President Donald Trump turned an Air Force One press gaggle into a full-blown cable news meltdown on Friday, May 15, after New York Times chief White House correspondent David Sanger questioned whether 38 days of U.S. bombing in Iran had actually achieved the goals Trump promised.
The president, standing inches from Sanger during the flight home from a summit in Beijing, accused the veteran reporter of writing “treasonous” coverage while unloading on the Times, CNN, and basically anyone not treating the Iran operation like a Hollywood victory montage.
The confrontation capped off another week of Trump verbally swinging at reporters in public. Earlier in the week, he called two female journalists “dumb” and “stupid” during separate White House exchanges, and now the Air Force One moment has officially joined the growing collection of clips ricocheting around social media like a reality show reunion gone completely off the rails.
What David Sanger Said That Made Trump Snap
The Iran war, launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel, is now paused under a shaky ceasefire after entering its second month. Trump has hinted that military action could resume, so Sanger, who has covered national security for the Times for more than four decades, used the flight to press him on whether another bombing campaign would actually change anything politically inside Iran.
On May 5, Sanger published a news analysis reporting that while Iran’s navy had been wiped out, several of Trump’s broader goals remained unmet. Iran’s nuclear stockpile was still intact, there was no agreement to remove or dilute it, and U.S. intelligence assessments suggested more than half of Iran’s missiles and launchers survived.
That background is what led Sanger to ask, “What would the use be in repeating the bombing? You did it for 38 days, and you did not get the political changes in Iran.”
Trump immediately fired back. “I got, I had a total military victory. But the fake news, guys like you write incorrectly. You’re a fake guy,” he said. “We knocked out their entire navy, we knocked out their entire air force, we knocked out all of their anti aircraft weaponry, we knocked out all of their radar, we knocked out all of their leaders, number one, and then we knocked out all of their leaders in the second division, and we knocked out numerous of their leaders in the third division, and they’re very confused.”
“We’ve had a total victory, except by people like you that don’t write the truth you should write. I actually think it’s sort of treasonous what you write, but you and the New York Times and CNN, I would say, are the worst,” he continued.
Fox News host Sean Hannity was standing behind Trump during the exchange, which somehow gave the whole thing even more primetime energy. “And you should know better than that,” Trump added. “Your editors tell you what to write, and you write, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”
Sanger attempted to follow up, but Trump cut him off again. “I actually think it’s treason,” Trump said. “When you write like they’re doing well militarily and they have no navy, no air force, no anti anything.” Sanger did not respond.
Trump had already been publicly building toward this language for weeks. Earlier this month, he said at a Florida event that it was “treasonous” for people to suggest the U.S. was not winning the war.
Trump Then Dragged The New York Times’ Subscriber Numbers Into It
As the argument kept rolling, Trump suddenly pivoted from military strategy to media business metrics, because apparently no White House fight is complete without a ratings tangent. “That’s why your subscribers are way down,” he told Sanger. “You know, The Times subscribers are way down because it’s fake news. Subscribers are way, way down, way there.”
Well, the actual numbers tell a very different story. Earlier this month, the Times reported that it had surpassed 13 million subscribers after adding more than 300,000 paid readers during the first quarter of 2026. The company also reported year-over-year total revenue growth of 12%.
Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander responded directly after the exchange. “Reporting isn’t treason. It’s foundational to a free press and the work that America’s founders wrote the First Amendment to protect,” he said.
“That includes making clear when the claims of government officials and the reality of their actions don’t line up,” Stadtlander added. “Our reporters, in this case, have been working carefully to provide the public with the fullest possible understanding of the reality of the military action in Iran. We will continue this important, constitutionally protected work.”
Trump also snapped at BBC Radio reporter Tom Bateman during the same gaggle after Bateman asked about an investigation into a strike on an Iranian girls’ school. “You mean the ones that put AI in my mouth?” Trump said, referencing his $10 billion lawsuit against the BBC over edited footage in a 2024 documentary.
And That Wasn’t Even the Worst Press Corps Moment of the Week
I asked @POTUS how the rising price of his ballroom (nearly x2 original estimate) and reflecting pool makeover (x7 original estimate) are any different than why he wanted to remove Fed Chair Jerome Powell for 30% cost overruns.
Here’s his response: pic.twitter.com/Qpm1VrBK61
— Akayla Gardner (@gardnerakayla) May 12, 2026
Three days before the Air Force One exchange, Trump called MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner “a dumb person” and told her, “You are not a smart person,” after she questioned why the White House ballroom renovation had reportedly doubled in cost from $200 million to $400 million in five months. Minutes later, he called another female reporter “a stupid person” over a question about inflation reaching 3.8%.
The week before that, he called ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott “a horror show” and “one of the worst reporters” after she asked about renovation spending during an active war. “You can understand dirt maybe better than I can,” he told Scott at a press event near the Lincoln Memorial.
What made these moments stand out even more was what happened after the cameras stopped rolling. The White House Rapid Response account on X reposted clips of the exchanges with celebratory captions, calling Gardner “fake news.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson defended the remarks, saying, “President Trump has never been politically correct, never holds back, and in large part, the American people re elected him for his transparency. This has nothing to do with gender.”
What People Are Actually Saying About It
Fuck off, dump. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. You caused a global energy crisis and accomplished nothing. pic.twitter.com/RVRe4sQfL0
— J Schneider 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@JSchneid99) May 15, 2026
Online reaction to Friday’s Air Force One clash came fast and hard. One X user wrote, “F**k off, dump. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz. You caused a global energy crisis and accomplished nothing.”
Another questioned Trump’s military claims directly, writing, “Trump claimed on June 25, 2025, he completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities with operation ‘Midnight Hammer’? So why did he have to attack Iran again and claim they were making a ‘WMD’ to use on America?” A third posted, “We have 2 more years of his lies and stupidity.”
Before departing for China earlier this week, Trump told reporters outside the White House, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing, we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
And by Friday night, the biggest takeaway from the Air Force One exchange was not whether Trump answered Sanger’s question. It was the fact that asking the question at all turned into another public brawl between the White House and the press corps, complete with accusations of treason, viral clips, and one more chaotic chapter in America’s never-ending political group chat.