President Trump berated NBC News reporter Peter Alexander – calling him an “idiot” and a “jerk” – on Wednesday for asking about the luxurious jet the Pentagon accepted from Qatar during an Oval Office meeting with his South African counterpart.
“Why are you talking about that? What are you asking that for? You know, you oughta get out of here,” Trump fumed as the journalist attempted to ask the president about the $400 million “palace in the sky” aircraft intended to serve as a temporary replacement for the aging Air Force One fleet.
“What does this have to do with the Qatar jet?” Trump continued. “They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay? And it’s a great thing.”
Trump was asked the question by Alexander seconds after the president played an inflammatory five-minute video for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa detailing purported evidence of crimes against white South African farmers.
The president accused the journalist and his network of trying to dodge covering the controversial subject matter.
“We’re talking about a lot of other things. Is NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw?” Trump asked rhetorically.
“You are a real – you know, you’re a terrible person,” the president raged, before questioning Alexander’s intelligence.
“Number one, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough,” Trump charged.
“You ought to go back to your studio at NBC,” the president suggested, “because, [Comcast Chairman] Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way they run that network.”
Trump refused to allow Alexander to ask a different question, on his claims of white South African “genocide,” calling the reporter “a disgrace.”
“His name is Peter something. He’s a terrible reporter,” the president continued to vent as other journalists shouted to get their own questions in.
Unfazed by the public ridicule and Trump’s attempts to move on, Alexander continued to press the president.
“If they’re committing genocide, why invite [Ramaphosa] to the White House?” he asked.
“Quiet, quiet,” the commander in chief responded, before picking a different reporter.
Trump was still seething about the Qatar jet query several minutes later, after both he and Ramaphosa responded to a question about the allegations of genocide in South Africa.
“If the news wasn’t fake, like NBC, which is fake news … if they weren’t fake news like this jerk that we have here,” the president said, pointing to Alexander, “If we had real reporters, they’d be covering it.”
“There are all white farmers being buried and he asks about a jet that was given. You oughtta be ashamed of yourself. You are so bad, you’re such a bad reporter,” Trump complained.
“‘So why did they give us a plane to the United States Air Force?’” he continued, mocking Alexander once again. “That’s what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead.”
Ramaphosa attempted to defuse the situation by apologizing to Trump for not coming to the White House with a plane in tow.
“I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” the South African leader quipped.
“I wish you did,” Trump responded. “If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it.”
