Trump Calls ABC Reporter's Question Stupid During Landmark Renovation Announcement

When you’re unveiling plans to restore iconic American monuments, the last thing you want is a reporter asking why you’re not focused on something else entirely. But that’s exactly what happened during a Thursday press briefing when ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott posed a question that President Donald Trump found wholly misguided.

Scott asked why Trump was prioritizing renovation updates to the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument amid the backdrop of the war in Iran and rising gas prices. The question was direct, the kind a reporter might think shows she’s keeping the administration accountable on multiple fronts. Trump saw it differently. It’s such a stupid question you ask, he replied, dismissing the inquiry as fundamentally disconnected from the project at hand. He continued, We’re fixing up the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and you say, Why are you fixing it up? You can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don’t allow it.

The exchange escalated from there. Trump characterized Scott as one of the worst reporters, called ABC Fake News, and described her as a horror show. His broader point—that beauty and infrastructure matter to a nation’s greatness—landed beneath the more visible hostility. Beauty made our country, people made our country great. A question like that is a disgrace to our country, he said.

This wasn’t a lone incident. Back in December 2025, during a Cabinet Room roundtable, Scott questioned the administration about releasing full video from a controversial military strike on a Venezuelan boat allegedly carrying illegal drugs. Trump’s response then was similarly cutting: You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place. He added, You are an obnoxious—a terrible reporter. And it’s always the same thing with you.

Scott, a University of Southern California graduate who’s covered Capitol Hill, the White House, and served as ABC’s lead campaign correspondent, didn’t back down. She posted a clip of the May 7 exchange to her X account with a straightforward recap of what transpired, letting the moment speak for itself. Whether you see Trump’s frustration as warranted pushback against what he views as gotcha journalism or as a troubling pattern of attacking a credentialed reporter who asks tough questions likely depends on where you already stand. What’s clear is that the tension between this administration and the press corps remains one of the defining dynamics of American politics in 2026.