US President Donald Trump, during a meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked as he angrily lashed out at a reporter from the network who asked why he has not released files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his former friend.
“I think you are a terrible reporter,” Trump told ABC News White House correspondent Mary Bruce.
The president said he did not like Bruce’s “attitude.”
“You ought to go back and learn how to be a reporter. No more questions from you,” Trump said in the Oval Office, where he was meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.
Trump’s tirade came shortly before the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill to compel the Department of Justice to release all of its records on Epstein.
The DOJ earlier this year refused to release those documents, despite prior promises by Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Trump administration officials.
Trump does not need to wait for Congress to pass a bill. He could order the DOJ to release more Epstein files.
“Why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files?” Bruce asked the president. “Why not just do it now?”
Trump said, “As far as the Epstein files … I have nothing to do with” him.
“I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert,” Trump said, referring to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
“People are wise to your hoax,” the president told the reporter. “Your crappy company is one of the perpetrators.”
“And I’ll tell you something,” Trump said. “I think the license should be taken away from ABC. Because your news is so fake and so wrong.”
“We have a great commissioner … who should look at that,” he added, apparently referring to Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, whose agency oversees broadcast licenses.
In September, Carr threatened ABC’s license over comments by late-night show Jimmy Kimmel about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said Carr on a podcast at the time. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Hours after Carr’s remarks, ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
The show returned to air about a week later after backlash against ABC and its parent company, Disney.
Trump has repeatedly called the Epstein matter a “hoax” created by Democrats, even though members of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement were leading advocates for releasing the files.
And Trump failed to dissuade Republican allies in Congress from supporting the bill to release the files.
On Sunday night, as the Epstein bill’s chances of passage appeared to rise, Trump suddenly reversed course and urged his GOP allies to support the measure.
On Monday, Trump said he would sign the bill if Congress passes it.
Trump and Epstein had been longtime friends but had a falling out years before Epstein killed himself in jail in August 2019 after being arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
Last week, the House Oversight Committee released emails showing Epstein discussing Trump.
In one email from 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls.”
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