‘You’re hurting Australia’: Trump berates ABC reporter
US President Donald Trump has inadvertently confirmed he is likely to soon meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while clashing with an Australian journalist in an extraordinary exchange.
Source: X/Ben Knight
The ABC’s Americas editor John Lyons was throwing questions at Trump on Wednesday (AEST) about his business dealings since resuming office.
“Is it appropriate, President Trump, that a President in office should be engaged in so much business activity?” Lyons said.
Trump responded, “Well, I’m really not. My kids are running the business,” and then inquired, “Where are you from?”.
Lyons replied that he worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“Oh, the Australian — you’re hurting Australia. In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now, and they want to get along with me,” Trump said.
“You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”
Trump then shouted at Lyons to be “quiet”.
He did not mention when he would meet Albanese.
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Albanese will be in New York next week for the United Nations General Assembly, where a meeting on the sidelines with Trump had been considered a possibility.
The Trump administration later attacked Lyons as a “foreign fake news loser” in a post on social media.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office also posted the clip: “Why is Donald Trump threatening journalists? Our allies deserve respect, not intimidation.”
The ABC reports that Lyons’ questions were part of an investigation by the Four Corners program into Trump’s business activities since his return to the presidency.
Lyons was later interviewed about the confrontation on ABC’s News Breakfast program. He said he had asked legitimate questions of the most powerful person in the world.
“If our job as journalists is to hold truth to power, then surely asking legitimate questions politely to the President of the United States should be acceptable,” he said.
“But in this day and age, in America now, it’s not. And we can see even yesterday Donald Trump announced he is suing The New York Times to the tune of $US15 billion ($A22 billion).
“I think all this feeds into President Trump’s sort of war on the media.”
Lyons said he hoped he would not be barred from the White House.
“For me it was just a perfectly sort of normal thing to do to ask questions I don’t think are provocative. I think are fair, based on research,” he said.
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“They were not asked in an abusive fashion. If we have reached the point where asking those sort of questions prevents you from going in the White House, I think it’s a very dark day.
“I don’t think we have yet reached that point, though.”
The currency, known as WLFI, is owned by World Liberty Financial, a company founded by Trump’s sons, Donald Jr and Eric. A Trump business entity owns 60 per cent of the company and is entitled to 75 per cent of the revenue from coin sales.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the trading debut was “most likely the biggest financial success for the President’s family since the inauguration”.
WLFI is likely now the Trumps’ most valuable asset, exceeding their decades-old property portfolio.
While the Trumps have continued to pursue global property deals since he returned to the White House in January, the fast-moving crypto business has had the biggest early impact.
Crypto is now the dominant source of Trump’s wealth.
He has previously praised Albanese as a “good man” after the two leaders held their fourth one-on-one phone call earlier in September.
Albanese described his call with Trump as “really warm”.
A face-to-face meeting between the two leaders had been planned on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June. It was cancelled after Trump returned to the US early at the heights of the recent Iran-Israel conflict.
The UNGA “high-level week” starts in New York on September 22.
-with AAP
