President Donald Trump is famous for his spitefulness toward reporters, especially female journalists. Just in the first year of his second term, he has referred to female reporters as “stupid,” “incapable,” “piggy,” and “nasty.” But they always press ahead, even as some of their male counterparts cower under Trump’s withering remarks.
And so it was with NewsNation White House correspondent Libby Dean in an exchange with Trump on Tuesday, March 31, in the Oval Office.
Dean brought up that over a month into Trump’s deadly war on Iran, which has shut down the critical Strait of Hormuz, gas prices are averaging an eye-popping $4 a gallon and much more in some states, jumping more than $1.05 a gallon in the past month, according to Triple A.
The president flippantly responded, “$4, yeah, and we have a country that’s not going to be throwing a nuclear weapon at us in six months.”
But Dean didn’t back down. “Of course, but Americans are feeling the effects in the interim.”
Trump then stunningly equated sky-high gas prices as the cost for security and bragged about stock prices.
“And they’re also feeling a lot safer,” he falsely suggested, as critics note that if anything Trump’s war on Tehran has made the U.S. less safe as the president continues repeating falsehoods about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and long-term ambitions.
Dean continued to press for answers. “What is the plan to bring them back down?
Trump puffed up like a peacock telling her all he had to do was “leave Iran.”
“And we’ll be doing that very soon, and they’ll become tumbling down,” Trump boasted, before crowing about the stock market. “And stock prices were up today, almost to a record… .”
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He started spiraling in real time, trying to defend an illegal, multi-billion-dollar military campaign and launching into a maniacal rant about a “madman.”
“Number one, we have a safe country. We had to take a little detour, because we had a madman named Khamenei,” he raged, then smirkingly added, “who, sadly, is no longer with us.”
Trump referring there to the death of Iran’s longtime Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei early in the war.
“And we had regime change already. We’ve knocked out one regime, then we knocked out the second regime. Now we have a group of people that’s, that are very different. They’re much more reasonable, I think … To say we’ve had regime change, we’re dealing with people that are much more rational,” he insisted despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Then he switched gears again, unbelievably veering back to the stock market as if that was justification for taking the U.S. into what many experts consider an unwinnable war.
“And it’s amazing what we’ve done. We had to make a little detour. So when the stock market broke all records just a few weeks ago, when it hit 50,000 on the Dow and 7,000 on the S&P, I said to the American people, it’s time that we make a little detour, because we have a madman who wants a nuclear weapon.”
Trump continued spiraling and defending his decision to launch an unauthorized war on Iran that has rippled across the entire region.
“I said to the American people, it’s time that we had to make a little detour because we have a madman that wants a nuclear weapon. And if we did not come out with the B2 bomber we would have a nuclear weapon right now that would have been used. It would have been used before this, before today. And you may not be standing there asking that question, OK?” he retorted to Dean.
“So I think we have a country that understands that,” Trump continued senselessly, misstating facts and ignoring many polls over the past month showing Americans widely disapprove of his war.
He also ignored the law and bypassed Congress on Feb. 28 when he authorized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to start bombing Iran, which means he never went to the American people as he just claimed.
Social media spiraled along with Trump for different reasons though.
“All that was an a lie. Except that part where (if you really hear what he’s saying) he made a ton of money on stocks,” this Threads user pointed out.
Another agreed but took it a step further, “An unhinged goon.”
This Threads poster noted the mixed messaging and shifting explanations from the Trump administration for the war.
“At this point, I’m just wondering if they all have the same script; they seem not to be able to answer questions, EVER!!!”
Trump and his henchmen have spent the past five weeks telling different stories about why he took the U.S. into another war in the Middle East, breaking a 2024 campaign promise to avoid foreign wars and conflicts.
First, they cited regime change. Then they landed back on a nuclear weapon and preventing Tehran from developing one, even though Trump bragged all last summer that a bombing campaign in Iran last June had destroyed its nuclear capabilities. Then the message changed to Iran had a ballistic missile that could reach the United States, followed by yet another explanation of destroying the country’s Navy, and another shift to preventing the regime from arming terrorists.
Now, Trump is actually claiming without offering any proof that Iran had a nuclear weapon it was planning to use and would have if the U.S.-Israel coalition had not attacked just in time.
