhaps be examined as this war continues?”

Trump had a surprisingly short answer, but he made it count in this latest cheap shot at his mental stamina: “I haven’t heard that, but if that’s the case, you’re going to have to have more people like me because our country was being ripped off on trade, on everything for many years until I came along. So, if that’s the case, you’re going to have to have more people [examined].”

Towards the beginning of the Q&A, ABC’s chief White House correspondent and Biden regime apple polisher Mary Bruce wondered if Trump’s threats to blow up Iranian infrastructure sites would be “punishing Iranians for the actions of the regime.”

Trump replied Iranians are willing to put up with a lot “in order to have freedom” from the “violent, horrible world” they’ve been trapped in for 47 years, including threats of being killed for simply protesting the government:

In addition to blasting reporters for lacking the courage ordinary Iranians have, he mocked the left’s refusal to side with Iranians while screeching about so-called “women’s rights” and rights for “gays” in America (click “expand”):

And a lot of the — the news doesn’t talk about they talk about, oh, women’s rights. You want to see women’s rights, you’re not going to see it there. It’s amazing when I see some of the stupid people like AOC plus three, all that group they talk about, oh, freedom for Iran. They don’t tell you the real facts. Women, men, gays. How about gays for Iran? They kill the gays, they throw them off buildings. So, I wonder what — what’s going on? I can only say this. They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardizes, because their life is in much greater danger. They want freedom for Iran, but it’s very hard for them to protest. I actually tell them, I said, don’t go out. I fully understand. Nobody in this room would go out. I don’t think there’s any because frankly, it’s not a question of bravery. We’re all brave, right? You’re brave. I’m brave. We’re all brave, but we’re also intelligent. If you have people shooting at you, expert shots with the best rifles you can get and hitting you right between the eyes every single time, and you’re looking here and you’re seeing and you’re looking here, you’re out of there. I don’t care who you are. 

On the substantive side, Fox’s Mark Meredith wondered whether anyone in the administration advised against the rescue mission:

Trump made sure to CNN’s Kristen Holmes knew she was with “fake news” before she asked about the importance of Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz to a deal (and a subsequently lengthy answer), but he cut right to the chase with CBS’s Weijia Jiang:

The Washington Post’s Natalie Allison brought up Trump’s Truth Social post in which he said “glory be to God” in the war as a segue to whether “you believe that God supports the United States actions in this war and have you sought His direction.”

Skipping ahead to after Kemp’s question embracing the left’s worldview that Trump is mentally ill, Politico’s Dasha Burns restated Kanno-Young’s question, but did so without the war crimes bit: “You said that very little is off limits in Iran as far as targeting, including power plants, bridges. You’ve mentioned those. Are there certain kinds of civilian targets, though — I’m thinking, schools or hospitals that you would say is off limits?”

The final question of the Q&A went to The Hill’s Julia Manchester, who drew a lengthy and newsy answer from the President about his recent complaints about NATO:

Just hours before the Briefing Room appearance, Trump took questions at the White House Easter Egg Roll, where tore into Liz Landers, formerly of taxpayer-funded PBS:

To see the relevant transcript of the April 6 briefing (including even more Q&A), click here.

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