President Donald Trump‘s temper blew wide open the moment a reporter challenged his latest claim, unleashing a tirade that went viral not just for his outburst — but for the stunned reaction of one man standing directly behind her.
Trump was taking questions from reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida over the long break, where he had been railing against immigrants and blaming Somali communities in Minnesota for rising crime — all while continuing to insist that President Joe Biden was responsible for the deadly National Guard shooting near the White House.
He has repeatedly claimed the Afghan suspect was allowed into the U.S. without proper vetting, even though news reports show he had served alongside U.S. forces in Kandahar and entered the country legally.
But when CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes pressed him with those facts, the president’s demeanor shifted sharply, setting up the confrontation that followed.
Cordes pointed out to the President that the suspect had “worked very closely with the CIA in Afghanistan for years that he was vetted, and the vetting came up clean.”
“He went cuckoo. He went nuts. And that happens too and happens too often with these people,” Trump replied, insisting that Afghans “came in unvetted.”
But Cordes didn’t let go. “Your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S. So why do you blame the Biden administration?”
That’s when Trump snapped.
“Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” he shouted, talking over her and repeating the insult as he grew more agitated. “They came in on a plane with thousands of people that shouldn’t be here — and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
What viewers noticed next was just as jarring.
As Trump berated Cordes, three male reporters behind her stood motionless — one man’s eyes widening in visible shock before he quickly looked away, another staring blankly as if dissociating, all of them shifting uncomfortably but saying nothing.
And that silence is what sent the clip spiraling across social media.
“Once again, the WH press standing silent while Trump disrespects one of their own,” one viewer wrote.
“No one backed her up!!! Other reporters need to stand up for each other,” another fumed.
“They stood there like f**king stooges,” one user blasted. “Where the hell are we?”
View on Threads
And while many were angry at the reporters for staying silent, others sympathized with the impossible power dynamic.
“For those getting mad because nobody defended her — I’m sure they want to, but they could lose their job. It’s a horrible situation for all of them.”
And there was still plenty of backlash aimed at Trump.
“Trump calls reporters “stupid” as a way to dismiss tough questions and shift attention away from the issue. It’s part of his combative style with the press and a tactic to rally supporters by portraying journalists as hostile,” said another.
Trump ordered the U.S. out of Afghanistan during his first term, negotiating a withdrawal in February of 2020 with the Taliban, a specially designated global terrorist group that is not recognized as the Afghan government by the United States.
He also excluded the Afghan government in the negotiations, released 5,000 Taliban soldiers and set a withdrawal date for May of 2021, which former President Joe Biden inherited when he won the 2020 election, according to FactCheck.org.
View on Threads
Biden was able to delay the withdrawal until August, even though the Taliban was already ignoring key provision of the agreement, and oversaw a deadly and chaotic pull-out, which has angered Trump ever since, even though he was the one that orchestrated the entire debacle.
Meantime the suspect in the tragic National Guard shooting, identified as 29-yar-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, came to the U.S. shortly after the departure of U.S. troops under a Biden administration program called Operation Allies Welcome. He settled in Washington state and applied for asylum in December of 2024.
But Lakanwal wasn’t granted asylum until April of 2025 under Trump, according to CNN.
Just hours after the shooting Wednesday near the White House, Trump immediately blamed the Biden administration, and he’s continued his ongoing rant for several days now.
