ABC News paid Trump $15 million and issued a public apology just 15 months ago.
They apparently learned nothing.
On Sunday, an ABC News reporter tried to corner Trump aboard Air Force One – and left wishing she hadn't.
ABC Gets What It Always Gets From Trump
Mariam Khan started by asking whether Trump thought it was "appropriate" to use a photo from a dignified transfer ceremony in a fundraising email.
Trump didn't flinch.
"I do," he said. "I didn't see it. We have a lot of people who work for us. There is nobody that's better to the military than me."
Then he asked her what outlet she was with.
Big mistake.
The moment Khan said "ABC News," Trump unloaded.
"One of the worst, most fake, most corrupt," Trump said. "You know what, ABC News, I think it's maybe the most corrupt news organization on the planet. I think they're terrible."
He then told her he was done. "I don't want any more from ABC News."
That was before she asked the next question.
Khan tried anyway – asking why Pete Hegseth had just approved deploying 5,000 Marines and sailors to the Middle East.
https://twitter.com/RyanRozbiani/status/2033358840520204613?s=20
Trump put his finger to his mouth, shushed her, and said: "You're a very obnoxious person."
The press gaggle moved on without her.
ABC Paid $15 Million for Access and Used It Against Him
This is not a mystery.
In December 2024, George Stephanopoulos sat across from a Republican congresswoman on live television and told the country four times that Trump had been "found liable for rape."
The jury in the E. Jean Carroll civil case never said that.
They found Trump liable for sexual abuse under New York law – not rape.
ABC's parent company Disney, staring down court-ordered depositions for both Stephanopoulos and Trump scheduled for the following week, decided to write a check instead.
Fifteen million dollars to Trump's presidential foundation, a formal written apology published on their website, and a million dollars in legal fees.
That was 15 months ago.
Trump has dealt with this pattern long before ABC.
In 2017, CNN's Jim Acosta refused to yield the microphone at a press conference until Trump pointed at him directly and said "you are fake news."
The Associated Press was banned from pooled press events in early 2025 for refusing to use the term "Gulf of America."
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2033351573103882696?s=20
In November 2025, a Bloomberg reporter asking about Epstein documents got "Quiet, piggy" from Trump at the podium – and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended it, saying Trump "calls out fake news when he sees it."
The pattern is not Trump losing his temper.
The pattern is Trump refusing to pretend these outlets deserve deference they haven't earned.
Trump spent March 7 at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of service members killed in Kuwait at the start of Operation Epic Fury.
He stood at attention as six flag-draped caskets came off the plane.
The photo Khan asked him about was taken that day.
The outlet that paid $15 million for lying about him showed up three weeks later to ask whether that image was being used appropriately.
Trump's answer – "obnoxious" – was the restrained version.
Analysis:
Here's what nobody is saying out loud.
ABC paid $15 million specifically to keep their reporter on Air Force One.
Disney wrote that check to preserve access to the Trump administration – access they then used to produce adversarial footage of the president they just paid $15 million to stop suing them.
That's not a news organization covering a story.
That's a network buying a front-row seat to manufacture the next one.
Trump isn't just calling ABC corrupt because he's annoyed.
He's describing the business model.
Sources:
- Brian Flood, "Trump scolds reporter as 'very obnoxious' over question on Air Force One, blasts 'most corrupt' ABC News," Fox News, March 16, 2026.
- Meredith Kile, "Trump Skips Over Reporter's Question About 6 U.S. Soldiers Who Died: 'Who Else?'" People, March 16, 2026.
- "ABC News agrees to contribute $15 million to Trump presidential foundation to settle defamation suit," CBS News, December 15, 2024.
- "Trump and his officials pressure the news media in unison as Iran war scrutiny intensifies," CNN Business, March 16, 2026.