President Donald Trump was mocked after he was visibly annoyed by a reporter who accidentally brushed her microphone against his face during a press conference.
The mishap occurred while Trump was speaking with reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after delivering a speech at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 14. Trump was seen on video responding to a reporter’s question when a boom microphone unexpectedly rose into view and struck him in the mouth.
Startled, Trump tilted his head back and glared at the person operating the microphone off-camera. “I’m so sorry," the woman quickly said, but Trump remained silent, raising his eyebrows in response.
The reporter then attempted to move on, asking Trump about the situation in Gaza, before Trump, addressing someone off-camera, said:
"She just made television tonight. She just became a big story tonight, right? Did you see that?”
You can watch what happened in the video below.
And the jokes came flying.
The incident was treated as a security lapse by some of Trump's most fervent supporters, particularly conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who accompanied Trump to last year's Republican National Convention and was by his side during a September 11 memorial gathering.
Loomer claimed that she identified the reporter who hit Trump as NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, referring to her as a "massive Trump hater and LGBTQ advocate who once suggested during the 2024 campaign that Trump only spoke in Howell, Michigan because it has ties to the KKK."
Loomer suggested without evidence that Kurtzleben "hit President Trump in the face on purpose" and that she doesn't "think that the mic in Trump's face was an accident."
Similar statements were made by MAGA fans, who demanded that NPR apologize for the incident and that its press access be revoked. The White House has not commented on the matter.
