Trump clashes with 'Meet the Press' interviewer, calls outlet 'crooked' before ending segment

 

US President Donald Trump is applauded as he arrives to participate in a roundtable on “American Agriculture” at Custer Farms in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on June 5, 2026.

An exchange between President Donald Trump and NBC’s Kristin Welker became heated in a “Meet the Press” interview.

During a Sunday segment focused on a proposed “anti-weaponization” fund, which is meant to provide compensation to Americans who were politically or ideologically targeted under the administration of former President Joe Biden, the discussion quickly became tense.

“You had a bunch of dirty cops, and frankly what they did was weaponization of our government,” Trump said, the conversation specifically focused on the January 6^th protesters.

“There’s no evidence of that,” Welker said.

 

“Try looking at the tapes one time,” Trump replied.

In support of her assertion, Welker brought up the number of people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.

“They plead guilty because they were frightened,” Trump claimed, purporting people had been told they would be jailed for significant periods of time.

 

He noted that the fund, which Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche recently announced the Department of Justice (DOJ) would no longer be pursuing, would have been applied on an “individual case basis,” rather than blanket allocations.

As the interview continued to heat up, the discussion turned to the topic of election fraud, including about the 2020 presidential election, as well as Trump calling out the lengthy vote counting process in California. Registered voters are automatically mailed ballots before elections in California, leading to long ballot counting times and concerns by some of the opportunity for fraud.

“Do you think it’s appropriate that they have an election and five days later they’re nowhere close to picking a winner,” Trump said of the Golden State.

 

“State and local officials acknowledge they are slow…” Welker said.

“No, they’re crooked,” Trump said. “They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked, and ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked.”

“You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they are rigged,” he continued, accusing the press of lacking credibility due to unbalanced reporting.

 

Besides NBC, Trump accused several media outlets of being “crooked,” naming ABC, CBS and CNN.

“You’re one-sided, crooked networks,” Trump said.

Throughout the segment, Welker interjected that there was a lack of evidence for the president’s claims, an assertion vehemently contradicted by Trump, with him ultimately cutting the interview short.