Trump Drops F-Bomb While Lashing Out at Reporters: ‘Every Question’s a Hit’

NEED TO KNOW

• President Donald Trump dropped an F-bomb during a lengthy Time interview this week in the Oval Office, characterizing the press as overly negative and illegitimate

• "You haven't asked me one f---ing positive question," the president said

• It was Trump's 56th Time cover story, surpassing President Richard Nixon for the most by any individual in the magazine's history

President Donald Trump dropped an F-bomb during a lengthy Time magazine interview this week in the Oval Office, bemoaning a press he characterized as overly negative and illegitimate.

"You haven't asked me one f---ing positive question," the president told Time senior political correspondent Eric Cortellessa and editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs toward the end of the 75-minute interview conducted on Monday, Sept. 28. "All of this. What about this? What about that? What about that? What about this? All negative."

The profanity followed a question about 84-year-old Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell , the former Senate Majority Leader who was absent for months this year after suffering a fall in his home in June.

"Have you seen the videos of Mitch McConnell back in the Senate? Do you think he should resign because of his health condition?" one of the Time journalists asked Trump, according to a transcript shared by the outlet on Thursday, Oct. 1.

Trump said McConnell's appearance and absence "was a disappointment to a lot of Republicans," before returning to a previous question about whether he would pardon members of his administration if Democrats gain control of Congress in November.

"Sleepy Joe [Biden] gave pardons to everybody. He gave them to [Anthony] Fauci. He gave them to this. But you mean I'm not allowed to give them, but Sleepy Joe's allowed to give them?" Trump said. "This ain't gonna be much of a story."

Trump has lashed out at journalists and media outlets repeatedly throughout his time in politics and in the decades before, but escalated those fights last month when he barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House before a judge he appointed in 2017 forced him to end that policy for the time being.

"I don't think anybody should be forced to bear fake news, constantly bad stories, because I've done great things. I mean, I've done Venezuela. I've done—I can name, I can name 100 great things I've done. I never get good press," Trump said earlier in the interview.

"I never get fair press. Doesn't have to be good. All it has to be is fair. So at a certain point, you say, 'What's the purpose of like this crazy Kaitlan Collins ?' She's a very average person," Trump said, disparaging the CNN reporter who is one of his frequent targets .

"She's the most unhappy young person I've ever seen. If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly," Trump added.

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The White House barred CNN from traveling aboard Air Force One on Friday, Sept. 25, and on Thursday, as Trump flew to Texas to campaign ahead of November's midterm elections, the White House again blocked the outlet from Air Force One .

In a statement shared Thursday, attorney Theodore Boutrous — who is representing CNN, MS NOW and Politico — said, "the White House is persisting in unpredictably and inconsistently implementing the President's unconstitutional 'ban on the free press' by barring CNN from fulfilling its role as a designated television network pooler—to the detriment of CNN, its fellow pool members and, ultimately, the American public," NBC News reported.

During Trump's Time interview, White House communications director Steven Cheung said a judge had ordered Trump to renew White House access for the outlets, but added, "that's different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One."

Time asked why Trump decided to ban the outlets in recent weeks after having "this contentious relationship with the media for a while."

"Well, it's just bad story after bad story, and when I say bad story, I can handle bad stories. I've got a lot of bad stories. Most of them are fake," Trump said.

He later suggested he could ban The New York Times next for its reporting on the U.S. military's struggles in the war with Iran.

"Well, I hope I get a decent story," Trump said at the end of the Time interview. "You know, it's hard to get a good story. Every question's a hit. I don't know what the hell's wrong."

It was Trump's 56th Time cover, surpassing President Richard Nixon for the most by any individual in the magazine's history.

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